"Humor is also a way of saying something serious." - T. S. Eliot

***

Why are 80% of the world's refugees women and dependent children? Because the men get killed.

Buddha said that a jug fills drop by drop, but that's only if the water doesn't evaporate.

On why 4 kids is perfect: "1 is too lonely.
2 is too standard and not lively enough.
3 is too political (they can't fight easily since 1 v 1 can turn into 1 v 2 easily; not good).
4 is just nice.
the oldest one must not be a guy?... don't want my kids to start killing each other."

One man's bigot is another man's moralist.


RT @acidflask Just learned that what is called barley (薏米) in Singapore is not at all barley (大麦), but something else entirely! Job's Tears - Wikipedia

RT @dweam Teach a boy how to fish and he will never go hungry again. Teach a girl photoshop and she will never look ugly again.

"sometimes i wonder if the old man and [Mahathir] are on a competition to see who says the stupidest things"

"social work papers are usually not real papers. they are magazine articles in disguise."

"When petite girls says, "good thing comes in small packages". I say, "hey, be consistent with that comment!""

"okay, i guess having bigger breasts than Stefanie Sun isn't an achievement. it's equivalent to saying that i'm not as ugly as Michael Jackson"

"if it's NSFW, it must be interesting"

"*** pointed out the other day that evian is naive spelled backwards... hahah"

Architectural insights from @vincentliu_bear on how Feng Shui is common sense:
"courtyards invite water and fresh air into the building which helps with air circulation
cities with backs towards mountains and facing seas - less chance of surprise attacks from invaders"

"[The] cost of living in Boston and Singapore are in fact quite similar. Obviously you can argue about the appropriate basket of goods and services to compare, but the stark reality is that living costs in SG have long since caught up with much of the developed world... You really ought to explore the food truck scene here... I was last back in early 2008, and before that in mid 2004. Between those two visits I noticed a uniform price increase of everything from public transport to hawker food of about 50% across the board. Some places kept their prices the same but reduced the quantity of goods by roughly that much too."

On why Tong Seng coffeeshop sells the worst hae mee I've ever eaten: "If you can't sell it to the Chinese......sell it to the Malay/Muslims who don't have much choice. Always wanted to know what a real Hainanese Chicken Rice taste like....but chances are, if it's HALAL....it isn't very good."


Anecdote about an Intercultural class [in NUS]:
"Where do you find Bangaladeshis in Singapore?" Class:" Little India"
"How about Thais" Class: "Golden Mile"
"Filipinos?" Class: "Lucky Plaza"
"China Nationals?"..........Silence from the lecture group. Then a lone voice:
"Everywhere"


On the Temasek Review:

"if i had more time i'd collect their stock phrases and create a TR machine: input current topic (HDB prices, new immigrants, democracy) and choice of leader to whack (LKY, LKY, LKY), together with current news story (ST, CNA, wires). cut and paste, insert relevant TR phrase, ta da! ;)"