Weekly Horribilus

Peter Wu & Others

20 April 2013

Peter Wu: I am no wordsmith unlike you , Bob.

I learned that word horribilus from the Queen when she gave a speech 1992.

Somehow, the word just got stuck in my brain since because as you said, you can safely guess what it means without knowing Latin. So all credit goes to the Queen.

I love to hear your speech. Pls post it on Youtube.

Danny Li: Good news. Boston police just nabbed the 19 year old suspect alive!

Peter Wu: Not to mention of the complete defeat of the gun control proposed reform in the Senate.

Asking the Yanks to reform gun control is like asking them not to drink Coca Cola  , a complete impossibility.

Bob Choi: "Horribilis" is new to me, but it's the kind of words that one would know its meaning the first time around. I looked it up just to make sure that it means what it seems to mean, and it's right on. I can't think of a better way to describe what took place in the US for the past week. Thanks, Peter for introducing this gem to us.

Let's hope that this weekly horribilus will not turn into annus horribilis.

Before you jump to any conclusions guys, please note that "annus" is not what it sounds...

The moment I hit the "enter" key on the keyboard, I realized I had made an insensitive reference in my last posting. There is nothing funny about what happened in the US in the past week. What I wrote was in bad taste. If I have offended anyone, please accept my apologies.

Danny Li: You probably have heard the Boston Marathon bombing updates on the news.

I just talked over the phone with my Goddaughter's mother, Danielle who is a MIT Senior Dean. Her husband, Tom Ashbrook hosts "On Point" at the NPR station, WBUR-Boston. They lived in Hong Kong in the late 1970s. Tom taught English at CU and was also a former SCMP journalist while Danielle was my English lecturer at HKU Extramural. They are now residing in Newton-Massachusetts, the neighboring area of Watertown where the Boston Manhunt of the Marathon bombing suspect "White hat" is taking place right now. Danielle told me that she is safe at home however residents were told to stay locked in their homes, stay away from the windows, not to answer doors except to identified police who are searching door to door. Tom has left home working at the radio station. She is very sad as she knows the MIT campus police being killed last night. She couldn't talk too long with me as she was told to open the phone line for the police.

It is not someone else's story anymore when your love ones' lives are in jeopardy. I am praying for their safeties.

What kind of world we are living in?!