who you callin' inscrutable?

For the longest time, whenever I heard the phrase "those inscrutable Chinese," well frankly, I took offense. That's because I took the word inscrutable to mean unscrupulous. So when I finally realized what inscrutable meant, I was like, oh okay, I can see it, no big deal. Sometimes, I can't figure myself out.

Chinese faux-paus (pardon my French)

Okay, I'm American-born Chinese, or ABC. I had different places to live during my college days, and different sets of roommates. The first place I lived after my one year in the dorms was perfect, but the roommate whose father owned the condo unit we were in got married and we all had to find somewhere else to live. The condo was good while it lasted... actually, it was great! Peaceful, near downtown, I miss it.

So anyway, one of the other places I lived in during college was an apartment I shared with two Chinese roommates, one also American-born, and the other from China. Besides both of them being much better cooks than me (they were much more talented with stir-frying), they were both much better versed than me when it came to Chinese customs. For example, one night there was a bowl of rice sitting on the table (as opposed to each of us serving ourselves out of the rice cooker), and I decided to be, uh, "creative" and stuck a pair of chopsticks standing straight up in the middle of the bowl. The collective gasp! I heard from my roommates was oh-so-palpable. A BIG no-no, just like the number 4. Chopsticks sticking straight up like that is symbolic of funerals. What else? Oh yeah, never give a Chinese person a watch or a clock as a gift, particularly a hospital patient. It indicates the counting down of the seconds of their life.

unlucky (and lucky) number

There is a local heating and air-conditioning company whose phone number is: 444-4444. It is easy to remember for sure, but I wonder if they've ever noticed that they rarely have any Chinese customers (I'm assuming). Because as Americanized as I am, I am quite familiar that in the Cantonese language, the number 4 is very bad indeed. Something about it sounding like the word for 'death.' I bet if you were to check out the addresses or phone numbers for Chinese restaurants and businesses in the yellow pages, you would very rarely find the number 4 in any of them. And lucky for the Chinese? The number 8! Here is the address and phone number for Restaurant Peony in Oakland Chinatown for example:

388 9th Street, Suite 288
Oakland, CA 94607
(510) 286-8866

Lots of 8's, and hardly any 4's (the 4 in the zip code being hard to avoid).

the NFC 'West'

I like how the NFL is divided into the different divisions now, a North, South, East, and West for each of the conferences. For the most part, they make sense. It's odd thinking about which teams comprised the NFC West not too long ago (the late 1990's): the Atlanta Falcons, the Carolina Panthers, the New Orleans Saints, the St. Louis Rams, and the San Francisco 49ers. Counterintuitive, isn't it? No wonder the 49ers logged in so many miles in travel.

the blind side: left tackles and right tackles

A lot is made of football teams getting a star left tackle, being that they have the key responsibility of protecting the quarterback's blind side during passing plays. It's a big deal nowadays - the left tackle is often portrayed as the most important position on the offensive line.

But what if the quarterback throws left-handed? Doesn't that mean a team has to go about securing the services of a great right tackle? If the backup quarterback throws opposite the starting quarterback, and for whatever reason has to start leading the offense in the middle of a game, does the offensive line adjust accordingly?

It's not until rather recently that I've started wondering about this. Looking back, the 49ers once enjoyed having both Joe Montana (right-handed) and Steve Young (left-handed) at quarterback, during many years that overlapped. I wonder how the offensive line was configured depending on which one of them was playing - did the tackles simply remain in their spots or were adjustments made? For all the football coverage I watch now, I can't remember ever hearing about the right tackle having to protect the blind side of a left-handed quarterback.

still the San Francisco 49ers

only located in Santa Clara, near California's (formerly Marriott's) Great America.

Hey, as long as they don't move out of the Bay Area, I'm fine with it! The 49ers organization took the first step in building their new home stadium down in Santa Clara with yesterday's vote on Measure J. It's less than 40 miles from their current location at Candlestick Park, which for those of you not familiar with the area, is not exactly in downtown San Francisco as it is. There are several franchises that have their home stadiums in locations other than their namesake, the Dallas Cowboys coming to mind. They play their home games in Arlington, TX. And the New York Giants and the New York Jets both play in... New Jersey? So really, as long as the San Francisco 49ers remain the San Francisco 49ers and play in the Bay Area, it's all good. My only question now is, how far will the new stadium be from where Frontier Village (here's another link I found) used to be?

do you know the way to Frontier Village?

Frontier Village was a theme park my father took my family to when I was a little boy. I barely have any real memories of us going there. I have a faint picture in my mind of some of the Wild West looking buildings, the gunfight re-enactments done by actors dressed as cowboys (my older brother, also a little kid then, was picked up out of the crowd by one of the actors and included in one of the performances, although I don't know if what I'm picturing in my mind is an actual memory or from just hearing about it - were there ever pictures taken??), and me riding a mule (or donkey) in a little circle. There was such an old-fashioned charm to this place compared to modern attractions.

What also remains with me is our father driving us there. I recall miles and miles of farmland and agriculture, a beautiful drive through the open country until we arrived at our destination. San Jose was undeveloped back then and was simply the area we passed through to get to Frontier Village.