Brain Shuffle, 8/10/08 -- Pan Asian Edition

-- The sodomy charge against Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim may or may not be politically motivated, but one thing's for sure: Somebody's getting screwed in a bad way.

-- Seems like China remembered to ban everything except cyclones leading up to the Olympics.

-- Seriously, though, from the bits and pieces I saw of the opening ceremonies while spending a solid 24 straight hours either in airports or on planes, it was pretty impressive. I still need to see footage of the dancers on the globe; if anyone knows where to find it please email me.

-- It took me about three days to get the pun in Out of the Pan, the name of a French crepe shop in Singapore.

-- We are missing out on a whole new way of thinking about Sudoku on this side of the Pacific. In Asia, the game has a fourth element: Shaded 3x3 grids interlocking with the nine standard 3x3 grids, which also must have each number appearing only once. Somewhat counterintuitively, it actually makes the game easier, because there are more ways to disqualify a given number from a given square.

-- Does anyone know where I can get lime juice in the U.S.?

-- That 14-hour nonstop flight from Hong Kong to Chicago, the longest nonstop in the world, is about as grueling as it sounds, even in business class. When I got off the plane I really felt like I needed to get stretched out, by which I mean have one person take both my arms and another person take both my legs, and pull in opposite directions, for a good long while. But on the bright side, the extreme jet lag I suffered had me watching Olympic coverage at some odd hours, which is the bright side because now I can say from a point of knowledge that the seven-meter penalty really is the most exciting play in all of handball.

-- Look for more postings soon from Singapore! I have a lot of good stuff to say about it.