Holy Rosary Dances with the Devil and more from the mailbag…

Delaware Dave writes in:
Fat Al,
Sorry that the Yanks went down. No sleep lost in Wilmington over that one.
Glad that you caught the end of the Steelers. Initial report is that Big Ben
has a hyperextended knee, looked like it may have been a ACL to this
neonatologist. Watching the winning kick go through the uprights at 12:30
AM is brutal. Still tired and hung over from the game but better than a
loss.

There are some funny developments on the Holy Rosary front:
Split our games this weekend loosing to a team on Saturday that looked like
the Olympic development squad. They had a couple of girls close to 6 feet
(no kidding) and ran a 6-1 offense. On Sunday we one after trailing in the
3rd game 23-16, came back to win 26-24 with no margin for error.

The funny story is that I entered a raffle benefiting the Holy Rosary Sports
council. My name was picked out of the hat and I won two front row ticket to
see the Rolling Stones tomorrow. A lot of irony in this true story, not to
mention the fact that the concert is on the eve of Yom Kippur. After
searching my soul I opted for the devil himself Mick Jagger and will have to
live the next year waiting to repent on the next holy day.
DP

Good choice, methinks. Having MNF on here at 9 am is great, especially when you don’t have to be at work. That game ended right in time for lunch.

The photos from Yangshou elicited a tremendous response. Thanks everyone. We really enoy hearing back from you. Amy Mindell wrote a particularly sweet message, I thought:

These photos mad me feel really happy.
Maybe it’s living vicariously through you — I’m just loving “our” adventures in China!
Maybe it’s bc you all look so happy and well — tell B, by the way, she looks great, very fit.
Maybe it’s knowing that all the way around the world there are good people, and they are treating you all so well; It’s touching.
Maybe it’s watching you (Anna!) be treated like rock stars. I get it, but it still blows my mind whenever you bring it up. It’s just so hard to understand that Westerners are so unusual to them! Were you the only Westerners in Yangshou?
Or, maybe it’s just knowing that somewhere, somehow, someone else has a child who can watch Nick and Cartoon network for six hours w/o blinking (I know yours apparently stopped; you’re so lucky!), and considers white rice and french fries a well-rounded meal. I am not alone!! Does yours also think changing clothes and brushing teeth are unecessary diversions from tv-watching and gameboy playing?
thanks for sharing. Keep it up! love, Amy

Thanks Amy. Anna is definitely the family rock star. In Yangshou, I kept pretending that the women’s melting eyes and lustful grins were for me. It gave me a good 4-second ental diversion every time. jacob and eli were also asked to pose for many photos. Westerners are not unusual at all in Yangshou. The place is filled with them, mostly Europeans and plenty of backpackers. Someone down there told me more English is spoken there than anywhere in chian and I believe them. Much, much more than in Beijing.