I'll just chalk it up to the manifold peculiarities of English kitchen appliances. :-)

They didn't make frost-free refrigerators when you moved in? Have you been there since 1948? ;-)

It goes the other way, too. My best friend growing up was extremely Polynesian in appearance, although his father was of Swedish origin and gave him a Swedish name. He ended up marrying someone from the oh-so-Scandinavian upper Midwest, and I've always wondered what her parents' reaction was the first time she brought him home to meet them, and they found out that Eric Lund was a tall, brown Hawaiian guy. :-)

Well, that was very inconsiderate of you to be born with a gaijin name like that. :-P

Or you could always naturalize and pick a new name that you can spell with kanji… ;-)

@kdfrawg It's an interesting watch. It has the 262 kHz quartz movement, which results in a smooth-sweeping second hand, and the design is almost a dead ringer for the Longines Heritage 1935, which is a replica of the watch they supplied to the Czech Air Force prewar.

@kdfrawg It came on a light brown one that really doesn't do it any favors. I swapped it for a black one that came on the cream-dialed chronometer version (and didn't do that one any favors, either), but it's cheap Chinese leather and I'm not thrilled. Can't decide what to put on it. I put the chrono on a vintage brown leather strap, and it transformed the watch.

//

OK, folks, opinion time: which of these watch bands do you think looks better on this watch?

96b230

auburn

vintageblack

The lamb gyros I had at lunch was so good I could plotz.

Nothing wrong with that. Good for you for taking the first step.

It's interesting, and somewhat telling, that a kid born in Japan, with (presumably) Japanese citizenship via his mom, speaking fluent Japanese as his mother tongue, and (I'm guessing here) a Japanese given name, will be seen as "the foreign kid."