I was watching Muppets Season 3 last night, the Loretta Lynn episode (very meta, before meta was cool and then not cool and then cool again). For broadband: here's the best song of the ep on YouTube.

Anyway, Loretta's done a lot of living in her many years, I wondered if she even remembered appearing on the Muppets. That something so momentous as appearing on the Muppets could go forgotten signals a life well lived, in my opinion. So going through the official Mango Haiku oversharing box this morning I was pleased to remember a somewhat painful experience from my past (I had a sprained ankle). I made a brief appearance in the Chinese-made movie called (I think) "Young Monks of the Shaolin."

"Young Monks" was made in 1994, pre-digital.




I'm most comfortable in cultureas that don't worry overmuch about children carrying large knives.




This is the signature "young monk" move -- the two-fingered power lift (aka "bamboo rat with heartache eats bag of Oreos in the evening light.")





Myself and a small herd of foreigners charged the young monks, festooned in cameras, and picked them up, hugged them, and asked if we could buy one. The young monks, unaware of this, were mighty confused the first time we did it.




The movie was shot in a temple in Chengdu, Sichuan where they recently had  earthquake disaster.






This actress gathered her foreigners at the "Traffic Hotel" in Chungdu. I had just come back from hiking Tiger Leaping Gorge and wanted to rest. She got to me by saying "J'taime, j'taime", but if you got anywhere near her she would say "F**k you!"