Posts

This morning I wrote a birthday card to my sister and wrote a few postcards to other friends and relatives (so don't call me a deltiologist) and in so doing I was reminded of the best postcard ever.

I continued my unparalleled winning streak through the month of July. On 1 July I won a hard fought match at Waialae Country Club in Honolulu. I rested my clubs until 31 July, when I won a match at Bangkok Golf Club, not against my playing partner, but against the course.

This afternoon I discarded extraneous papers from my office and was surprised at the number of boarding passes I have accumulated over the past few years. The boarding passes (and these are only from the flights from which I had kept the boarding pass) of accumulated flights since 2006 covered my desk nearly two deep.

I have suggested that falling durian fruit are indubitably lethal, tried to avoid Gradgrindery in my description of the fruit, and noted that my home without durian is a bleak house indeed.

Mangosteens are well-known as “the queen of fruits,” and durian claims the moniker “king of fruits,” but what of the rambutan? Surely the rambutan deserves a catchy nickname as well?

If anyone should question my skills at obtaining fruit from a variety of trees, including the massive rambutan (Nephelium lappaceum) shown here, please refer to the title of this post. Peter Ackroyd wrote that Charles Dickens “always possessed a grandiose but not necessarily misplaced confidence in his own powers and perseverance,” and I feel the same when it comes to tropical fruit trees.

Have you ever been completely overcome by the sheer impressiveness of a botanical garden? I have been, and was again recently, this time at Honolulu’s Foster Botanical Garden. This small garden is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and has especially exceptional trees.

We have all been to conferences or seminars and have seen excellent presentations; we have also seen presentations that were not interesting or somehow failed to convey much useful information to the audience.

I am happy to report that after going undefeated in May, I remained unbeatable in June, first winning at Dubai and then winning my matches at Mauritius as well. If I should go undefeated in 2009, I shall consider this my version of the Grand Slam.

What makes us happy? That is always a good question to ponder, and one that I hope you know the answer to. If you don’t, perhaps this recent article from The Atlantic or a perusal of Stumbling on Happiness would be in order.