[KS] TRAVELLERS' TALES (FEER) Humor of sorts
Frank Tedesco
tedesco at uriel.net
Fri Jul 17 09:56:23 EDT 1998
>Subject: TRAVELLERS' TALES from the Far Eastern Economic Review
>
>> By Nury Vittachi
>> -------------------------------------------------
>> July 16, 1998
>>
>> WHINING AND DINING: They say that apologizing is
>> a deadly serious matter in Japan. It's no joke.
>> A tribunal discovered that a tour guide whose
>> clients continually complained made the ultimate
>> act of self-flagellation--he killed himself.
>>
>> The man, a married civil servant in Nagareyama,
>> was assigned to take city-council members on a
>> junket to Switzerland. First, he was blamed for
>> the design of the aircraft, which did not allow
>> all members of the group to see the in-flight
>> movie. Then he was berated because a connecting
>> bus did not leave soon enough. When they arrived
>> in Geneva, he had to inform the officials that
>> dinner would be served 30 minutes later than
>> announced on the schedule. "The city official
>> was seen kneeling on the ground to apologize to
>> each council member," a report by investigators
>> said.
>>
>> The travellers were still not mollified. So he
>> hanged himself in his hotel room. "Whining drove
>> man to suicide," was the headline in the Asahi
>> Evening News. You can imagine how members of the
>> tour group felt, can't you? Irritated enough to
>> redouble their complaints, probably.
>>
>> -------------------------------------------------
>>
>> BELOW THE BELT: A South Korean man has found
>> that his private parts have become the talk of
>> the country. The problem was a love triangle.
>> The three participants were named Kim, Lee and
>> Park (but then you could probably have guessed
>> that). Kim, a woman of 31, had an affair with
>> Lee, a 41-year-old male whom she met at a
>> noraebang, or karaoke room, in northern Seoul. I
>> heard this from reader Frank Tedesco. But Kim
>> was married to Park, who took the adulterous
>> lovers to court. Lee strenuously denied the
>> charges and said the woman was making it all up.
>>
>> The hearing took a sensational turn when Kim
>> described to the Seoul District Court one or
>> more unique factors about Lee's private parts.
>> His nether regions were officially inspected and
>> the case against him speedily proven.
>>
>> The Seoul public have not been provided with
>> details, so their imaginations have been left to
>> run. Lee is in the rare position of being a male
>> who finds his private parts exciting widespread
>> interest--and is not enjoying a moment of it.
>>
>> -------------------------------------------------
>>
>> A TELLING COMMENT: Passengers on three Garuda
>> Indonesia Airways flights remained calm despite
>> bomb threats, Indonesian airport official
>> Sularjo told Antara news agency. "He said
>> passengers did not panic since they were not
>> informed of the bomb threat," the Jakarta Post
>> said on June 28.
>>
>> -------------------------------------------------
>>
>> THAT'S THE SPIRIT: A ghost has been raising
>> havoc at a house in Sanchaung township, on the
>> outskirts of Rangoon. It allegedly throws
>> stones, smashes cups and glasses, and causes
>> light bulbs to explode. The owner of the
>> apartment has fled. The ghost's activities are
>> taking place at the intersection where, 10 years
>> earlier, anti-government protests descended into
>> violence and bloodshed. Recently, hundreds of
>> people have been gathering at the spot to see if
>> they can sight supernatural activity, Associated
>> Press reports.
>>
>> This raises an interesting challenge for the
>> tough-guy Burmese rulers: How do you silence a
>> noisy and disruptive protester who is already
>> dead?
>>
>> -------------------------------------------------
>>
>> HEADCOUNT: A new father got some complicated
>> news from nurses at a hospital in Hanoi. It's
>> twins . . . well, at least the top bit is. His
>> new baby (or babies), it transpired, had two
>> heads and two hearts but only one body.
>>
>> The lower parts were female, so it was assumed
>> that at least one of the heads would be, too. As
>> for the other, tests might have to be done to
>> find out what sex it is. Presumably they can
>> wait until she/they grow(s) up and see whether
>> head No. 2 will stop the car and ask for
>> directions.
>>
>> The nurse told the Vietnamese press that the
>> father had ordered them not to tell the
>> 27-year-old mother about the new arrival's
>> defects. Of course, it is not impossible that
>> she may notice the extra head all by herself,
>> particularly if she looks at the pictures in a
>> baby-care book. "Hey! This isn't supposed to be
>> here."
>> -------------------------------------------------
>http://www.feer.com/Restricted/98july_16/tales.html
Frank Tedesco, Ph.D.
Occasional lecturer, University of Maryland
Assistant Professor
Sejong University
98 Kunjadong, Kwangjin-gu
Seoul 143-747 KOREA
Tel/fax: 82-2-997-3954
E-mail: tedesco at uriel.net
"Life is a terminal disease, and it's sexually transmitted."
John Cleese, the Buddhist.
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