Posted 2:47 PM by Blah blah

Adding Violet to my reading list. Why all the fascinating people from Europe all of a sudden? She's from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia but in grad school now at the London School of Economics. Sounds sweet and reminds me of my friend Magdalene. Note: another Diaryland writer. Aha!

Japanese Radio

Wow, I just got to speak on Japanese radio! As I talked about here, my college friend Takuro has a friend Momo, who helps book guests at FmPort (79.0 FM), a radio station in Niigata that broadcasts news and entertainment. For their early morning (6:30 am) show, "Morning Gate," they interview someone for a few minutes. Momo-san called me in advance, and they had wanted to ask me about the famous Japanese baseball player Takatsu Shingo and how people felt about him here, but I really don't pay attention to baseball.

Momo called me one minute before I was on the air. I heard the host, Naoko Nozawa, speaking in Japanese in her booming upbeat voice. Then she said hi to me and we began to talk. (She had just returned from studying in Seattle last year, so her English was good.) I talked about two things: 1) The rumor, reported by the London Financial Times, that Matt Groening had said he was running out of funny things to say for The Simpsons and planned to stop the show. It's not true. 2) The part-true, part-rumor this morning in the Los Angeles Times about President Clinton being offered $50 million a year to host his own TV talk show. That was not true, and he did not request a show. But he DID meet with NBC executives on Wednesday to go over some options they were offering. They approached him, not the other way around.

After each little chat, Naoko-san translated to her audience, and then we said bye! HA! Naoko, if you are reading this, a late Happy Birthday to you.