Book Review: Alfred Hitchcock and The Three Investigators in The Mystery of the Green Ghost, by Robert Arthur, illustrations by Harry Kane.

OK, so this was a bit of a peculiar realization I had recently. This book was pretty much the book that made a reader out this humble typist. It was third grade, you see, and our teacher read a bit from a book every day before recess. She got halfway through this one when she suddenly had to transfer to another class, and the replacement teacher didn't do reading time at all. And this was a mystery. One simply *had* to... more

One of the things about my family is that some of them are adopted. It's only one thing, and I'm thinking more and more lately that dwelling on "adopted-ness" isn't really terribly constructive. I'm reminded, in fact, of the passage from Borges listing categories of animals (taken, as I had completely forgotten until looking it up just now, from a notional ancient Chinese encyclopedia). The question posed by that list is, "Why those qualities? What does 'looking like flies at a distance'... more

You have to love a China adoption story that starts with an Alaskan grizzly bear attack. Global adoption an answer is really not as much a news article as sort of a taster for an hour-long radio documentary about adoptions in southern Indiana. Even so, it's loaded with thinkfood (in the form of statistics and brief interviews) for people from anywhere who're considering following this path to making a family.

The documentary, Internationally Born, Indiana Raised, has even more to think about, whether or not you live... more

I am, like many people of my acquaintance, prone to think too much about little things. Not little things like these (although that's probably the most significant news you'll read here for a long time), but things like words.

Sometimes, they make me feel funny.

Here are a few of them, along with vague stabs in the direction of explaining why I think they're a little peculiar (as opposed to ha-ha).

Abandoned. - Generally, this is a hard word to avoid, since we talk about "abandonment... more

Daughter, my daughter - she won't stop talking. We are not alone - apparently this is just about typical for four-year-olds (and typically exasperating for their parents). Son (son!), on the other hand, is not talking at all, really. Doctors are beginning to raise their eyebrows, but not saying anything yet. He's 26 months old, just about. (This age is, incidentally, about when this humble typist began his career with words, according to those who were around at the time.)

So, of course,... more

DVD Review: The Painted Veil, dir. John Curran, starring Edward Norton & Naomi Watts.

If you're a fan of W. Somerset Maugham and ever wanted to see what a Chinese orphanage looked like in the 1920s, then this is the film for you. If sweeping vistas of Guangxi's river valleys combined with shallow graves, grisly cholera deaths and misbehavior and redemption among the colonial British expats might put you off, then stay well away.

Edward... more

I'm not a Chinese-American, but my kids are. Here's something about what that means.

The Fortune Cookie Chronicles is a blog that's mostly about all-American Chinese food, but recently devoted a little attention to Chinese-American history, thanks to the publication of a new book... more

You like the internet, right? (Otherwise, how did you get here??)

Here are three sites I've found to be useful:

Trendy, trendy Facebook has quite ... more

First: an announcement. Over in the China Adoption Forums, there's a writer for Redbook looking for adoptive moms of kids from China interested in being interviewed. And becoming a hero to an adoring crowd of Redbook readers, one would hope. You'll have to use your real name and allow photos of the family to appear in the magazine.

Second: another announcement. "Yes, Tiana, they do have boys in China."

I felt that needed to be said... more

I remember, when I was in the paperwork purgatory of the Long Wait for Daughter, reading a story online from one of those Been-There-Done-That parents about their flight home to the United States from China.

The woman was sitting with her new bundle of joy next to a Chinese businessman, who was, naturally, curious about what this white woman was doing with a Chinese infant in her arms. And she said, "Well, I'm her mother - we just adopted a Chinese baby and we're taking her home." And the businessman... more