Pool = reporter group?

Swimming pool.

What seems witty after a few drinks in a relaxed situation looks very different when set in type as serious copy.

More confused. ?:

How can a pool look (note: not "looks") too embarrassing?

... drinks by the pool....look different(riffs seem different)

its the remarks that look embarassing not the pool

Hi all,

Did you mean "those little riffs look all too embarrassing in cold print"?

Now I've clearly understood what Noddy explained!

Thank you all.

But a question still remains:

I think "sparkle" was of drinks, but the writer said "those riffs seemed have sparkle". The describing got me confused.

It seems that writer wanted to depict that the riffs stirred the drinks to produce sparkle...

Context:
Those little riffs that had seemed to have such sparkle over drinks by the . . . pool look all too embarrassing in cold print(John Richardson)C


I re-write..

Those great thoughts that seemed so wonderful while you were drinking those martinis by the pool turned to out to not so great when actually printed on the page.

The phrase 'over drinks' means 'while drinking' usually alcoholic. He's saying that his view of his writing may have been a little clouded by the drinks he had by the pool. He thought the writing sparkled, was witty and sharp, instead it was nonsense derived in an alcohol fog.

Joe

Thanks Joe, we splash through mud puddles while you clarify the water

Wow, panzade, were you also splashing through the mud puddles with me?
However, Joe has offered us a bridge to reach the destination.

"He thought the writing sparkled, was witty and sharp, instead it was nonsense derived in an alcohol fog", but finally the writing turned out to be "too embarrassing in serious publication"? (I asked this question again, because I didn't get the definition of the word "instead" in the sentence well. If I were you, I'd use "instead of" or "rather than" instead.)

I had blackout in my area today, so I was late.

Ori, Instead and Instead of are very close relatives but are used in different ways.
Do the blackouts happen often?

Not very often. Blackout is a big problem for China at present, however.

The economic explosion must be putting a strain on China's power grids.

Hehe, sounds like a great theory. But as far as I know, the corruption in the leadership of China's national power company is a main reason of the power shortage of China at large.


Today my area is still under blackout. I'm using my small generator to get poor electric power and then log on Internet.

O: I'm sure we are all curious about what it is like to live in China.

I'd like to know what's your favorite place to visit and why do you like to go there?

Maybe I could start a thread: OristarA shares with us.

Okay?

Joe

Good idea, Joe.

OristarA--

I'm looking forward to this thread. I know very little about life in modern China.

Hi Joe and Noddy,

I am afraid it is now not the time to start the big thread.

If you want to take a look at today's China, here are some links for your information:

Some official sites of China:
China Daily:
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/
China Net:
http://www.china.com.cn/english/index.htm
Shanghai:
http://app1.chinadaily.com.cn/star/index.html


Are they biased? Are they fair and square? I don't know for the time being.

Yeah suuuuure Ori! You don't know....heh heh. What we're saying Ori is we want to know what life is like for Joe Schmo...you know...straight scoop...unadorned. But...maybe it's not the right time yet.

You want to know an unadorned China? It is marked by widespread graft and corruption at present. By looking into government refusing Hong Kong democracy, you might understand the gov's hypocrisy.