The Happiest Place on Earth

So last friday Dan and I took a special trip down to LA. We rented a car and drove to Disneyland. I have a friend who works there so she hooked us up and we got in for FREE!! It was really packed and warm and worth every second. Can you believe that Danny has NEVER been in the Tiki room? I mean, that's unheard of. A room of mechanical singing birds, classic. All day I kept telling him he was going to see the Tiki show, but sadly we never made it in. Many of the rides we closed, including one of Dan's favorites Tom Sawyer's Island. I guess they are changing it into a pirate island. It seems the pirate theme is really taking over these days. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy a good pillage and plunder every now and then, but I was sad and disappointed to see that the ride Pirates of the Caribbean had been changed to incorporate Capt. Jack Sparrow. I mean the whole point is the ride was soo great that a movie was made based in it, but now they changed it to be based on the movie. A really poor choice. Nothing remains, everything changes. At least I get to hold onto the memories of when Pirates was an amazing ride. Now some of you may have heard that Space Mountain has changed a bit. Well it has. The ride has a fresh new look to it. The wall panels in the waiting line have been replaced, and the music is now hosted by the Red Hot Chili Peppers. The ride is no longer in the dark with twinkling stars, but flashes images of concert footage and is run by the tune of "Higher Ground". A remake yes, but a good one. Near the end of the ride when the song picks up the beat the ride kicks into high gear as well. Lots of fun, worth the wait -but recommend the fast pass- yet, the original theme will be revived again soon, since this is a temporary Space Mountain journey. *sigh of relief*. there's nothing like flying through the dark scared your hands might get chopped off if u raise them to high during the unknown twists and turns of the original Space Mountain. After 30.00 bucks spent in food, 10.00 bucks on trinkets, and feet that no amount of pain killer can remedy, Dan and I make our way back to the car on the Timon tram. A great and rewarding trip that at least for that day was, the happiest place on earth.

a sad day

For those of you who visited me at Lucky's in Las Vegas you may remember Alan...whom I would call "Sundown". I received sad news that he has passed away this morning. I will be leaving for Vegas this week. A bittersweet reunion. Please raise a glass for him.

lately simplified

Cat:
-Learns CPR for adults and can rescue you from choking
-received an "F" on a logic quiz
-had Mother Johnston over for visit
-unpacked boxes of stuff we forgot we had
-made perogies for dinner

Dan:
-declared an emergency
-discovered Maui is a breeding ground for centipedes
-had Ma Johnston up for a visit
-had pb n j for dinner
-drove in downtown and only got honked at 3 times

Quote of the Day

Ugliness is better than beauty. It lasts longer and in the end, gravity will get us all.
-- Johnny Depp

the News in San Francisco

In the News.......

1. Chinese New Year

Lions and dragons -- and pigs -- paraded through the streets of San Francisco Saturday night.

It's the Year of the Pig in the Chinese lunar calendar, and plenty of twisted tails and potbellies joined in the city's annual Chinese New Year parade.

No raincoats were necessary, for a change, and no umbrellas blocked anyone's view.

A barrage of firecrackers started it off, heralding the first flag-carrying officers of the San Francisco Police Department's mounted unit. Two hours and many marching bands later, the 200-foot-long Golden Dragon, biggest of its species, gave the spectacle a rainbow-colored end.

2. the new movie Zodiac brings the locals to remember and try to solve the case........

Friday's premiere of "Zodiac," a movie about the murderer who killed at least five people, taunted police and manipulated the media through letters and cryptograms he sent to newspapers before vanishing in 1974.

The fascination with Zodiac, "comes from the possibility that we can still catch him and he's still alive and out there."

Zodiac hunters bristle at the suggestion that their hobby is ghoulish, even describing it as a noble humanitarian effort.

But that doesn't mean they want to make their names public.

"Obsession is a word you can use. I'm going to quit after this," said Tracy, a 60-year-old Southern California resident who has tried to solve the Zodiac's ciphers but was among those who didn't want to share her last name.

Those at a gathering, one of several since 2002, debated their theories and prime suspects, impressed each other with their command of Zodiac minutiae and heard from people with some connection to the case -- including Nancy Slover, the former Vallejo police dispatcher who took a call from the Zodiac in 1969.

Also present was the daughter of the original amateur sleuths on the case, Donald and Bettye Harden, believed to be the only people to have deciphered one of the Zodiac's threatening letters.

"A lot of people who lived in this area would like to have some closure," said San Francisco resident Dean Guadagni, 47, who remembers his school bus being escorted by police after the Zodiac threatened to blow up buses. "I don't think there's been a concerted effort (by authorities) to solve this case. ... Somebody in this group is going to come up with the answer."

3. Hate crimes in the country's most liberal city...

A San Francisco weekly newspaper that bills itself as "The Voice of Asian America" is facing harsh criticism from that very community for publishing a column Friday titled "Why I Hate Blacks."

In the column, AsianWeek regular contributor Kenneth Eng listed "reasons" to discriminate against African Americans. The piece has been pulled from the newspaper's Web site, but the print edition of the free paper, owned by the politically influential Fang family, was still available in news racks Monday.

Eng called himself an "Asian supremacist" in January in another installment of the column, which runs under the label "God of the Universe."

Prominent Asian Americans immediately condemned Eng's current column.

"The hate is based on ignorance and is very similar to the rationales that the KKK uses against African Americans," said Henry Der, director for 22 years of Chinese for Affirmative Action and the former state administrator for Emeryville's schools.

"What gives me the greatest concern was AsianWeek's judgment in printing such a piece out of context," Der said. "It is so trite and hateful, it doesn't speak well for the publication."

San Francisco NAACP President Amos Brown, who heard about the column from a Chronicle reporter, was speechless at first.

"I can't believe this," Brown then said. "I am surprised the Fangs, who have supposedly been involved in interracial-understanding issues, would publish something like this. I am flabbergasted. We can't afford for these kind of racist flames to be fueled in that kind of setting."

AsianWeek issued a statement regretting "any offense caused by the one opinion piece," and Editor in Chief Samson Wong declined further comment.

Editor at large Ted Fang did not return phone calls seeking comment. Members of his family, who are Chinese American, have owned a number of local publications, including AsianWeek and the Independent. They bought the Examiner in 2000 and sold it in 2004.

Ted Fang's brother James, who is president of the paper, has spent more than a decade on the BART Board of Directors and previously worked as international trade director for former San Francisco Mayor Frank Jordan.

Eng's "reasons" for hating black people include:

-- "Blacks hate us. Every Asian who has ever come across them knows that they take almost every opportunity to hurl racist remarks at us."

-- "Contrary to media depictions, I would argue that blacks are weak-willed. They are the only race that has been enslaved for 300 years."

-- "Blacks are easy to coerce. This is proven by the fact that so many of them, including the Rev. Al Sharpton, tend to be Christians."

Eng, who is in his early 20s, according to material on the Internet promoting his science fiction writing, started at AsianWeek in November after moving from the East Coast. In 2004, for an online magazine called Down in the Dirt, he wrote about experiencing racism as an Asian American student at New York University after he "expressed my negative views on America, religion and African Americans."

Other AsianWeek columns of Eng's -- including "Proof That Whites Inherently Hate Us" and "Why I Hate Asians" -- have resulted in criticism. In the first, he complained about the scarcity of Asian heroes in the media. In the second, he described Asian Americans as apathetic, brown-nosing and lacking in cultural pride.

Eng could not be reached for comment Monday.

Leaders of the Asian Law Caucus, Asian American Justice Center, Chinese for Affirmative Action and other groups and individuals began circulating a petition Friday calling for the paper to apologize, terminate its relationship with Eng, print an editorial refuting the column and review its editorial policy. The leaders' statement, issued in Washington, D.C., called the piece "irresponsible journalism, blatantly racist, replete with stereotypes and deeply hurtful to African Americans."

In its statement, AsianWeek, which has a circulation of 48,505, said it "sincerely regrets any offense caused by the one opinion piece which reflected that author's personal views. We apologize for any harm or hurt this has caused the African American community. AsianWeek has great respect for all that the African American community has done for Asian Pacific Americans."

"What this controversy points out is the lack of community leadership in addressing the critical and difficult issues of race relations, particularly between Asian Pacific Americans and African Americans," the paper's statement said.

San Francisco writer Claire Light, one of several bloggers who wrote about the column over the weekend, said the newspaper in general -- and especially Eng's column -- makes her embarrassed to be Asian. She said that "most Asian Americans have never even heard of AsianWeek, much less agree with its editorial decision making."

Der said the column was offensive not only to African Americans but to everyone -- and especially because it was published during Black History Month.

"It is pretty despicable that the piece would do that at this time," he said. "If we are to talk about race and issues, then there should be a thoughtful presentation of the diverse views on this topic. If they had done that, however offensive, we would at least understand it in the context in the larger community."

Ling-chi Wang, retired chairman of the ethnic studies department at UC Berkeley, said there is an urgent need for Asian Americans to be aware of the history of this country and know that Asian American gains have come largely as a result of the efforts of black people.