I have long been on Twitter (yeah that's what I call it) and tried to either sign-on (more than one thing) or try out (Post and Bluesky) multiple alternatives. Bluesky has some potential. My computer doesn't freeze as much when I try to post.
Then again, that's probably because there are so few people on it. Many of the people I follow on Twitter are not there. OTOH, Twitter is not the same these days, including the people who show up on my feed. I linger on and a few people still tweet that keep me interested. Isn't the same. Twitter people need to go to Bluesky. Apparently, it is understood Threads is a bust?
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Yunte Huang is a Chinese immigrant who escaped the problems of China to get an education here and become an English professor. He eventually wrote three books on Charlie Chan, the famous Siamese Twins, and the actress Anna May Wong.
I read the first and third books and the book on Charlie Chan (the real-life Hawaiian detective, the author of the series, and film portrayals) is the best. Anna May Wong is an interesting person but we don't get enough of her personal life and feelings while he overdoes background details. Still worth a look. Maybe I should check the other book, but fear I don't want to read hundreds of pages of the twins.
The Charlie Chan book does not analyze the films too much and barely references the later two (white) actors who played him. Huang does defend to some degree portrayals (including by black actors playing stereotypical characters) now often deemed racist. He again says very little about the later Chans, but generally seems to suggest the Swedish-American actor did a respectful job as far as it goes as compared to his evil Chinese roles.
Trivia: in a 1970s animated series, Jodie Foster plays one of his daughters.
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Odds and ends on the Supreme Court front other than other major Ginni Thomas/Leonard Leo profile. I'm looking for more about the other conservatives, getting a bit tired of Alito and Thomas. There is more to say about them, probably, though Barrett et al. are sensibly being more low-key these days.
There are around twenty executions a year these days and many do not receive a final last-minute Supreme Court review. It looks doubtful Anthony Sanchez will before Oklahoma is due to execute him next week. His main complaint seems to be that he's innocent and is not appropriately being given a chance to prove it. The evidence on that front seems thin.
It is not enough to stop the execution legally, but the best argument from what I can tell is twofold. (1) The crime -- which was heinous -- happened when he was 18. That's inherently mitigating and there is a reasonable argument that people who commit crimes before they are 21 shouldn't be executed.
(2) After over fifteen years in prison, what is the benefit of executing this person, especially above and beyond numerous other people? The act was heinous, but even there, it was a single horrible act, not a repeat offender.
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The Opium Queen by Gabrielle Paluch is a promising book on a genderqueer Burmese bandit queen. The book, however, has a garbled quality, especially as she goes back and forth between current interviews and historical events.
Olive Yang (her Christian name) had a long and interesting life, but the book doesn't tell us enough about it. The author is an expert on the region as suggested by endnotes often in a foreign language. But, this short volume has an unfinished feel to it. Worth a look but disappointed.
