Happy New Year

A headline and lead of an article I saw online, with the names redacted:

[Young female celebrity] Rocks Skimpy Bikini in Dubai with [another young female celebrity] and [another yfc or socialite I've never heard of]

Oh, to be on this A-list New Year's vacation! [YFC] is currently in Dubai, where's she set to ring in the New Year ...

No thanks. I'm at home watching the free preview of NGN (Nippon Golden Network), which our cable company offers every New Year's. I had some maki sushi and tempura from Kawamoto's. Later, I'll watch more NGN, and maybe the New Year's celebration from Times Square.

Kinpira

One of our local New Year's traditions is the free preview offered by our cable system of the Nippon Golden Network. This preview of NGN and NGN3 lasts from 30 December through 3 January. This morning I saw Kinpira, about a yakuza boss's daughter who starts a pirate TV broadcast. One of the characters, a hapless yuppie drawn into her scheme, is named Gobo (burdock root in English).