well, I just got the news that the actor, Mako, died last Friday, July 21.
You can read the obit in the LA Times:
http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-mako23jul23,0,2606807,print.story?coll=la-home-obituaries
I remember Mako, a little. I met him, 2 or 3 times. Gave him a ride, once, in DC.
First saw him, when he came out from California, to promote a community screening of the film, Hito Hata. He starred in that film, that was the first feature length depiction of the the effects of Japanese American internment.
I seem to recall, that the film was an odd length. The filmmakers, Steve Tatsukawa and Duane Kubo, kept flying from LA to DC to negotiate with PBS to try to get it shown on public television. (You know, I'm not even sure if it was called PBS at the time. I do know that it was the national educational tv network.)
Anyhow, the filmmakers didn't want to edit it down to broadcast hour length (57 min?), so it didn't get on the air. (Not sure if it eventually did.)
I just found out that Money magazine's best (small) places to live has Sugar Land as #3 and Columbia as #4. So how do they compare?
-population
Sugar Land, TX 79,876
Columbia/Ellicott City, MD 96,831
(More folks, so maybe more stuff to do.)
-median household income (per year)
Sugar Land, TX $92,149
Columbia/Ellicott City, MD $79,783
(okay, I guess ex-Congressman Tom DeLay really knew how to funnel the money to his constituents or else Ellicott City antique stores, these days, are selling mostly knockoffs Made in China)
-sales tax
SL, TX 8.25%
C/EC, MD 5.00%
(Hmm, I'll bet lotsa Sugar Landers go shopping outta state or buy online.)
-state income tax rate (highest - lowest bracket)
TX n/a
MD 4.75%-2.00%
(That's got to be one of the main reasons why people would move to a state with such a hot climate.)
-auto insurance premiums (avg. for the state)
SL $2490
C/EC $2,813
(More folks, so more accidents.)
-media home price
SL $214,330
C/EC $329,000
(I'll bet these figures are outta wack. I don't know about prices in SL, but the one for Columbia / Ell. City seems rather low. Can you even find something for 329K?)
-job growth (2000-2005)
SL 30.53%
C/EC 11.58%
(Yipes! Does that SL percentage include jobs for illegals? What're they doin' down there? Must be warehouses full of illegals counting all the money that DeLay has squirreled away.)
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But you know, Sugar Land probably has lots more Asians than Columbia / Ellicott City. In which case, the former would have the edge when it comes to Asian groceries and restaurants. (But if you're Korean, you'd want to live in Ellicott City.)
With Tom DeLay in the news last week, I was going to mention the large percentage of Asians (about 24%) in Sugar Land, TX, contained in Tom DeLay’s Congressional district (TX #22) being a possible swing vote. I remember hearing this mentioned, out of the blue, on C-SPAN radio one morning, a couple months ago. But after a little more digging, I found out that they’re only 9.3% in the whole district. Is that still enough to make a difference?
Another question to ask is whether all Asian groups would vote Democratic. (By the way, the Dem candidate is Nick Lampson, a former Congressman from the Houston area.)
An article in last year’s New Republic magazine suggests that Asian nationality groups differ:
“The Indians are the most Democratic. The Pakistanis used to be Republican, but, along with other American Muslims, turned to the Democrats in the face of anti-Arab and anti-Muslim sentiment after September 11. The Vietnamese and Chinese were also initially Republicans, but have become increasingly receptive to Democratic support for civil rights.” (Judis, 2005)
As for DeLay’s situation, let me recount the recent electoral developments (ignoring the redistricting controversy and Abramoff scandal). After having won the Republican primary, DeLay resigned this past April and said he’d moved to Virginia. The Texas Republican party tried to remove his name from the general election ballot and began the process of selecting a replacement. The Democrats sued and a Federal judge in Austin ruled, last week, that DeLay could withdraw, but his name couldn’t be removed from the ballot. It seems that the ex-congressman couldn’t say where he’d be living on election day (Nov. 6), whether he’d still be living in TX. (He has a house in Sugar Land and his wife still lives there. He also lives in a condo in Virginia.) According to the judge’s ruling, the U.S. constitution takes precedence over state law, for an office like cong’l rep. The Republicans have appealed.
If DeLay’s name couldn’t be removed from the ballot, could he still win and then resign to make way for a replacement, as some local Republicans have suggested:
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/4032454.html
And even if the Democrat wins, given the Republican majority of voters in the district, Lampson stands a good chance of being defeated in the following election. (ibid)
This item just in from NYC:
At a civic meeting in Queens, City council member, John Liu found himself explaining the role of the Asian American public figure in New York city:
Liu... said that as the first Asian-American elected to public
office in New York City he often finds himself in situations that
officials of other races could not fathom. For example, he said,
people from across the city have called his office seeking
recommendations about good Chinese restaurants-not only in Flushing,
or even Queens, but as far away as the Bronx.
(And since he's in New York city, you know that he'd better have a list of the best KOSHER chinese restaurants!)