War Ready?
[Nanning, 7/11/26]
Each morning, I come down to the lobby from my 8th floor room before 5AM. Always, I would see the nighttime security guard watching some drama on a computer screen. It must be boring as shit because he nods off often. Since the volume must be kept very low, he can barely hear what these ditzes are saying. Sometimes he listens to fake, computerized music while half staring at these ghostlike figures getting weepy, stressed out or hysterical over nothing. In the same room are all those fake books with English titles. There are real ones by some Chinese business guru, but what are the odds of this guy, or you, for that matter, becoming almost rich in this lifetime?
Speaking of books on investments and business strategies, my brother, Vince, once said to me, when I suggested he read an article I had written about San Jose, more or less his hometown, “I’m not going to read it because it won’t help me to invest.” Vince is the real Jewish comedian in our family. He wasn’t joking.
Before settling on this couch at City Comfort, I had a 13 yuan [$1.92] bowl of beef noodles at a chain restaurant, open 24 hours, three blocks away. Though it’s excellent, those tiny blood curds ensure most Westerners would stay away. Yesterday at a Macao wonton joint, I noticed cloves of garlic, skin intact, left out for guests to chew on. Raw ginger, too, is healing. No one, though, knows the health benefits of raw leaves as Vietnamese. Not long ago, Americans were advised to discard their egg yolks, to reduce their cholesterol intake. If that isn’t madness! At least that didn’t kill you, unlike all those “vaccines,” you know, plus “boosters.”