Los Angeles Times

choi

(1) Jim Puzzanghera and Don Lee, Commerce Secretary John Bryson faces challenges on jobs, China. LA Times, Jan 3, 2011.
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-bryson-qa-20120103,0,5278347.story

(2) David Carp, Jerry Dimitman Dies at 91; Professor Grew Prized Asian Fruit: Dimitman cultivated some of the state's oldest, largest and rarest exotic Asian fruit trees and sold the fruit at the Alhambra farmers market. LA Times, Jan 3, 2011
http://www.latimes.com/news/obit ... y-dimitman-20120103,0,6710032.story
("Many of his crops, such as lychees, longans, pummelos and mandarins, are available commercially, often from imports, but Dimitman offered ultrafresh, locally grown fruits at a modest price")

Note Clausena lansium
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clausena_lansium
(also known as a wampee; native to southeast Asia)

Taiwan does not have this (at least when I was there, up to 1980s).

(3) Sandra M Jones, Old-Fashioned Wet Shaving Is Back in Style. LA Times, Jan 3, 2011.
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-shaving-20120103,0,6087725.story

Note:
(a) Summary of the report: Men are using straight blade, as well as safety razor (as opposed to electric razor). Wet shaving with safety razor is not new in US. The report focuses on straight razor.
(b) The report mentions China fleetingly, in the last paragraph: "'A barber manufactures what he sells, and we don't have to worry about [our customers] flying to China to get a haircut,' [executive director of the Arkadelphia, Ark, trade group Charles] Kirkpatrick said."

(i) Mr Kirkpatrick is CEO of
(A) Barber International
http://www.barbersinternational.com/
and (B) National Association of Barber Boards of America
http://www.nationalbarberboards.com/
, both of which is located in Arkadelphia.
(ii) "A barber manufactures what he sells." It does not mean a barber makes any goods for sale. What it means is that a barber sells someting--service-- that can not be imported or exported.
(c) For "disposable razor cartridges," see safety razor
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Safety_razor
(section 2 Disposable cartridge razors: The reduced need for handling razor blades was taken a step further by embedding what initially was a pair of narrow blades in a disposable plastic enclosure termed a "cartridge".)

(4) Barbara Demick, Chinese Are up to Speed With Life in the Fast Lane; The rich in nominally communist China bought the most Rolls-Royces in the world last year. They take the cake — a $314,000 one — in luxury spending. LA Times, Jan 2, 2011.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nati ... ina-luxury-20120103,0,863594.story

Quote:

"Companies [of luxury goods] obsessed with China a few years back for its flagrant counterfeiting now see it as their most promising customer, especially at a time when so many other nations are scrimping.

"In fact, the sales figures [Within China] understate Chinese spending because the rich here do much of their shopping abroad to avoid high taxes on luxury items and electronics.

"Expensive simply for the sake of expensive is all the rage. At a trade show on the resort island of Hainan in November, promoters unveiled a gold-plated toilet costing more than $200,000. The recently opened Black Swan Luxury Bakery (that's the English name; it's the Black Swan Art Bakery in Chinese because of the ban on shechi) made headlines with a multitiered, cream-swathed wedding cake in the front window with a $314,000 price tag.

Note:
(a) take the cake
(i) meaning
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/take_the_cake
(ii) origin
http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/take-the-cake.html
(b)
(i) cakewalk
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cakewalk
(dance)
(ii) Cakewalk dance clips. YouTube.com, uploaded by motorthings on Feb 28, 2007 (from http://www.blues-dance.com)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sDnVIeSn_k