Friday, December 31, 2010

Top Ten

Almost the end of the year and I've been sleeping through the top ten list tidal wave. Where have I been? I still have time to throw something together though, so I'm taking Time Magazine's model as my template to present 10 Rat's Nest's special awards:

Person of the Year Award
Time Magazine

Well sure, Mark Zuckerberg created facebook, that social network thingy, but more significantly, look at those green eyes—how many people can do that? Therefore, an award goes to the person with the same extraordinary gaze, a gaze with penetrating color and allure, which is Molly, one of my Saturday morning walking partners and a member of the prog rock band Phideaux. Thank you Molly!

#1 Person with the Bluest Eyes of the Year Award

Okay, one down and 9 to go...

As keeper of the Rat's Nest, I'm proud to present Malka, our hard working, hard playing and hard eating, pet rat with:


#2 Rat of the Year Award
(snapped by a paparazzie)

Maybe we should just do five, five is commendable, don't you think? 

Recalling READ Books—my favorite book store in Eagle Rock—and it's wonderful Comedy Night of yore, here is:

#3 Comedian of the Year, with her dog, Award
Maria Bamford at READ Books
(just look at that mug)

Continuing, on a more somber note...

A poem, written by my former student, Jae, gets the:
 #4 Poem of the Year Award

Do sadness, do pain,  If you want your own life,  
Do suffering, Do endurance, If you want to live in heaven, 
Suffering is happiness in true life


By the time I got around to asking Jae what this poem meant, he had disappeared. But perhaps he was trying to say that to achieve happiness, one must make friends with suffering, as it is true life, not the one imagined. That, more than anything else, is what binds immigrants in this city, well, actually, anywhere, together. Without doing in-depth research, I can safely say that immigrants, those poor and dispossessed, suffer more than native speakers, language being a Herculean task to surmount. 


Sonny (Korean), Manny (Thai) and Mina (Persian Jew)


Okay, I think I can do a few more....


 #5 Quintessential California Photo of the Year Award
(photo credit: Tom Harjo, who wasn't even trying)


# 6 Best Smile from a Piece of Bread We've Ever Eaten Award
(I swear we found this as is, a fluke of nature)





#7 The Kids are Homekkah Award, to the kids who came home, Mekko and his friend Katrina (l) and Maya (r) (who really didn't want her picture taken, sorry Maya)

And finally to all: health, happiness and...

#8 PEACE for the New Year Award

(Not ten, damn it, but close!)


Happy New Year












2 comments:

  1. The best Top Ten - er, make that Eight - List I've ever read, and I mean it. Hurrah for the Rat's Nest. Thank you for being my blog partner over the past year and change; here's to another year of the Rat's Nest!

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  2. LIkewise my dear blog partner; without you the blogosphere would be chilly!

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