Good Morning, Mr. Simon

A family friend recently gave us a bottle of herbal medicine made from cordyceps. For those who don’t know, cordyceps is a hybrid species that is both a plant and an insect. It is attached to an insect (most likely caterpillar) as a sort of parasite that feed on its host. In time, cordyceps will completely consume its victim (mummification). The process usually takes place in the winter. Eventually, it will transform into a mushroom-like plant in the summer months. People harvest these “mushrooms” and sell them on the market. Cordyceps has many health benefits and is very expensive. 

Easter Week will begin in earnest four days from now on Palm Sunday, when people are given free palm leaves. For Catholics, this is the most important week of the year — much more so than Christmas. Since Easter is always on Sunday, it is not a declared legal holiday in the United States. Good Friday is also not a federal holiday, but it is a state holiday in at least 12 U.S. states. California, where I live, is not one of these states however. As usual, I have prepared a set of Easter trivia questions for all to enjoy. Even if you are not a Christian or do not observe Easter, I hope you will still give the quiz a try. Happy Easter!

According to AP, a government panel estimated the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan cost the country up to $2.3 trillion. That is nearly as much as the GDP of U.K. and Brazil. I know this was a catastrophic event and Japan is an expensive place to live, but the estimate is absurdly high. The conspiracy theorist in me is skeptical of these numbers. The Japanese government surely would want to use this “disaster” card as an excuse to shift blame on the poor economy. It’s very much politics as usual.

It was widely reported yesterday of a lawyer lady who jumped to her death from her apartment’s window (carrying her 10-month-old child). The good news was that the child miraculously escaped serious injuries. While I am usually very sympathetic toward people who commit suicide (because most of them likely suffer from a mental illness), I could not accept any attempt to take the life of another in the process. I know she discussed extensively on her 13-page suicide note how her child’s illness might have been the motivation behind this. But she still had no right to harm this child (who is too young to decide his own life or death). Her act was “evil” and we have to call it as such.    

The week-long celebration of Passover (March 25 to April 2) commemorates one of the most significant events in the Hebrew Bible — the Exodus of the Jews from Egypt. According to the Bible, the Jews were kept as slaves in Egypt until Moses came to free them from slavery with the grace from God. When the Pharaoh refused to let the Jews go, God unleashed the Ten Plagues, which were basically a series of natural disasters — locusts, hail, thunder, darkness, diseases, ect…..I think you know the rest of the story.

Passover also has a connection to the Christian Bible, as The Last Supper was believed to happen either immediately before or during Passover. In honor of this occasion, I have prepared these Passover trivia questions for my Jewish friends to enjoy. Happy holiday!