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Snark goeth before the eating of a generous helping of crow. I owe Beijing an apology. On Thursday and Friday I lamented the return of Beijing's air pollution to what I assumed was status quo ante. But yesterday was one of those days --of which Beijing gets a mere handful each year-- that make you realize how time here erodes your standards for ...

From the ''you couldn't make it up'' department here in Imagethief Towers, an old-school China Daily gem:City gets tough on foreign jaywalkersBy Zhan Lisheng (China Daily)The southern Chinese city of Guangzhou is taking stern action against foreigners who break traffic rules, the public security bureau said Tuesday.It follows tough measures ...

This probably counts as an abuse of blogging, but for posterity, here is the stream of 40-odd tweets I posted during last Friday's opening ceremony for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. I've flipped them back into chronological order and removed the extraneous material (and some typos):Well, here we go. Good luck, Beijing! 7:52pm Alright. Gotta ...

Conan the Barbarian, age 20 Mongol General Conan! What is best in life? Conan To crush your enemies. To see them driven before you. To hear the lamentation of their women. Conan the Barbarian, age 40 Mongol General Conan! What is best in life? Conan To spend quality time with your family. To see your kids after work. To hear the precious ...

From the New York Times, which is apparently pulling out all the stops in its peri-Olympic lifestyle coverage, comes this article about a woman who offers pole dancing classes for fitness here in Beijing. It has possibly the best lede/quote combination I've seen in a Times China story ever:BEIJING — Clad in knee-high leather boots, spandex shorts ...

Anyone within earshot will know that Imagethief welcomed his son, Zachary, into the world last March 9th. The nearly four months since have been one long sleepless adventure. Despite my fatigue induced delirium, however, the experience has been a happy one. Like parents everywhere I take the most profound pleasure in things that non-parents ...

Back when he lived in Singapore many of Imagethief's friends used to run with the Hash House Harriers, the ''drinking club with a running problem''. Imagethief, being a solitary, sober runner used to give that miss. But it did sound like a sloshing good time. Apparently there is a chapter here in Beijing as well, where, as we all know, a frosty ...

Imagethief likes to keep at least one bottle of good Scotch whiskey in the house at all times, in case of emergency. Like friends coming over. My last bottle, which I received for my 40th, way back last October, is finally down to the dregs (I don't drink much), and it was time for a fresh bottle. Since I was too lame to bring a bottle of ...

I'm off to the US for most of next week. I think the rigors of travel and all-day meetings will mean little time for writing, so things will likely be quiet here. I know they've been a bit quiet already, thanks to evenings and weekends spent being a father, so I presume you're all already well prepared for sporadic service! Will 

Look carefully. One of these posts is not like the others: Yes, it's official. Last week's Ed!son Chen post is now the most viewed post ever on this blog, knocking the May, 2005 S@yaa Ir!e post out of the number one spot. 13,500* 18,500 and still going strong. These are totally hollow numbers. Of the total, about 1000 are the regular ...