Tribute to a songwriter.

I have absolutely no musical gifts but if I were to have a secret desire to be a "great" somebody, I would want to be a songwriter whose lyrics leave a deep impression. Robert B. Sherman, who died on Tuesday in London, aged 86, was one such talented music-maker -- together with his brother Richard, now 83.

Together, the Sheman brothers wrote prolifically; their songs included those for the Walt Disney movies Mary Poppins and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Robert Sherman has been called "one of the world's greatest songwriters".

Robert Sherman's son Jeffrey paid this tribute: "His rule in writing songs was to keep it singable, simple and sincere. In the simplest things you find something universal."

Perhaps that's why I see a connection with what I do. A journalist should strive to make his writing "sing" too, in both the artistic sense of a cadence in its structure that helps the reader absorb the story effortlessly and in the sense of a purposeful message. Simplicity, sincerity and universality are of course the desired traits.

For me, among the memorable songs from Mary Poppins are the nonsense song Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious (which I have previously put on my blog) and the highly evocative Feed The Birds (Tuppence A Bag) -- a powerful reminder of humanity at its most caring:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VwU_oS2ErQ

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An optical illusion?

I thought this page one blurb for a story on the proposed use of blowpipes for catching stray dogs in today's ST (8 Mar) looked strange. The unintended camera trick gives the optical illusion of a dog running on just two legs!

Big bang theory; 86 still a 'prime' number for one man; and a brain teaser junior easily solves!

(E)reptile dysfunction?

Local site xinmsn.com's Weird News section, having already told us about Putin's tears, now amuses us with this crocodile tear-jerker story from AFP. It is headlined "Japan zoo tries to drum up alligator's interest in sex"...

http://news.xin.msn.com/en/weird/article.aspx?cp-documentid=5969674

Hmm, if all that 'banging" doesn't work, maybe the zoo should pipe in Elton John's "Crocodile Rock" (I assume it'll get alligators a-rockin' too):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2Ta0qCG8No

But maybe all that's needed is some cooling off first, a la this tribute to Bill Haley, "See You Later, Alligator":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2Ta0qCG8No

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Octo-mus Prime?

For this man,  a great-grandfather, 86 is clearly still a 'prime' number!

http://news.insing.com/tabloid/family-confronts-great-grandfather-over-affair/id-eb363f00

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If 8809 = 6, then 2581 = ?

And still on numbers, this brain teaser was easily solved by nursery school kids. Dare you try your hand?...

http://news.insing.com/tabloid/math-question-leaves-many-scratching-their-heads/id-e3363f00

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Persimmons... all gone today!

I was at the Junction 10 (J10) shopping mall, where the Giant supermarket is the anchor tenant. I then sent this text message to some people who read my blog:

Me: Scary! No more Israeli persimmons at J10 Giant s'mart. Yest, was stacked high w the stuff.

A: Intercepted by Iran?
Me: Or pple read my blog and stocked up!
A: So you might have caused a run on Israeli persimmons? Naughty!

B: Oh dear!!! Crisis.
Me: Diverted to pilots to eat on way to bombing Iran!

C: Ooh, strike imminent.
Me: Haha, yah.

D: Your blog lah!
Me: (Smiley emoticon)

But not to worry, yet, TODAY (7 Feb) carried this Reuters story, "No Israeli decision on Iran attack: Netanyahu":

http://www.todayonline.com/World/EDC120307-0000036/No-Israeli-decision-on-Iran-attack--Netanyahu

Happy is the man who can shed tears easily...

Why do I envy people who can shed tears easily? I now suffer from chronic dry eyes and even have silicon implants (hey, they are in my eyes!) to try and keep them moist. These punctal plugs are a help, but I still need eye drops.

People who sympathise with me suggest that I watch those Korean weepy soap operas. I am not that desperate -- yet.

So, I understandably have weepy-envy for those who can turn on the waterworks at the drop of a hat, or -- in the case of Vladimir Putin -- at the drop of a vote (in his favour, of course).

The Russian prime minister reclaimed his presidency in the recent election there and is set to rule as president for the next six years, and 12, if he seeks a second term.

He is now also famous for shedding tears when the presidential election results were announced. But I am amused by this AFP wire story below, carried in xinmsn.com. It labelled the story of a crying Putin under "Weird News" and headlined it "Moscow struggles to believe in Putin's tears". Here it is (complete with a "It's Botox flowing out!" comment):

http://news.xin.msn.com/en/weird/article.aspx?cp-documentid=5961967

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Meanwhile, a check on Google showed up some slick PR efforts by his army of supporters since last year. Here are two must-see YouTube videos. The first has a bevy of Russian babes in it, and is titled "A Man Like Putin":

http://russianhistoryblog.org/2011/02/youtube-of-the-week-a-man-like-putin-with-english-subtitles/

The central character in this other video clip is also a pro-Putin babe. Don't miss the last part!...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gG2XV2n9efc

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Picture of the Day: MOM comes a-calling
(TODAY, 6 Mar, page 4)

There are people who say Singapore is a nanny state. I'm not sure, but there definitely are tough-looking guys going around with "MOM" emblazoned on their vests:

MOM is the Ministry of Manpower, and the picture above shows The Man from MOM making an arrest. Now, what we need next is a government agency named UNCLE.

Happy dragons (high on testosterone?) put it on!

Singaporean film-maker Roystan Tan made a short, vampy rap-style music video clip -- "Happy Dragon" -- on red-light district safe sex, all in Hokkien (with English subtitles). It went viral, of course ("I like this very much. It's so hyperlocal," gushed one fan). Here it is, courtesy of insing.com:

http://news.insing.com/tabloid/sexy-women-and-rapping-uncles-in-new-hiv-video/id-0b363f00

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Meanwhile, ST reader Dr Wong Mun Tat ("Illogical to link marital fidelity with managing a firm", 5 March, page A20), in his letter on people who cheat in love and finances, also (provocatively?) pointed to the role of testosterone, as shown by research:

The reasons for cheating in love and finances are simply different. The generalisation that cheating in one makes one more inclined to cheat in the other is facile and errorneous. We will rue the day when we adopt an umblemished marital record as the sine qua non for choosing a CEO. Such a parochial attitude will exclude many high-calibre CEOs.

A professional should be judged on his job performance rather than on traits and characteristics that are not germane to his functions.

Research on the link between testosterone and successful financial traders found that these people tend to make more money on the days when their testosterone levels are higher. Looking at traders' profits over a 20-month period, researchers found that those exposed to the most testosterone in the womb earned six times as much as those with lower exposure, and their careers tended to be longer.

If testosterone is responsible for both marital indiscretion and successful trading, should we not use the former as a surrogate marker for a good CEO?        

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Finally, my thanks for some recent comments, but for which I had not responded, having missed spotting them. Thanks especially to Ethan M. Long for pointing out that the Suffolk University in question, in an earlier blog entry, was the one (a private university) in Boston, not Britain.

A tale of 2 tails: A pictorial.

Today's blog entry was inspired by this ST news report, forecasting weekend showers:

Now, every time it gets thundery accompanied by lightning (usually in the afternoons when I am home), a certain little dog gets panicky. One moment, he may have been snuggling beside me on the sofa while I am reading the papers; the next, he is scampering about looking for a place to hide. One day, he found himself a little "cave" in the living room:

That's Killer the mini schnauzer in the picture above. Now that he has discovered a safe haven, he wants an upgrade and he has been bugging me to check the property market. He thinks there's something that suits his diminutive size from the HDB (Housing for Dogs Board):

 
He's working out the sums now and checking his CPF (Canine Provident Fund).

The little runt is eight years old. He and Brady the beagle, who is fourteen and a half years old (and who has absolutely no fear of thunder and lightning), get along very well. Brady is long in the tooth now, is practically blind and even had a recent operation to remove a cancerous lump, but in the earlier years when he was much more energetic, he would chase after Killer during play and "hump" him.

These days, Killer tries:

 
If at first you don't succeed:

You try again, until you do, sort of...

Brady then took his "revenge" just tonight, while we were watching TV:

But, like all good buddies, they made up and shook paws:

Brady no longer plays with toys, but Killer still has a stack of them. Along the way too, we somehow collected two large figurines which are put outside, near the door:

In closing this tale about 2 adorable tails (one long and bushy; the other short and stumpy), their own door has these two fixtures:

Chinatownology?

It's been a long day at work, so I'll keep this short. Do check out this website that I just found today...

http://www.chinatownology.com/

It's a website devoted to giving the lowdown on Chinatowns of the world. And it says that, apart from Singapore's "official" Chinatown, an "unofficial" one has sprouted in the Geylang area:

http://www.chinatownology.com/chinatown_singapore.html

http://www.chinatownology.com/chinatown_geylang.html

Chinatown, the area centred around what the Hokkiens call "Gu Chia Chwee", was where my maternal grandfather lived, in a narrow shophouse. My mother used to take me there (from our home in Pulau Bukom; by ferry and then by bus) when I was a boy but I do not have vivid memories of the abode or the area, except that there were people, people, people everywhere.

Also, the family -- before I was born -- lived in Chinatown in the postwar years, at the address 80, Canal Road. That road no longer exists.

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Postscript: Thanks, Nick, for your comment, fellow "boo kia ee boy".

More about our 'vanishing' traders, and snapshots of the versatile 'boo kia ee'.

Using the appropriate keywords to do a Google search, one can unearth more fascinating write-ups about Singapore's vanishing trades, and of course the, er, "vanishing" traders.

The National Library, for instance, has this "Singapore pages/Infopedia" weblink:

http://infopedia.nl.sg/googlecse.aspx?q=vanishing+trades&start=0&cx=006597985428264677513%3Akwtbk1ppw38&cof=FORID%3A11

There are short write-ups on:
* Letter/petition writers
* Trishaw riders
* Wooden-clog ["char kiak"] makers
* Parrot astrologers [like vanishing traders, this one is a strange phrase; the human astrologer uses a parrot to... oh, go read it up!]
* Five-foot-way traders [no, these are not two-and-a-half people! Find out how the term "five-foot-way" came about, and why the Hokkiens call it "gor kar kee"]
* Traditional cobblers
* Travelling hawkers [I've listed some yesterday... there's also the satay man. Note: it is so ironic for the National Library to use the label "travelling hawkers"!]
* Tinsmiths
* The karang guni man [maybe I should add in here the swill collector. Yes, this person, who usually breeds chickens for their eggs, will come around to collect your leftover food to feed his chickens. Just before Chinese New Year, he will present you with some eggs, as a gesture of thanks.]
* Barrel makers
* Indian jewellers
* Rickshaw pullers
* Joss carvers
* Dhobi shops
* Sulam (embroidery) seamstresses
* Snake charmers
* Roadside [as well as hole-in-the-wall] barbers
* Tukang urut
* Shoelast makers
* Idol carvers
* Chinese coolies [I should add the samsui women and the Indian roadwork labourers famous for their "singing-while-you-work"]
* Tattoo artists
* Knife sharpeners
* Kite makers
* Night jagas [remember the famous bank ad... "Big, strong, friendly"!]
* Chinese seal carvers
* Dialect storytellers [such as Lee Dai Sor]
* Traditional furniture makers [remember the "boo kia ee"?]

Here are two pics of a "boo kia ee", the first in the "boo" (mother) mode, and the second in the "kia" (baby) mode: