Lithuanian mania sweeps Taiwan
And other things that are true and surprising
Labas and lí-hó to all you international types!
I couldn’t believe it when my friend texted this article to me from a French news outlet.
Among the highlights are a Lithuanian enclave living in Taiwan. And even more surprising: a Lithuanian-themed restaurant in Taiwan! I want to go! (Though to be sure, hearing the national anthem as Muzak might put me off my cold borscht and cherry liqueur.)
So of course I had to look it up. The name of the bar is “Little One “— it’s a play on how the name of the country sounds in the local dialect. It has a Facebook Page. Incredible.
More on Lithuanians — an artist created a powerful video message to encourage the world not to grow numb to the images from Ukraine. This 15 second video shows a Lithuanian Olympian swimmer crossing a pond in front of Russian Embassy (the one now located on Ukrainian Heroes street) and — because Lithuanian artists care about the planet as well as the people on it, the dye is ecologically harmless.
WRITING?
This week, NYC public schools are on Spring Break, so my daughter and I took an overnight to Philadelphia. We had a two hour tour of City Hall full of all sorts of fascinating little historical tidbits, like the fact that the four sides each have animals representative of a different continent: buffalo, elephant, camel and bears. I’m a little in love with the random sculptures all over this amazing building.
In honor of Philly, we wanted to see the movie Kitty Foyle but couldn’t find it, so instead we watched Don’t Bet on Blondes from the same era. In this film a bookie decides he no longer likes the type of client he sees, and decides to move his whole racket to insurance, since, he discovers, “Lloyds of London merely figures odds on stuff happening based on past performance; just like we’ve been doing at the racetrack.”
I haven’t published anything new this week, sorry. I spent some time working on some new short stories, but nothing is finished. While in Philly, the public library had a basket of paper and pencils and a sign that said “write a poem” — so I did:
If you’re interested in photos of my trip, I took some great ones. They’re on Facebook here and here and here.
It was spectacular weather. And Earth day! And we went roller skating outside. An excellent break.
But now it’s time to get back to work - happy Spring everyone.
Labas... Lithuania in Taiwan? wow - and what a powerful video in support of Ukraine - #Ukraine