Tonight we had the good fortune to attend a Chinese New Year celebration. We got together with several couples, and the host couple cooked about a dozen different dishes of delicious Chinese foods and served them to us hot. Oh my goodness, the food was excellent! I think it would be more appropriate if we were celebrating the Year of the Pig or Whale, because that's how I'm feeling right now. (FYI, according to the Chinese calendar, I'm actually a dragon.)
After dinner, we played a game of Balderdash. I won the first round by getting the most people to vote for my made-up answer to this question:
Complete the following Chinese idiom:
You cannot prevent the birds of sorrow from flying overhead, but...
My invented answer was only one word off the correct answer, and I was the only player to guess the real answer correctly. How would you finish the thought? I'll tell you my answer after you tell me yours!
After dinner, we played a game of Balderdash. I won the first round by getting the most people to vote for my made-up answer to this question:
Complete the following Chinese idiom:
You cannot prevent the birds of sorrow from flying overhead, but...
My invented answer was only one word off the correct answer, and I was the only player to guess the real answer correctly. How would you finish the thought? I'll tell you my answer after you tell me yours!
P.S. Happy Birthday to my brother!! Isn't it ironic...when we were growing up, Aaron always requested Chinese food for his b-day dinner, and the rest of us siblings usually turned up our noses at that. But tonight, on Aaron's b-day, I had Chinese food and thought it was to die for! (I never really minded it, but it's not always been my favorite.) Cheers, bro!
7 comments:
Your proverb reminded me of a very real dream I just had during a rare Sunday afternoon nap. In my dream, I somehow roused a flock of seagulls which proceeded to fly overhead and one of them pooped on me. For real. That was my dream.
So, this is how I would finish the proverb:
You cannot prevent the birds of sorrow from flying overhead, but...you should definitely duck for cover.
Thanks for the b-day wishes! We had chinese too - how ironic! And I spoke with Sarah on the phone today and she was busy making ice cream balls dipped in kim-chee (sp?) or something disgusting like that, so I guess she was eating chinese too.
How about this -
"You cannot prevent the birds of sorrow from flying overhead, but you can ride the condor of joyful glee which eats the birds of sorrow."
-ADD
YOU CANNOT PREVENT THE BIRDS OF SORROW FROM FLYING OVERHEAD, BUT DON'T LET THEM CR-- ON YOU.
mom l.
Wow! I am actually making a comment before Gerberta. Unless she has already made it and you have not yet approved it for viewing.
Anyway, to finish the idiom I would say:
...you can blast them out of the sky with a shotgun before they poop on you.
...you can prevent forest fires.
Good guesses. Many of the party guests' ideas followed the "poop theory" as well, but no one thought of shooting or eating them! Nice!
My answer was,
You cannot prevent the birds of sorrow from flying overhead, but you can prevent them from nesting in your garden.
And the real answer:
replace the word "garden" with "hair" in my answer
I'm pretty sure I had heard that somewhere before. Either that, or I'm just very in tune with Chinese philosophy. I should probably credit Uncle Jerry for that.
PS Aaron, it was MOCHI, not kimchee. It's delicious. Come visit and I'll make you some. ;)
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