User Comments - SF_Rachel

Posted on: Skincare: Moisturizing Cream

I agree with Dilu -- one kind of moisturizing cream is never enough! For some of us gals, anyway.

When I used to live in Wisconsin I had terrible problems with dry skin in the winter -- to the point of tiny but very painful fissures spontaneously opening up in the skin on my hands. My doctor recommended two things:  moisurizing after showering with common kitchen vegetable shortening, and applying superglue to the fissures. I insisted on using a real moisurizer rather than shortening, but the superglue turned out to be a fantastic idea.

In Wisconsin -- a big dairy producing state -- I also learned you could buy "udder cream" that was allegedly a non-toxic cream that dairy farmers would 擦 on the cows' milk-making apparatus to keep it soft and supple (and prevent/ minimize the horrendous dryness and cracking of Wisconsin winters: poor cows!). I suppose it's probably just vegetable shortening!

Posted on: Toothache

True dental story: about 20 years ago I had all four of my wisdom teeth pulled -- right at home in the States -- for $10.

For that grand expenditure, I received:

*Extraction of 4 wisdom teeth 智齿 zhìchǐ

*Local novocaine shots (no nitrous or anesthesia)

*1 blindfold

I had to give the blindfold back when they were done though. That would have been an excellent trophy! (I didn't keep the teeth either -- they were accidentally shattered during removal).

Everything turned out okay in the end and 后来 hòulái they did 开药 kāiyào write me a prescription for some pretty marvelous painkillers. So I'm not complaining since I think I got a pretty awesome story out of it.

Now that I am older and softer and more accustomed to comfort I insist on pain-free dentistry. I "fired" a dentist (i.e, gave him a thorough scolding then left) a few years ago for his and his staff's consistent failure to be gentle during even the simplest of cleaning procedures.

By the way, who doesn't love the word 智齿 zhīchǐ? Interesting that it seems to work out in English and Chinese the same way -- teeth that come in when your wisdom does!

Posted on: Warm Winter Clothes

Just today I was trying to ask a Chinese friend what the pattern is for saying that something is "full of" something else.

我的气垫船里都是鳗鱼。

The lengths I'll go to for a bit of Python....

Posted on: Help Calling a Cab

That makes more sense, especially given that I clearly heard and understood Pete's objection that he prefers to say "shàng cèsuǒ" which did seem an odd thing to say in the pool! I will have to re-tune my English ear! Now excuse me, but I have to go see a man about a horse ....

Posted on: Help Calling a Cab

Ah, but just yesterday I happened to listen to an old QW ("To Do") and Jenny and Connie could barely contain their giggles when they suggested that sometimes 办事 means to "pee in the pool." Would that be specifically only for violating the pool, and not to be politely vague about taking care of (nature's) business more generally?

Posted on: Introducing New Voices

I stand corrected. :-)

Posted on: Introducing New Voices

FWIW we Americans distinguish between "jams" and "jellies" -- though "jelly" means something different to us than it means in Britain (and possibly Oz).

*Jam has chunks of fruit in it. Mostly fruit solids, bound in delicious fruity goo. You cannot see through jam.

*Jelly is jam that had all the solids strained out of it before it set. Often pectin is then added to help it set to a solid-ish state. The view through jelly is unobstructed (which I think is actually the point: it makes for a pretty presentation).

It's my understanding that the British use the word "jelly" to refer to molded gelatin-based sweets, what Americans will usually call "gummies."

Fruit spreads, whether jam or jelly, do not belong on cheese. Though I suppose I have (rarely) seen it on cream cheese based "party spreads." Your mileage may vary, but I'd say the safest route would be to discretely scrape.

Back when I lived in the big city (San Francisco) I used to host "American Thanksgiving for Friends from Abroad" at my apartment. As my own family lived far away I found it a bummer to be alone on the holiday for myself, and figured many of my friends from overseas might have felt isolated themselves. There were no yams, but the rest was pretty traditional.

It was fun to try to make, say for instance Russians, eat pumpkin pie! Something you take for granted if you grew up with it, but seeing it through foreign eyes made me realize it could seem weird. ("It's custard pie. Made with spiced pureed squash. No, really, it's delicious, you have to try it!") I try to remember that before turning my nose up at, erm, "cosmopolitan" foods when I'm abroad. Bring on the scorpion on a stake, I'm game.

But you're free to turn up your nose at jam on cheese. That's just wrong, yo.

Posted on: Introducing New Voices

Question from the US for the international community here.

Which American holiday custom is more alien and bizarre:

a. Black Friday shopping (comes with stampedes and sharp elbows)

b. Eating Thanksgiving casserole of yams and marshmallows (comes with yams and 棉花糖, 'nuff said)?

Posted on: Reserving a Taxi Cab by Telephone

噢, 知道了。谢谢！

Posted on: Losing and Forgetting

jen_not_jenny -- at the risk of enraging a Nebraskan or two, I submit for your consideration the these gentlemen's problems could have been avoided by not going to Nebraska.

I haven't written a song of complaint since like maybe 3 ex-boyfriends ago. More recently been inspired to write poems of complaint. In fact I wrote one about Nebraska after the first time I passed through it. The poem was called "East of Ogallala -- or, the Motel of the Damned."