IllinoisDave

I think any Disney success in Shanghai will be a direct result of how much input they get solicit/receive/accept from Mainlanders. If they're smart, and they usually are, they'll turn over almost all decision making to the people who actually know the intended audience.

CONGRATULATIONS!

no idea Dave, maybe as simple as Jins smile, our body language, strangest thing 1 day AP. they (him) seemed to to concerned about my original "status" on entering the USA, ie did I get green card through marriage to a USC. As I did not not, I guess a easy overcome. Just my guess. All that matters is that it worked out in the end.

Great news!! Congrats.

From possible deportation to welcome letter? What did we miss?

I clicked on the link and a guy in sunglasses and a dark suit showed up at my desk.

It can be done. You just get in line. No numbers called. If you're there when they're not busy you can walk right up. I've found that the times right around lunch tended to be busier. Especially right after as the workers take every second of their break and a lot of folks go up not realizing they're closed from 12 to 1pm.

Don't know the CTA very well. Why not have her take a cab?

There is a rural side of Florida that perhaps you didn't see. Drive an hour from downtown Tampa and you are out in the countryside. Our home is 30 minutes out and in a very park like area yet it is only 5 minutes from major highways. Diving another 30 minutes and you can be in very small town and rural Florida life. Most visitors only see Disney, Kennedy Space Station and the beaches but Florida has a lot to offer in terms of small town and rural life. I do wish the mountains were closer (need to drive to North Georgia) and I wish it was less humid like San Diego. San Diego is probably THE BEST place I have been in terms of climate, but jobs are scarce and the taxes, cost of living and crime levels are so high, our standard of living would be much lower there, than in Florida. And you don't even need to drive an hour. Tampa itself, at least when I lived there, wasn't all that crowded. They rolled up the sidewalks downtown at about 7pm back then. If you wanted a crowd in Tampa you had to go to Ybor City on a weekend or Mons Venus any night. St. Pete and the beaches? Now that's a different story. Depending on the time of year, the tourists, the snowbirds and the retirees could make driving more hazardous than the worst Shanghai streets.

Congrats!

Exactly. Wen knows he's not gonna get anywhere antagonizing the US over the measures being taken to solve this problem. And he knows that at this point we're basically all in this together. One of us goes down, the other goes down.

That wasn't an interview. That was a CNN report about PART of his NEWS CONFERENCE. And he said a whole lot more at that newser, including some of the things that were directly quoted in the written article. Including the fact that he has "high expectations" for the steps the Obama administration is taking. Taken out of context the way you have of course it sounds like a "terrible recrimination." Taken with the other things he said it sounds more like what any national leader in his position would say about what's happening in the US economy. Sorry, but it's not the dire rebuke you make it out to be.

Premier Wen Jiabao's comment: "Of course, we are concerned about the safety of our assets. To be honest, I'm a little bit worried. I would like for you [a Western reporter] to call on the United States to honor its word and stay a credible nation and ensure the safety of Chinese assets." ...is akin to an elegant southern lady's "You poor dear." Or in street speak for the dense ones, "What the F*CK you doin' Obama!" It was definitely not an endorsement of US direction. Of course you conveniently left out the very next sentence: To imply, as you did, that Wen's concern is based solely on what's gone on since the current administration has taken office is purposely deceptive and characteristically partisan.

I think China realizes what most Americans (according to every poll I've seen) except for the die-hard pessimists do. That this administration is doing everything it can to pull us, and by extension the rest of the world, out of this financial mess as fast as is humanly possible given the scope of it. Of course they're worried. We're all worried. But at least China is smart enough to know that it took time to get into it and it's gonna take time to get out of it. And panicking now before any of these measures have had time to work, or not work, isn't going to make their "investments" any more secure or worth any more.

Yep. Amazing is right.

Congrats!!

Who?

CONGRATULATIONS!!

Nice to be able to grin eh? It's almost over. Good luck to both of you.

CONGRATULATIONS!!

Hope it's not as bad as it sounds. Good luck.

CONGRATULATIONS!!

Yeah, most companies like to pay you in sunshine. Lived in Tampa for seven years. Very nice city. Great area if you like beaches and pirates. But eventually the lack of good salary and four actual seasons lured me back to the Heartland.

Eating fruits and veggies is eating healthy and eating healthy means increasing the odds that you and your wife will live long lives TOGETHER. I guarantee this is what is uppermost in her mind.

Cost prohibitive.