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

No, not this kind of mandarin!

Faithful readers may recall my prior concerns over the upcoming Iron Man movie, as directed by Jon "Dinner for Five" Favreau, in which children will... more

Every now and again I write these things that don't seem to have too much to do with "adoption" per se, at least at first. But the thing is the "adoption" part of my family actually seems pretty minor compared to the lasting reality of being a parent who isn't Chinese raising children who are. So, this is one of those things.

It started listening to classical music in the car last week.

... more

They're making movie out of Iron Man. He's a popular Marvel comics superhero, and special effects now are such that he'll look great. Robert Downey, Jr., is playing the title character, so he'll probably sound great, too.

And Shaun Toub will be playing The Mandarin.

Yes. Farhad from Crash will be playing ... more

In case you missed it in the recent comments:

Blessed Art Thou, Angelina Jolie.

It's art.

Yikes. Totally Doing Star Business....

But domestic babies lack that dramatic edge!

Adopted foreign babies. Hot new accessory. Asian baby!

Laughs, yes. Uncomfortable, yes.

And just in time for Angelina Jolie's latest addition.

The Abandoned is a horror film about international adoption. Or, rather one that apparently uses international adoption as its avenue into Gothic family excess and ancestral curses and stuff.

I suppose this was inevitable.

"I've spent half my life trying to find my parents."

Set in Russia, not China, but still.

Sigh.

This show is still freaking me out a little with the birthparent/supernorphan storylines.

Not much else to say about it.

It's very popular, and the best storyline on the darn thing(*) hinges on an adoption narrative.

(*)OK, the best storyline in English.

That isn't necessarily based on reality, given the making fire shoot out of fingers, the flying politicians and the secret agents with guns. OK, well, maybe that last part is realistic, but it's not, like, mainstream.

This is where we're at, I guess. What the culture... more

Neal Stephenson, A-1 writer.

Let me say up front that I think Neal Stephenson is an A-1 writer. Smart man who knows how to string together an exciting plot with plenty of thinkfood along the way. He also really likes Chinese history.

So I'm half-excited at the news that George... more

Anybody else been following that Heroes show on NBC? I've been watching the episodes online and I'm mulling over the whole, "I just got off the phone with your biological parents" thing.

Because, of course, orphans are always superheroes. We've established that. With mighty powers. And specialness.

Hmmmm.