Category: Misc
-
Hanoi Street Market
-
Vietnam Arrival
April 25, 2012 (Wednesday) ā We are now in Hanoi. Considering my many (mis)adventures with travel, domestic and foreign, the trip here was amazingly smooth and stress-free. Well, as stress-free as 18 or so hours on an airplane can be. We landed in Seoul, Korea (Incheon Airport) right on schedule (okay, a couple of minutes…
-
Vietnam Journey Unfolding
April 24, 2012 ā Zabine and I are in flight āAsiana Airlinesā somewhere between Seattle and Seoul. Weāve travewled 1550 of our 5210-mile total;our altitude is 36,000 feet, ground speed 532 miles per hour, and current outside air temperature ā a balmy minus-70 degrees F. (Guess if I get too hot, I can always go…
-
Visiting Vietnam
Good morning, April 22. I canāt believe Iām on my way to Vietnam. The Vietnam trip has been in the works for several months, but I havenāt had the courage ā till now ā to write about it. Please donāt get me wrong: Iām excited about this trip ā upbeat, optimistic, incredibly happy. What Iām…
-
New High-def “Heart to Heart” Website
Whew! Itās hard to believe itās been more than a month since I posted my March 8 article on Heart to Heart. Sorry to be quiet for so long, but so much has happened: Iāve ported my new presentation of the Heart to Heart program to its own, standalone web site: Heart to Heart HD. Even…
-
Making Workouts Feel Shorter
Did you know? You can greatly shorten the perceived duration of an aerobic workout by slightly increasing the length of songs you play while exercising. Your Astonished Tamale! editor is pretty buzzed about this new Jedi mind trick. New to me, anyway ā and it works like magic: Exercise time flies by so fast that a long, hard workout…
-
What is an Astonished Tamale?
Just what is an āastonished tamaleā, anyway? Several people have asked me what the name means and why I chose it for this blog (AstonishedTamale.com). There are several answers. The first two were promptly pegged by my friend Patricia Visser, in her thoughtful comments on the first article: 1. I love to be astonished! Itās…
-
It Sings!
From the movie āDon Juan DeMarcoā (1994): Sultana Gulbeyez (played by Jo Champa): āUndress!ā Don Juan (played by Johnny Depp): āKill me if you must! I am prepared to die, for I cannot go on living, knowing that I defiled the memory of the woman who brought my manhood alive, and made it sing.ā Sultana…
-
Knoxville: Lover’s Lane for the Prematurely Old?
Can Americaās most geriatric city top our nationās āhot to trotā list? Yes, we can! Letās contrast two hot-off-the-press news flashes: ITEM ONE: Itās official: During the run-up to Valentineās Day 2012, we learn that Americaās most romantic city is Knoxville, Tennessee, home of the famous Astonished Tamale! (Also the University of Tennessee Lady Vols, manytime national…