The most recent 20 comments posted to Making Light by dichroic:

There is an upside to that story: the essay may be depressing, but the comments thread on the original article is really the best I've ever seen on a national media website. The majority even manage to say "Sir, you are an idiot" politely.

Another American expat speaking here, and an athlete - nowhere near Mr. Keflezighi's level, but I did just return from competing in the World Masters Games in Sydney.

First of all, I am an American by birth *and* choice - though I still don't think that maks me any more genuinely American than my grandparents / greatgrandparents who immigrated there. Second, I think that the years I'm spending living abroad actually make me a better citizen than someone who's never left the country. (Take the current health-care debates, for instance - now I can speak as someone who's directly experienced national health systems in two other countries, not to mention a casual visit or two when I got mildly sick during a holiday somewhere.)

And third, the idea of a marathoner getting citizenship in the US more easily as a "ringer" is really hilarious. That had to be written by someone whose only experience of sport is sitting on his couch watching overpaid "athletes" who get to work out as a full-time job compete in one of only four sports. I mentioned the World Masters Games: of the 28 sports included there, only 7 or 8 even have any professional athletes, in the US, and being a pro in a sport like volleyball or cycling is a tenuous living at best for all but a few. If you're an athlete who is not a professional football, baseball, basketball or hockey player, or at the vey top in sports like tennis or golf, you are in it for the love of the sport and you're struggling to balance training with making a living. No one is coming to you with offers of citizenship - no matter how rewarding you find your sport, it's probably something that makes your life harder, not easier.

We mostly see pro football players as a different species from ordinary people. In a sport like my own rowing, that's not the case: I've been coached by three different Olympians, for example. My coworker across the office who's completed two marathons so far trains six days a week, which is probably fewer hours per day but the same number of training sessions as Mr. Keflizighi. The flip side of that is that even people at the highest levels of their sport have the same struggles we do in finding time and funding for training while stlil managing the rest of their lives.

Mr. Keflizighi's prowess would not have made citizenship any easier even if he'd come to the US when already an elite athlete, and I think that claim is an insult because it so totally ignores all the sacrifices and struggles he's had to make in a sport whose rewards are in honor rather than cash.

I was not abused. My parents weren't always great at it - my mom in particular has a hair-trigger temper; Dad's is less easily triggered but once it is, he's really in a rage. But they never hit me beyond normal spanking and they never, ever, ever made me feel that I wasn't a person of value or that I couldn't become whatever I wanted. I've never been abused by a friend or teacher or lover or other relative.

Dad, on the other hand, had a childhood that featured beating, abandonment, and not being allowed (legally) to belong to the one set of foster parents who really loved him. In those days they took you away from foster parents for fear you'd grow too attached, and his mother was alive, didn't want him herself, but wouldn't let him be adopted.

I mention all this because I've had people tell me honestly that *every* woman they know has been abused in some way, and I think it's important to say that there are women who haven't, and children who haven't - and that it's possible for an abused child to grow up and raise one.

I think it's likely real, because I did hear onthe news (CNN, probably) something to the effect that the Obama adminstration would begin doing "chain letters".

The Netherlands have pretty sucky dental care. Taiwan has crowded and noisy waiting rooms. So what? We don't have to copy either one: we can look around the world at half a hundred systems and copy the best parts of each. And both countries have standards of medical care that I'd consider more than adequate, after direct experience with both.

Jon@22: those are *people* making computers in Taiwan too (a country with a decent human rights record, currently, and a democracy that is still redefining itself). These people are facing layoffs too, and trying to support their children (not to mention their parents and any family members out of work, because family ties seem to bind closer here).

As Charlie said @3, this is not an American problem but a world one.

I think you can go to the restaurant in NEMO (science museum) without paying museum admission, and it's walkable from the Centraalstation. Best view in town - nice outdoor seating, if they have heaters.

Gefeliciteerd! If I still lived in Eindhoven I'd hop a train and come by.

Do you guys know the dental-floss trick? If you carry dental floss, the cutter can be used to cut your yarn when you're in places that don't allow scissors.

Plus, then if you're knitting lace, you can always use the floss for a life-line :-)

I hope this wasn't impertinent, but the Ravelry group sounded like a good idea, so ... I created one, called Making Light, of course. I invited the people here whose Ravelry IDs I knew, but there were only three of those - anyone else on Ravelry can join, or I can invite, as you choose. Also, anyone else want to be an Admin?

TexAnne@ 95: Er, careful with that stuff. Have you tried it yet? To anyone that does, I would warn that this yarn is one where it is absolutely essential to wash and dry a swatch first.

I knitted a whole sweater out of Optimum that I bought for cheap (anyone in Tempe, AZ, SWTC has garage sales now and then). Did swatch, didn't wash. Then I wet it to block it and the whole sweater went FLOOMP! Lost all elasticity and never regained it. The ribbing shows knit/purl definition, but does not pull in together at all. As this was an oversized sweater to begin with, the effect was unfortunate - it's cozy, but pretty much only suitable to wear in the house.

Soft, though.

(Abi: sorry about the bad link and duplicate comment before :-(

"You can't frog life" is now my new motto.

OTN: a Mr. Greenjeans sweater I'm hoping to finish before it gets too hot to wear it. I've only got one sleeve and a placket to go, but I'm losing the race with summer (hot climate here).

Don't forget the most pusillanimous excuse of all: "Well, there might be risks, and anyway I don't really have to immunize *my* kids - everyone else has the shots so there's no one to catch it from."

(I do know mothers who advocate waiting until te kid is a year or so old and their immune system a little more developed. This seems like a reasonable approach to me.)

Re "no slaves in his ancestry": OK, no American slaves. At least none in the official pedigree. But was there slavery within Kenya?

I am pretending the fireworks outside are in celebration of what happens in under four hours on the other side of the world. (Really, of course, they're probably for the run-up to Chinese New Year. But you never know.)

xeger @ 34: Not unless she is actually proportioned like a Chinese woman, which appears to mean long waist, flat butt, and thin legs.

Disclaimer: My observations are based on Taiwan, both the women and the clothing for sale; I would assume that women's average proportions do vary some across a country the size of China.

I just did a metric crapload of shopping on a 1-week trip back to the US. Not a few people thought that was odd, to come back from Taiwan to the US to shop, especially as I am small, overall. But women's clothing here doesn't fit me well; even at a US size 4-6 and small-boned, my sholders, ribcage, arms and legs are all too big for clothes here to fit well.

I am *not* curvy by US standards; I'm short-waisted and so my waist is wide compared to my hips. Gap and J. Crew work well for me and Eddie Bauer petites aren't too bad. In Lands End, I can only wear their lowest-waisted cuts if I want to be able to both button the fly and breathe.

I can wear men's 501s (in a 30/30) but Vicki said somewhere that the rise on those is too small for her.

Oh, and I have a slight allergy to religious parables that extoll the virtues of imposing hardships on one's dependents to foster one's own spiritual gains.

Tony@7 - I hadn't seen the Kipling poem before. Ouch. (Didn't he lose a son in that war?) Thank you for sharing it.

Laertes@14: I don't think you (or I) need to be ashamed for voting for McCain long ago. He was a different person then - at least, in his public face.

(The recent Rolling Stone article made a good case that he's been the same paragon of entitlement all along - but I didn't have access to that information then, and neither did most of us.) Similarly to those who voted for Nader long ago. All you can do is to make your best judgement based on the information you have at the time.

I think maybe, as long as CNN's still showing "Processing votes" and not "Projected winner" on Prop 8, I'll wait to shed my tears. They'll still be there tomorrow if I need them. I'd like to hang on to hope even if it's a litle stupid at this point.

Or maybe someone in CNN's analysis department has a dog in this hunt and is hoping against hope too?

CNN's exit polls are looking pretty good for Prop 8. (Er, I mean, are looking like it will get voted down, handily.)

As an indicator of international perceptions, I'm in Taiwan, and the frst of my colleagues has already come over to congratulate me.

I've heard of articles saying that a Republican in office would be better for Taiwan, but so far everyone I've talked to plus the American DJs on the English-language radio station (guys with conservative backgrounds, one from Waco and one from northern MN) seems to be pro-Obama.

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