"Li" "Lee" "Yi" - one of many many Asian names

I performed a little dedication to Buddhism before I wrote this article. I don't want to get jammed because the article is way too happy.

The word "Li" is one of the commonest surnames in East Asia, it has been used for millenia. It's close to the word "Li" meaning "season of the year". The word we're talking about has a dictionary meaning of "plums". Now we have plums out here in America; they are more or less sweet, like melong. The plums in this discussion are like the umeboshi of Japan and the sweet-and-sour plums at the Chinese or Korean grocery. These plums of Asia, especially the umeboshi, are the most insanely sour food known to man. I haven't tasted everything, but I'm not really exaggerating. Maybe on the Simpsons Chili Cook Off episode Homer Simpson ate some "Guatemalan Insanity Peppers"; the umeboshi is at that level. Sometimes ignorant people criticize Japanese cuisine for not having very much chile in it; these plums really give up the lie. One ordinary type of box lunch is just a bunch of boiled rice with a single ume on it.

The agent of sour in this case is citric acid, which makes fruit and vegetables sour. Lemons, limes, tomatoes, pineapple. There is a SuperLemon candy available at the store in Japan, that is manufactured to be as sour as a preserved plum. A student in my English class gave me one; I wasn't exactly paying attention and I sat there motionless for a minute enjoying the citric acid dust on the outside of the candy. My class enjoyed it.

So, what is it? What is so sour? Well in looking at this word, one sees "wood" and one sees "baby". It is vertical, wood over baby. Since the word "wood" looks like a sphincter, one puzzles over the word, trying to understand it reasonably correctly, and one reflects on one's sex life, and one eventually permanently decides that this nice word is a woman crawling around giving birth to a baby. It's a sexy situation.

Reflecting on the question of the word's usage and the question of "Where would a woman crawl around while giving birth?" the next permanent answer is "at a party". The reason one decides that it is a party is that the word so popular of a surname, and is always used in the most cheerful contexts. It is close to the word "season of the year", which in our agrarian past has always had everything to do with life and generation. Women don't usually have babies all on their lonesome.

So, in summary, this word Li is really great, as a conversation topic, especially after work in mixed company; it's a little distracting to one's work as an insurance broker or machine shop foreman to be studying this concept in depth during work hours, but the minute 4 or 5 o'clock rolls around, the beer starts flowing and young adults (and teenagers) turn to the project of building their families.

Nice.

Hello Hollywood. Hello Madonna and Britney.

''''''''''''''''''''''
There are so many songwriters (obviously) who use this name, it is appropriate to discuss its powerful nature here in the blog. It is discussed rather solemnly here because I don't want to have to answer a lot of questions about it here at the blog. Here are some links for further reading:

Susie Bright - sexologist
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Playboy_magazine
Madonna and her book
Lil' Kim
Planned Parenthood
HBO
Cinemax

and

List of Chinese family surnames - rank = 1
List of Korean family names - rank = 2
Vietnamese name - rank = 14
Hundred Family Surnames - 李 is 4th name in this song
List of common surnames in the world - rank = 1
Canada - rank = 1
Singapore - rank = 3
Taiwan - rank = 5


Have a nice day.