Jinja Jinja

A couple months ago, my co-worker's told me about some Korean woman who was upset after the death of her husband, and found herself with no appetite. So she drank coffee. For 10 years. And ate nothing. The doctors checked her out and confirmed this fact, and concluded that she was healthier than most people.

Ok.

I asked a lot of questions, because I'm like that. To start, they were mostly just reiterating the facts as they'd been laid out before me. "Just coffee?" "Yes."

"Only coffee?" "Yes."

"For 10 years?" "Yes."

"Just coffee? Nothing else?" "Oh, she had some sugar in her coffee."

"Ohhhhhhh! Ok! Sugar! Well, that explains it!"

I asked another bunch of questions. Where was this woman? Where did they hear this? Really? Did they believe this? "I don't know. It was in the news. Yes. Yes."

Today, Elizabeth told me about Koreans in America paying 100,000 dollars an hour for tutoring lessons to pass essay tests. I responded with a not-very-polite "BULLSHIT!!" followed by, "Where did you hear this? What state? Where? Who? What?? One hundred thousand dollars? A HUNDRED thousand? Dollars? One zero zero, zero zero zero? An hour? Really?"

I reminded Elizabeth of the coffee drinking lady and how I wouldn't/couldn't believe that story. I told her I need facts. I need details. I need phone numbers I can call to confirm the validity of such crazy-ass stories.

Elizabeth responded by telling me that things, these days, are very expensive. There are teddy bears being sold here in Korea for 5,000,000 won (about $5,000 US.) My eyes rolled so far back into my head I just about lost consciousness.

"Where? Why? What are these bears made of? Gold? Are they huge? Are they robots? Where did you hear this?"

Again, "I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. Ha ha, maybe! It was in the news."

I think maybe my co-workers are reading the Korean equivalent of such trash tabloids as the National Enquirer, The Star, or The Globe, and they believe every word of it! (I had to 'google' those last two tabloid names and I was a bit surprised they share the same name as the two most popular daily Toronto newspapers!)

In a similar vein, of absolutely true but hard to believe news items, my cat has challenged Kevin at the Big Hominid's blog, to a SUMO match. The Big Ho is SO going to get his ass handed to him!