Perhaps because I’m Chinese, I’m single, I eat out a lot and I also entertain a great deal, friends always ask me what’s my favorite Asian restaurant in Lawrence. My answer, usually, is that I go to all of them because they all have dishes on their “special Chinese menu” that I like. But if…
Never mind that host Steve Harvey mistakenly referred to people from the Philippines as Philippians. The recent brouhaha over the crowning of the wrong Miss Universe is a good time to reflect on other memorable beauty pageants for Filipinos. Pia Alonzo Wurtzbach is not the first Miss Philippines to go on and win the coveted…
Like some women from yesteryear who acquired pretty sets of panties with the days of the week delicately embroidered on them, a couple of months ago I bought a bunch of “Bernie Sanders for President” T-shirts in different colors, one for each day of the week. Although I know Bernie does not really stand a…
Although I had seen the Metropolitan Opera’s energetic new production of Franz Lehar’s THE MERRY WIDOW in its Live-in-HD series in movie theaters last year, I could not bypass the chance to see the same production live onstage this past weekend at the Lyric in Chicago. Instead of Renee Fleming and Nathan Gunn, this time…
I read Ann Patchett’s BEL CANTO shortly after it came out in 2001. The diva in the novel was said to have been inspired by opera star Renee Fleming. So when Fleming announced nearly five years ago that she had optioned the novel for a new opera to premiere at the Lyric in Chicago (music…
Donald Trump’s mother was a Scottish immigrant. To date, he has been married to three lovely ladies, two of whom are East European immigrants. First there was Ivana Zelnickova from Czechoslovakia, who gifted him with three children, one girl and two boys. Then came Marla Maples from Georgia (in the United States, not the one…
When I was applying for a visa to visit the United States in the late 1960s, the many forms I had to fill out were full of questions like, “Are you a communist?” “Have you ever been a communist?” “Are you a homosexual?” “Do you intend to become a homosexual?” Then, in the early 1980s,…
Why do I make sure my house is clean before the cleaning people come? Why do I throw out things in the refrigerator before their expiration date? Why do I brush and floss my teeth before visiting the dental hygienist? Why do I shower and clean every orifice in my body before seeing the doctor?…
For many years now, I’ve wondered why roses no longer smell as sweetly as they used to, that they frequently have no smell at all, so I looked for answers on the internet, and here’s what I learned from my smart phone. There are at least three reasons why, these days, a rose is not…
Somewhat optimistically, we set up 50 seats for the December 3rd staged reading of Flesh, Flash and Frank Harris at the Lawrence Public Library. To my astonishment, as the crowds poured in, we had to add another ten chairs to accommodate everyone. I was thrilled, not for myself, but for the actors, whose wonderful work after…