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To me, this photo encapsulates the difference between Japanese and American culture.  This is the inside of a subway car, and you can see several paper ads dangling perilously from the cieling of the car.  As much as the NYC MTA or SF MUNI would like to increase their advertsing revenue, they would never use ads like this because the ads would be torn down and ripped to shreds in a minute.  (New York or SF residents who disagree, please speak up.)

On visits to Tokyo, I've asked several Japanese people if this was ever a problem for the ads pictured here.  Invariably, they looked at me with a confused look (not because they don't speak English, by the way, because these people did) and said, "Why would anyone tear down an ad from the top of the subway car?"  I tried to explain that sometimes, people tear things down just to be destructive.  That usually made the person I was talking to even more confused.  It must be nice to live in a place where the concept of vandalism is so foreign.

In case you haven't heard, the Vice President of the U.S.A. accidentally shot his companion, Harry Whittington, on a recent hunting trip.  I'm not going to rehash the issues that have been covered by thousands of others--the fact that Cheney wasn't properly licensed, that he was silent for such a long time, that Clinton got impeached for a blowjob and Cheney seems to face no formal punishment for irresponsibly endangering someone's life.  What I do want to talk about is Mr. Whittington.

Fortunately, Whittington is alive, walking, and was released from the hospital yesterday. Unfortunately, it seems that he is still suffering some psychological damage from the accident.  While I don't claim to be an expert in mental health I am confident in this assertion because Whittington said he was “deeply sorry for everything Vice President Cheney has had to deal with.”  Am I missing something? Who apologizes for getting shot?  If nothing else, Cheney needs to pay for some heavy psychological counseling for Whittington.  There is clearly a long road between him and sanity if he thinks it's appropriate for him to apologize about anything.

In the 1980's, Peter Lynch coined the term "diworseification" to describe what happens when a business expanded into a new market, service or product line that had nothing to do with its existing operations. (As side note: many people incorrectly think that Lynch used the term "diworseification" to describe the diversification of an individual's investment portfolio.  That is not correct.)  I agree with Lynch's philosophy, which is why I had to share this gem when I saw it.  Man do these people know how to diworseify!  Yuck!