此文写于12月21日，亦即传说中的世界末日那一天，还没来得及发出来，世界末日就过了：）

 圣诞快到了，附近家家户户张灯结彩。此间社区演出多如牛毛。很多以前没听说过的乐队和表演群体，雨后春笋一般冒出来。一些机构，也为圣诞赶制节目。这里的亨德尔山教会，每年都制作一部大型圣诞剧。

The other day, I heard an eight-year old boy say that he had “a small crush” on a girl in his class.  I asked for the difference between “big crush” and “small crush”.   “Big crush”, he said,  is when you go “mmmmmoooch” on somebody, while demonstrating a kiss.   I sighed out of relief.   “Small crush,” he explained, “is when you stare at somebody and think peaceful thoughts.”  That...

奥巴马和费城青年合影 （图片来自白宫网站，摄影者Pete Souza)

美国总统大选硝烟消散之后，共和党人在“痛定思痛”，反思何以再次败北。接受福克斯电视台访谈的时候，共和党参议员麦凯恩称“人口构成对我们不利”，“对于年轻女子来说，我们这些人只能表明自己的立场，但是在堕胎这些问题上，我们不能过多纠缠。”这些说法，无不说明了他对共和党失去年轻人的焦虑。

共和党有个“老大政党”（Grand Old Party)的绰号。近两次...

I went to see the movie The Campaign (directed by Jay Roach) recently and found that a good part of the movie made a villain out of Chinese businesses. Two rich businessmen outsourced their jobs to China for high profit. Later, they tried to “insource” the businesses to the North Carolina district for even higher profit. In the end, the right thing for a candidate is to give up their financial ...