The year in review.

The income gap: The one per cent grows even richer!

The South China Sea: It's the realpolitik, stupid!
(that is, politics 101 = self-interest comes first)

International politics: Is the world getting scarier?
(well, for sure, the Washington Times is a favourite of the Neocons)

With such weighty worries, how are we welcoming 2015?...

Never mind, always keep our sense of humour as we sail into 2015...

A bookseller conducting a market survey asked a woman -- 
"Which book has helped you most in your life?"

The woman replied -- "My husband's cheque book'' !!

So, remember, write "2015" (not "2014") in your cheque book.

As 2014 fades away...

Placid Singapore frets about how "luan" (chaotic) the world is...

ST, Dec 30

Sometimes, one wonders if the country is going to the dogs!

There are even tingkat dinner deliveries for the pooches! The tingkat is a tiffin carrier

one normally associates with catered home-delivered meals for humans.

Maybe the country is going to the kiddies... we are spoiling them with expensive toys!

Or maybe it is going to the "foreign talent"...
even the aircon repairman is angmoh, going by this ad???

Pic taken by KA, Dec 30

Interestingly, there is this unusual "reverse" foreign talent outflow...
a Singaporean trained as a lawyer and practising as a stand-up comedian in New York City!

So, a lawyer walks into a comedy club...

http://www.cnbc.com/id/101838961#.

Her name is Jocelyn Chia, and she wrote a commentary piece for ST (Dec 30):

Her commentary piece can be accessed here:

http://www.straitstimes.com/news/opinion/more-opinion-stories/story/i-cant-wish-someone-merry-christmas-the-us-20141230

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There is one more amazing thing to note as 2014 fades away...

The 10 Healthiest Countries.

Is Singapore on this list? Find out here!...

http://healthfitnessrevolution.com/10-healthiest-countries-in-the-world/

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Still on health, there is also this interesting article:

Four in 10 Cancers Avoidable

http://guardianlv.com/2014/12/four-in-10-cancers-avoidable/

Krystyn Olszewski who? Say 'thank you' to him, Singaporeans!

Foreign talent has helped Singapore progress, with Dutch economist Albert Winsemius being arguably the best known. As the Little Red Dot approaches its 50th anniversary, Singaporeans would do well to acknowledge the collective wisdom and contributions of such talented individuals including those who have quietly slipped into the background. I am glad the incumbent Ambassador of Poland has reminded us of the role of his compatriot, Krystyn Olszewski:

ST, Dec 27

Boxing Day... why so?

Yesterday (Christmas Day), this strange ad appeared:

ST, Dec 25

Why pitch it as a Pre-Boxing Day Sale, on Christmas Day?

Anyway, Nick sent me this link that sheds light on Boxing Day:
What is Boxing Day? Why is it Called Boxing Day?

http://britishfood.about.com/od/christmas/p/boxingday.htm

I have my own unofficial take on the origin of the term: If your wife opens her present the next day (that is, on Boxing Day), she boxes you if you had given her a lousy present. That's how a fight starts.

So here are some more And That Was When The Fight Started jokes...

My wife and I were watching Who Wants To Be A Millionaire while we were in bed.
I turned to her and said, 'Do you want to have Sex?'
'No,' she answered.
I then said, 'Is that your final answer?'

... She didn't even look at me this time, simply saying, 'Yes..'
So I said, "Then I'd like to phone a friend."

And that's when the fight started...

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I took my wife to a restaurant.

The waiter, for some reason, took my order first.

"I'll have the rump steak, rare, please."
He said, "Aren't you worried about the mad cow?"
"Nah, she can order for herself."

And that's when the fight started.....

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My wife and I were sitting at a table at her high school reunion, and she kept staring at a drunken man swigging his drink as he sat alone at a nearby table.

I asked her, "Do you know him?"
"Yes", she sighed,
"He's my old boyfriend. I understand he took to drinking right after we split up those many years ago, and I hear he hasn't been sober since."

"My God!" I said, "Who would think a person could go on celebrating that long?"

And then the fight started...

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When our lawn mower broke and wouldn't run, my wife kept hinting to me that I should get it fixed.
But, somehow I always had something else to take care of first, the shed, the boat, making beer.. Always something more important to me.

Finally she thought of a clever way to make her point.

When I arrived home one day, I found her seated in the tall grass, busily snipping away with a tiny pair of sewing scissors. I watched silently for a short time and then went into the house. I was gone only a minute, and when I came out again I handed her a toothbrush.

I said, "When you finish cutting the grass, you might as well sweep the driveway."

The doctors say I will walk again, but I will always have a limp.

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My wife sat down next to me as I was flipping channels.
She asked, "What's on the TV?"
I said, "Dust."

And then the fight started...

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Saturday morning I got up early, quietly dressed, made my lunch, and slipped quietly into the garage. I hooked up the boat up to the van and proceeded to back out into a torrential downpour. The wind was blowing 50 mph, so I pulled back into the garage, turned on the radio, and discovered that the weather
would be bad all day.

I went back into the house, quietly undressed, and slipped back into bed. I cuddled up to my wife's back; now with a different anticipation, and whispered, "The weather out there is terrible."

My loving wife of 5 years replied, "And, can you believe my stupid husband is out fishing in that downpour?"

And that's how the fight started...

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My wife was hinting about what she wanted for our upcoming anniversary.
She said, "I want something shiny that goes from 0 to 150 in about 3 seconds."

I bought her a bathroom scale.

And then the fight started......

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After retiring, I went to the Social Security office to apply for Social Security. The woman behind the counter asked me for my driver's License to verify my age. I looked in my pockets and realized I had left my wallet at home.

I told the woman that I was very sorry, but I would have to go home and come back later.

The woman said, 'Unbutton your shirt'.
So I opened my shirt revealing my curly silver hair.

She said, 'That silver hair on your chest is proof enough for me' and she processed my Social Security application.

When I got home, I excitedly told my wife about my experience at the Social Security office.

She said, 'You should have dropped your pants. You might have gotten disability too.'

And then the fight started...

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My wife was standing nude, looking in the bedroom mirror.

She was not happy with what she saw and said to me,
"I feel horrible; I look old, fat and ugly. I really need you to pay me a compliment.'

I replied, "Your eyesight's damn near perfect still."

And then the fight started........

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Oh, my wife has yet to see today's blog entry.

How to tell 'clean' jokes to your children.

Why did Tigger stick his head in the toilet?

Find out at Buzzfeed's...

19 Clean Jokes To Tell Your Kids…That Are Actually Funny

http://www.buzzfeed.com/bensmith/clean-jokes-to-tell-your-kids-that-are-actually-funny#.glayg2DkM

How to tell a joke (to children).

When I was a child, I found these funny...

Q: What is the world's longest rope?
A: Europe.

Q: If the people of Poland are called Poles, what do you call the people of Holland?
A: Holes.

Then it was the turn of my children. They found jokes like this one funny...

Q: When is a door not a door?
A: When it is ajar.

They later "graduated" to:

Q: What's green and slimy and smells of bacon?
A: Kermit the Frog.

By the time it was the turn of my nephews' and nieces' children, jokes like this one had surfaced...

Q: How do you tell whether a pencil is male or female?
A: If it is a male pencil, it has a rubber!

Which brings me to this article in ST Life! (Dec 22)...

What intrigued me was that people have been trying to figure out what makes kiddies laugh:

I decided to check out the Joking Computer. Talk about corny jokes! Here are some samples listed in phys.org:

* Q: What kind of temperature is a son?
* A: A boy-ling point

* Q: What do you call a shout with a window?
* A: A computer scream

* Q: What do you call a washing machine with a september?
* A: An autumn-atic washer

Read more at: http://phys.org/news179736700.html#jCp

Anyway, I cringed at this bad joke in ST (Dec 22):

Many good jokes (for adults, anyway) have to do with unintended meanings, often with the perpetrator unaware that a faux pas had been committed...

Finally, this one should make adults and today's kiddies laugh...

In a Christmas mood...

There was a group singing Christmas songs and carols at the nearby mall. I was reminded of how the German supermarket chain Edeka recently came up with this refreshing TV commercial:

https://www.youtube.com/embed/KTfOCp5OfKY

US-based homegrown talent Corinne May meanwhile sings this evocative Christmas hymn, In The Bleak Midwinter:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZC9C5kHL884

Some drugs to approach with caution (especially if you are elderly).

I was onced prescribed medication to help me sleep, as I was having shoulder pain that prevented me from having a good sleep posture. The pills were deemed to be less likely to have the side effects of, say, Valium. Luckily, before I popped one on a particularly toss-and-turn night, I read the leaflet first. It said those pills were not recommended for people with glaucoma or an enlarged prostate. Whew!

So now, I approach "condition-relieving" medication with caution. I thought this article below is helpful in this regard:

http://www.wcvb.com/Sponsors/bethisrael/medication-management/30040714

It's only midweek but...

The nuts are already out there...

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Meanwhile, the final Hobbit is upon us. But which is its actual subtitle?...

The New York Times went with TBOTFA:

So did ST...

...and even IMDb:

But the ever-reliable Variety stayed loyal to TBOFA:

So which is right?
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This ST headline looks odd (did you notice it is so?) -- its apostrophe has vanished!...

Finally, what descriptive label do we give the folks who ply our vanishing trades?...

Vanishing traders?

Why do sports headline writers do it??

IMHO, sports headline writers are the ones most prone to dishing out corny or bizarre headlines. Take these two example from the USA, just because there is a baseball pitcher named Bartolo Colon...

How about local sports headlines? Here are some recent examples...