The Occasional Joke


Nurse: Patient's name?

Centurion: Marcus Licinius Crassus

Nurse: And his date of birth?

Centurion: 115 BC.

Nurse: All right. And what is he here for?

Centurion: Cataphract surgery.


Sunday, May 25, 2008

What do you want to be?

The last page essay in today's NYT book review is a letter from Beijing from an English teacher, Mike Meyer. It describes the government's frantic efforts to get large numbers of their citizens English-fluent by the time of the Olympics. Strongly recommended reading, including this charming bit:

"... when I asked my students about their [career] aspirations, the first boy yelled, 'When I grow up, I want to be a foreigner!'"