Sunday, September 23, 2007

Simon & Shuster Edition of "The Final Days"

I found what I had been looking for at Kinokuniya! The Simon & Shuster edition of “The Final Days.” Simon & Shuster was the original publisher of “All the President’s Men” and “The Final Days.”

People close to Gerry Ford start preparation of the handover of presidential power should Nixon resign.

Relations among Nixon, Kissinger and Haig are complex. Especially those between the President and the State Secretary are a mixture of admiration and contempt and quite interesting.

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安倍首相が、明日(23日)開かれる次期自民党総裁を選ぶ両院議員総会を欠席するとの発表あり。これはかなりの重病だと思う。

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来月、阪急百貨店と阪神百貨店が持ち株会社「エイチ・ツー・オー・リテイリング」の傘下となる。パリーグの阪急、セリーグの阪神というだけでなく、国道1号線を隔てて向かい会う両デパートが同じグループだなんて。あくまで「上品」な「うめだ阪急」と、そうでもない「阪神百貨店」が同じグループだなんて。阪神タイガースが優勝すると、阪急百貨店でも優勝セールを開催するのだろうか?

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Yesterday (Friday) night, I was talking to a Scottish man for a quite long time over drink. (He gave me a few glasses of Scottish whisky.) We talked (or rather joked) about his fellow Scot, Gordon Brown, similarities and differences of the Japanese and Chinese languages, judo, ideogram, etc., etc. And because of his name, we also talked about Swift Jonathan.

I wonder why I sometimes (or often?) feel easier talking to non-Japanese people, or Asian in general. It is certainly not all about language (he even tried to bring up Japanese words and phrases he knew), but I believe other things are involved too. Perhaps this is because my mindset is far out of the “traditional” bounds of Asian people, whatever “traditional” means here. Or most of my information sources are definitely in non-Japanese. Thus, this feeling of comfortableness and Gordon Brown. I’m not so sure…

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