The Long Lunch

I am a proud descendant of Limahong.

According to my cousin who is our generation’s repository of family history, the Samsons are descended from the sleepy-headed third son of Lim Ah Hong. San being the Chinese word for the number three, and son, the English word for male offspring, what other proof need there be? By the way, Lim Ah Hong was not a dirty pirate as the Spanish propagandists claimed, but a Chinese nobleman who had fallen out of favor with the Ming Dynasty emperor. Rather than continue to suffer the intrigues of his jealous rivals at court, my great-great-…-grandfather chose to take early retirement and struck out on his own to build a new kingdom on the uncivilized island of Luzon.

Legend has it that the original Sam-son wa...

“Never get behind people traveling with infants. I've never seen a stroller collapse in less than 20 minutes. Old people are worse. Their bodies are littered with hidden metal and they never seem to appreciate how little time they have left. Bingo, Asians. They pack light, travel efficiently, and they have a thing for slip on shoes. Gotta love 'em.”

--Ryan Bingham (George Clooney) to Natalie Keener (Anna Kendrick), going through airport security

I enjoyed the movie Up in the Air tremendously, not only because they were firing people one after another and doing it so well (insert evil laugh here), but also because George Clooney was such an expert business traveler. He had gotten it down to a science and breezed through airport hassles li...