SILLY: I am not a stereotype. SERIOUS: And Ronald Johnson.

I know this isn't politically correct, but I can get away with saying offensive things about Asians because:

(a) I *am* one,

and, if my friends would like to refute my right to perpetuate stereotypes by calling me, "the whitest Asian person they know," they can't anymore because:

(b) I've lived in Asia for 2 years. I traveled extensively there. I had real Chinese friends, and learned to read characters and speak Cantonese. So I wouldn't be making fun of the "other"; anything offensive is really self-mockery.

In that vein, I'd like to tack this on to the list of funny Chinglish stuff that I've collected over the years:


I wonder what scorn tastes like. For more of these sorts of dishes, check out this hilarious dissection of the entire menu , courtesy of spam from my boss.

And to the second subject of this post...

I wanted to mention that I went to the Poet's House last night for a tribute to an obscure poet called Ronald Johnson who I knew first as a cookbook author. You can see one of his poems at left.



Johnson was part of the "concrete poetry" movement, which created architecture and visual meaning out of letters and words. Lots of folks (including myself) might immediately associate his style with that of e.e. cummings, though I don't believe he was part of this movement.

Anyway, Johnson wrote a couple of "epic" poems: one of them was called "Ark" and another called "RADI OS", in which he took Milton's "Paradise Lost" and cut out entire chunks of text to make it his own. He even does it in the title, as you can see here:

PARADISE LOST
---RADI--- --OS--

Click here for more. This is the only sampling of Johnson's stuff that I could find online, since Johnson scholarship seems to be very rare. If you use the "next page" link you will be able to read several poems of his.

The lecture was awfully interesting and though pretentious at times -- big, mispronounced monosyllabic words being used by Ph.Ds -- much was discussed including Johnson's treatment of gender, a rare book of concrete poetry called "IO and the Ox-Eye Daisy" and a precursor to mixed media artwork: poems written in dialogue with bird recordings taped by Johnson on a tour of the Appalachian Trail.

very cool.

A Johnson obituary.
An interview with Johnson conducted by Peter O'Leary, a leading Johnson scholar.
The American Table, a gift from Eden Ross Lipson, and my introduction to Johnson. Will be cooking from this book over the weekend!