Month: January 2010

  • Gold 90 FM, Home of Brian Richmond

    I was slightly offended when I turned on the radio and heard, “Gold 90 FM, Home of Elvis Presley”. It was read out by Brian Richmond, the doyen of radio presenters. Then I realised that they really should have a promo/announcement that says something to the effect of “Radio Singapore – Home of Brian Richmond”,…

  • The salty salesmen of the Dead Sea

    The sales tactics of Vardi & Migdal – the Israeli company with pushcarts in malls all over the island – used to work. They use pushcarts instead of renting a shop space because if you were a salesman in a shop, you wouldn’t be able to roam a mall’s thoroughfare and accost passers-by. We have…

  • Female circum… whaaaaat?

    I was shocked to learn from Naomi yesterday that female circumcision is practiced in Singapore. I had no idea. You learn a lot from motherhood forums, where Naomi stumbled upon discussions on whether to circumcise, where to circumcise, how to do it and how much is done and how much is charged. I’ve always thought…

  • Inappropriate children’s songs

    Now that Kai is beginning to learn and mimic, we are starting to be more mindful of the songs we sing to him. Especially children’s songs. On our banned wagon now is the French ditty Alouette, which we thought was about a skylark. It is about a skylark, and the cruel thing (plucking its feathers)…

  • Now that the homeless families have been housed

    CNA reports on HDB’s 50th Anniversary with an opening paragraph which would have been an outright clanger if they hadn’t found lodging for the park-dwellers: SINGAPORE: Is there a role for Singapore’s Housing and Development Board (HDB), now that the entire population has been housed? Congratulations on 50 years of housing the nation!