choonping tried to get all of us into a game of scrabble ("boys versus girls!") but we pointed out that one usually refrains from playing against julian and jianyi, while choonping got very miffed for being twice slighted, once because it was assumed he would play for the boys, and a second time, and far more injurious, that no one thought to name him as a reason not to play against the boys. in the end we left choonping, jianyi and julian to it while the rest of us watched tanguy. (tanguy was singularly disappointing. perhaps, yen said, it wouldn't seem so stupid if we weren't all asians.) julian won the game, but there was an outcry because they had permitted "la" (the only precedent we could think of being that ophelia said it, although we objected that ejaculations should not count. afterall, said choonping, eyeing the "tad" on the board, if it did he could very well put down "tada!"