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Taking a break from my recent Europe-themed posts to pose a question that I have pondered for a while:

Whilst I’ve been traveling around this month with different family and friends, I’ve noticed that there are many ways people eat eggs in the morning. I’m not talking about whether eggs are scrambled, poached, fried and whatnot; everyone knows about those differences. No, I noticed that people like to put different things on/with their eggs in the morning.

Salt, pepper, salt and pepper, jam/jelly, ketchup, cheese… I am sure there are many more, but those are just the ones that come to my head first. Personally, I like to put soy sauce on my eggs. I’ve always thought that was normal, but apparently that’s considered weird to non-Chinese heritage folk…?

Question of the Week: What do you like to put on your eggs?

I’ve been following the website Post Secret for quite some time now, but this was the first secret (from this week’s post) that struck a chord with me:

All my life I’ve felt I’ve been caught between the worlds of the East and West. I’m a half-American, half-Chinese girl who spent early childhood in Hong Kong and formative years in Western countries. I speak the language of my home (Cantonese) and am minoring in Mandarin Chinese at university, yet I won the award for highest marks in English at my Australian school and got top grades in my English classes in the US, both in high school and college. I know the ins and outs of both Asian culture and Western culture, from the importance of displaying modesty to bragging about one’s achievements. I go out and have fun with the best of them, yet study hard with the discipline of a person whose parents have repeatedly stressed the importance of studying and education. I have Western friends who perceive me to be more Chinese, Chinese friends who perceive me to be more American, and flip-flopping opinions from both sides of my family in regards to which nationality/culture I “belong” more to.

To some, all of the stuff listed above matters; it’s as though putting people in categories and pigeon holes are matters of life and death. It’s like when it comes to checking off what ethnicity I am in the census: why isn’t there an option to choose more than one race? Can’t I qualify as both on paper when I do mentally and emotionally? Why do I have to choose what I “feel more like,” Chinese or American? How can I pick between two cultures I have grown up in, two families that I have, two parts that make up who I am? None of this should matter, although sometimes, people insist it does. What really matters is that I am me and nothing, no category or description or label, can define what makes me, me.

I feel like I sent this secret in myself.

I am home from my trip to the East Coast! Overall, it was a very enjoyable trip. I visited friends and family and did a lot of sightseeing, as well as shopping. The best part was when I got together with my friends from school and we were all reunited – the last time we’ll be reunited for a year, as I’m going abroad for the year and most of them are going abroad for at least a semester.

Anyway, now that I’m home again, time to return to my regular blog programming. Stephen Colbert interviewed Vampire Weekend on his show in June 2010 and the following interview took place:

Stephen: Can I take you to task for something, for a second?
Everyone: Sure.
Stephen: In one of your songs, you have the lyrics: Who gives a fuck about an oxford comma?
Ezra: Yes.
Stephen: I’m here to tell you, I do. Shall we explain what an oxford comma is to the people?
Ezra: Oh. It’s always a little tough to explain… an oxford comma would be a comma that you’d put before the and or the or, at the end of a list.
Stephen: Red, white, and blue.
Ezra: Exactly.
Stephen: I mean, red comma white comma and blue.
Ezra: Do you really need the comma?
Stephen: Yes, you do need the comma.
Ezra: Why do you need the comma?
Stephen: Because otherwise it’s: red, white and blue. Our flag is not red, white and blue. That’s red and baby blue!
Ezra: There are situations where it’s necessary.
Stephen: All situations. All of them except it’s, like, a law firm. That’s every other— No, listen, have you heard of Strunk and White’s The Elements of Style?
Ezra: Yes.
Stephen: Heard of that? I refer you to… (opens book) page fucking two: In a series of three or more terms with a single conjunction, use a comma after each term. (snaps book shut in Ezra’s face)
Ezra: Yeah, but I mean -
Stephen: Does that sting? That’s E.B. White, you heard of him?
Ezra: Respect to Strunk and White, but it’s just protocol. It’s not— there’s no real reason.
Stephen: Yeah, it’s language. Why don’t you just take all punctuation out, be like the Romans?
Ezra: Sometimes we do.
Stephen: Really?
Ezra: I mean, we’re a band. Y’know? (shrugs)
Stephen: I weep for our nation. But, I do enjoy your music. Will you stick around and do one of your songs that is properly punctuated?
Ezra: We’ll see.
Stephen: All right, we’ll be right back with a performance from Vampire comma Weekend!

I always used to use an Oxford comma, but then when I started taking journalism classes in college I had to stop using it because AP style forbids it. Still, I prefer an Oxford comma over none; it’s what I was taught all throughout school (until college) and I think sentences look neater with one!

Question of the Week: Do you use an Oxford comma?