"Foreign Influences"

Try explaining the butter on her popcorn . . . The highlight of one Hanoi waitress's first trip abroad - to Bangkok - was the experience of modern cinema. "Two exciting new films were previewed and I would like very much to see them in the near future," she reported with pride. "One was called 'Independence Day,' and the second was 'Coming Soon.'"

And the cabs - they barely swerved! . . . In New York City on a recent visit, Ministry of Planning and Investment officials were enjoying a Sunday stroll down majestic Fifth Avenue, and passed the kingly Plaza Hotel beside Central Park. Suddenly they halted in shock. A group of New York's Finest passed by, straddled on their crowd-handling steeds. The officials looked disappointed. "Can't they afford cars?"

Don't laugh - if you were working in an American factory and saw a few hundred Vietnamese farmers walk by, wouldn't you take a look? . . . Quietly and steadily US Marines and other officials continue to scour the Vietnamese countryside searching for remains of US servicemen who died during wartime. The operation costs tens of millions of dollars per year and involves hundreds of people, along with tons of equipment including trucks and machinery. In a northern province an impressive MIA caravan wound its way along the hills and stopped at a village, as poor and undistinguished as many others. News spread fast in the area, and farmers dropped their implements and ran from their fields. Soon the Americans were surrounded by local villagers, who were…all applying for jobs. Seems they saw the equipment and machinery and figured some foreigners decided to build a factory that day.