周瑜和諸葛亮的競爭,是三國中的個小插曲. 最後,周瑜長嘆,認輸了.

書中描述周瑜是個文武雙全的美男子. 他娶了美女小喬. 又是吳國軍方第一把. 也就是說,他是天之驕子,世界上該有的:名,利,外表,內涵,權勢,美妻,他都有了. 幹嘛還跟諸葛亮爭什麼爭呢? 因為”贏”的追求是個無底洞,永遠不會滿足的.

赤壁之戰,周瑜大勝. 但幾次他要殺諸葛亮都沒成. 徣完東風後,諸葛亮飄然而去. 周瑜知道這下不好搞了.

一氣周瑜是諸葛亮巧取南郡,稱周瑜鬥曹:”用計策，損兵馬，費錢糧＂他趁虛而入圖了個現成. 再氣周瑜是有名的”賠了夫人又折兵”. 用美人計不成,反賠了個孫權的妹妹孫尚香.最後,諸葛亮識破周瑜”假途滅虢”計,又大敗瑜於荊州.把周瑜氣到巴丘而亡. 成了三分天下.

周瑜如果誠心聯劉破曹,是有成功的機會的. 但他一心想先吃下劉備,壯大東吳後,再攻曹操. 這策略也不能說是錯了. 畢竟聯軍不如自己一國方便. 何況劉備羽翼未成,乘弱先吃也好. 不幸栽在諸葛亮手下,大計不成. “既生瑜,何生亮”,遺憾而亡.

Casinos are extravagant by necessity. After all, the definite objective of gambling is material. Venetian is the clear biggest among all those glittering monstrosities in Macau (澳门). The 2nd floor simulates Venice: the street, the side-walk restaurants, the blue sky, and, yes, canals, three of them, teeming with Gondola . The fully air-conditioned “outdoor” is huge as a real city. Our pedometer registered more than 10,000 steps when I left the compound, tired legged and confused by the real sky that obviously darkened hours ago.

This Hong Kong’s little brother is now the choice destination for conferences and gambling recreation in Asia, siphoning revenue and visitors away from Las Vegas. Inside the familiar named compounds: Wynn, Sands, MGM, Venetian, the floor designs reflect drastically clientele and gambling pattern. Unlike Vegas casinos that assault visitors upfront with loud forest of slot machines, the gaming areas are buffered by stores, barriers, or short corridors. There are variety of games such as Keno, sport gambling, nor big buffet restaurants. Instead, there are seas of Baccarat tables of various table limits and rule variations. Macau is a Baccarat town.

Baccarat is a curiously simple game that requires no judgment. It is completely a game of chance. The minimum bet for a typical table is 300 MOP (Macau money, about one eighth of a dollar). The “high limit” tables are 2,000 MOP or higher. For several hours’ fun at the minimal table, a gamer needs a thousand dollar’s bankroll. My wallet informed me that it failed to meet this requirement (I only gamble with cash). I watched the crowd in awe: larger sum of money changes hands here than Vegas, per capita!

China ceded Macau to Portugal in 1887. When Britain returned Hong Kong to China by the term of the lease, in 1997, Portugal government also agreed the same two years later. Under the “one Country, two systems” policy, The only things China changed was defense and foreign affairs. For all practical purposes, Macau’s change of sovereignty had no effect on people’s lives.

A friend highly recommended a French restaurant, Robuchon a Galera (法國餐廳), in Lisboa Hotel, so I just showed up without a reservation. Lucky me that someone cancelled and I took a table on the spot. It was an amazing meal: near perfection in almost all regards: foods, wine pairings, plating, timing, service, and ambience. (Of course the company was simply perfect!) I later found that this restaurant has 3 Michelin stars. Lady Luck was with me, just not for the gaming table. For dinner, I tried the Portugese restaurant Gosto (葡軒) at Galaxy casino. The roast suckling was literally finger sucking good and the seafood rice was rich and tasty. By comparison, the Portuguese chicken, a curry dish, became too mild. Bacalhau (Cod fish in Portuguese, 馬介休) is really made of salted dried cod mixed with potato and deep fried. Every household has its own recipe and the one from this restaurant is not bad.

I strolled through the busy alley and visited the famous church ruin (大三巴排坊). The stores and crowd were more interesting than the destination. Then I went to the Taipa old town (官也街) and tried the famous pork-chop sandwich from a glorified street vendor (大利来) near a temple (天后宫). This place makes only 400 French-style buns for pork-chop sandwich everyday (800 during weekends) starting at 2:30pm sharp. They usually sell out within 20 minutes. We got one with a different bun (which they sell all day with unlimited quantity). It was a good sandwich, great if you consider the price of 22MOP (same price for the special bun). I honestly failed to see what can possibly be the big deal about the special bun. Guess I will need to find out next time.

Wow!

Really. Wow. Go get this book and read it. It is that simple. If you are a dog lover, that is an extra bonus.

It entered Oprah’s Book Club in September of 2008 and soon became a bestseller. The story connects three generations of the Sawtelle family. The grandfather started a dog breeding business, probably somewhere in Wisconsin, with about 40 acres of rural land. One of the sons, Gar, stayed to run the family business and the other, Claude, left, but comes back early in the story. Edgar, Gar’s son, is the third generation and practically grew up among dogs.

The Sawtelle dogs, as the grandfather envisioned the new breed, were to be unique, in both breeding methodology and philosophy. He started with seed dogs that matched his imagination. Then the long and tedious process of genetic programming began: culling undesirable traits and enhancing otherwise. By necessity, the Sawtelle family must observe the entire lives of these dogs, and keep meticulous records, since some traits do not show up until late. It also requires vigorous training, else how can one tell the difference between nature and nurture? David Wroblewski portrays those dogs with such vivid characters that he must be a dog lover, even maybe a breeder. The bonding between dogs and human, in the book, is beyond “man’s best friend” by several notches.

The crescendo of the plot was unbearably intense, and getting unreal, and easily ruined, at the end. I made several comments and Kid, good kid, held her tongue and facial expression by not revealing anything. Of course, I “joined the club” and let out a big sigh when I put down the book. Oprah advised not reading the flaps and the publisher dully revised the printing. If you got the wrong copy, heed Oprah’s words.

當年北京一個個黃髮垂髫小女孩們,不但已嫁了一群,幾個還當媽了. 感嘆真的老了. 電郵恭賀這個,閒閒扯出了中國的剩女話題. 這詞指的是越來越多的過了適婚年齡的女性同胞. 諧音的聖女,暗指這些高齡女子,都不好”搞定”,男人望而卻步. 成了娛樂界的熱門談笑話題.

其實,中國不過是跟著個世界模式走罷了. 當然,中國的規模,會比別的”先進”國家大幾倍.

現代都市女性,高薪高學歷,學歷,資歷,工作能力不亞同齡男子. 女孩家心細周到,說寫溝通能力普遍較強.上台一般亮些. 近十年來,她們發現,除了要找個伴侶,她們並不需要個丈夫. 要同時做賢妻良母,還得不輸巾幗,不大容易. 許多決定一個人過日子,簡單些.

中國都市女性結婚的首要原因是”孩子得有個爸”. 西方國家連這都放棄了,她們不婚生子的比率越來越高. 男性的角色和種牛差不多.

剩女是個社會的抉擇. 女性逐漸遠離她們的傳統角色,男性沒有這轉變,所以要求對方不變. 現代社會在經濟上沒有任何要結婚的壓力或誘因. 雙方漸行漸遠,不但剩女多,光棍更多.

光棍和剩女的唯一差別是他們的生育力. 中國女性不願未婚生子. 她們得”找個歸宿”或犧牲母性. 可能既有家庭幸福,又有成功事業嗎? 剩女問題是要既主內又主外壓力下的副產品. 絕大部分的婦女,知道做不到,但不能抉擇,一拖幾年,悔恨光陰不再,就成了剩女了. 其實男性幾千年來早搞清楚了,這是極難事. 他們的解決方案是”討個好老婆顧家.” 只是這招對女流不管用.