010. Prince Thomas (El Príncipe Tomás) There was [once] a king with a son who recently turned fourteen years old, and both were in [had] the habit of going to the gardens of an abandoned palace every afternoon. There was a beautiful fountain in those gardens where they both used to sit for a long…
SUP 08/20/2022 – Bon Air Landing Park, Greenbrae CA
Since I did not want to brave the wind and waves in the bay for this week (or any week for that matter), I decided to paddle in protected waters, and Corte Madera Creek seemed like a good option for my purpose. Bon Air Landing is a public park in Greenbrae that allows for direct…
Fáng wēi dù jiàn (防微杜漸 – 防微杜渐)
防微杜漸 (Fáng wēi dù jiàn) – Lit. to nip at the bud Explanation: Preventing an undesirable event or thing when it first appears, putting an end to its development. This idiom originated from the “Book of Later Han – Biography of Ding Hong (丁鴻)”, [in which it said]: Like carefully correcting one’s governing and reproaching…
009. The Lavender Flower
009. The Lavender Flower (La Flor Del Cantueso) Once upon a time there was a widower who had a very beautiful daughter whom he adored. He loved her so much that, to avoid upsetting her, he never thought of remarrying so that he wouldn’t have to give his daughter a stepmother. Very close to the…
Fǎn lǎo huán tóng (返老還童 – 返老还童)
返老還童 (Fǎn lǎo huán tóng) (1) to recover one’s youthful vigor (2) to feel rejuvenated (idiom) (3) lit. to stop being old and becoming young again The idiom “Recovering One’s Youthful Vigor” originally meant someone [who was] advanced in age returning to his youthful days; but now, it describes someone [who is] advanced in age…
SUP – 08/06/2022 – Gallinas Creek to China Camp State Park, San Rafael CA
I worked in San Rafael for two and a half years after graduating from UC Berkeley in 2013. It was my first job, the salary was so-so, but the learning environment was great. Here was where I would spend much of my time with interesting colleagues and projects. And at the end of the day,…
008. Little Asparagus
008. Little Asparagus (Periquillo) [Note: per the Spanish dictionary https://dle.rae.es/periquillo, Periquillo is a type of candy made of sugar; it is also the diminutive form of “perico”, which can be a parakeet (animal), toupee (headdress), asparagus (vegetable), urinal (toilet). In our context, Periquillo most likely means “Little Asparagus” for how small and thin the child…
È guàn mǎn yíng (惡貫滿盈 – 恶贯满盈)
惡貫滿盈 (È guàn mǎn yíng) (1) lit. strung through and filled with evil (idiom); filled with extreme evil (2) replete with vice (3) guilty of monstrous crimes (4) sins strung fully [on a string] This idiom comes from “Shang Shu – Taishi” (尚書 – 泰誓, or the Book of Documents – Great Speech / Declarations):…
007. The Anjana’s Pincushion
007. The Anjana’s Pincushion (El Alfiletero De La Anjana) In Cantabria there are witches called anjanas, who have great powers and reward the good and punish the bad. And there is also a kind of witches who only think of doing harm to the people, and [these] are called ojáncanos, because they only have a…
SUP – 2022/07/30 – Windsurfer Beach to Tiburon, Marin County CA
For this day, after eating my, what else, steel-cut oats together with two bananas for breakfast, I started out a bit after 8am and headed for Redmillard Park near San Quentin State Prison and the Larkspur Ferry Terminal. It was street parking for this paddle, on Sir Francis Drake Blvd just east of the park….