A FEW RECENT REQUESTS

I now and then respond to requests from viewers.  Let me start with Jessica Fisher:  

https://www.cerebralpalsyguidance.com/cerebral-palsy-lawyer/lawsuit/

They are seeking financial assistance to children who were injured at birth, leading to cerebral palsy.

Totally changing the subject, a friend sent me this clip:  Underwater footage in 3-D....from Fiji and Tonga...wow:

Sure, the above doesn't look like 3D, but click on that link and see some amazing scenes, without those uncomfortable glasses.

The next one is self-explanatory:

Hi there,

My name is Michelle and I’m an English teacher. I’m emailing you because I just came across your page:

http://planetearthandhumanity.blogspot.com/2015/05/are-you-becoming-obsolete.html

I really appreciate your hard work to put together this fantastic list of resources and I strongly believe that your readers will benefit a lot from it.

Actually, I run my own English learning blog and recently published a lesson series on “Common English Idioms”:

https://basicenglishspeaking.com/102-common-english-idioms/

As for this lesson series, there are several points that your readers can take advantage of as listed below.

There are up to 102 lessons of common idioms used in daily life. These lessons can make English learners sound more native.

Each idiom lesson is written with a clear and concise definition.

Each idiom is well illustrated by some example sentences to demonstrate how it is used in context.

High-quality audio recording is also included to help improve your listening and speaking skills. All you need are your ears.

It might make a great addition to your page. :)

Either way, keep up the great work and let me know if there’s anything else I can help you with.

Thanks for your time.

Ms.Michelle Tran
basicenglishspeaking.com

Finally, a resident of 15 Craigside suggested I post on Sessue Hayakawa.  This is Senator S.I. Hayakawa to the left, who was president of San Francisco State University and a member of the U.S. Senate from 1977 to 1983.  I remember him well, for he slept on the floor of the Senate, many times.  Not on the floor, but sitting in his seat.  He is famous for this speech during his campaign for the Senate:

We should keep the Panama Canal.  After all, we stole it fair and square.

After all that, when he became senator, he helped transfer the canal to Panama.  Another bit of info about him:

Hayakawa, who lived in Chicago as a Canadian citizen during World War II and was thus not subject to confinement,^[2] argued that the internment of Japanese Americans was beneficial and that Japanese Americans should not be paid for "fulfilling their obligations" to submit to Executive Order 9066.^[16][19]

But in the Senate he supported the effort of Senators Dan Inouye and Spark Matsunaga on the Commission of Wartime Relocation and Interment of Civilians.

Ah, but about Sessue Hayakawa, (strikingly began to look like S.I. Hayakawa at the end) he was born near Tokyo on 10 June 1886, attempted suicide (actually stabbed himself in the abdomen 30 times) at the age 18, mostly because of not being able to become an officer in the Imperial Japanese Navy because of ruptured eardrum, survived, then left to study political economics at the University Chicago, where he became quarterback of their football team.  He graduated in 1911, and was on his way back home when he found acting in Little Tokyo of Los Angeles.

He changed his name from Kintaro to Sessue, and on the stage starred in Typhoon, which Thomas Ince saw, leading to a silent movie of the same name, becoming an instant star.  Hayakawa's problem was that he was too sexy for Hollywood, and was called the Yellow Peril.  A Japanese, his fans were white women.  He married fellow actress Tsuru Aoki in 1914, and they stayed married until she passed away in 1961.

His second film was The Cheat in 2015 for Cecil B. DeMille, co-starring Francis Ward, where he became this romantic idol.  Clip on that for the entire film, where his name is not shown in the opening credits.  Why?  Yellow Peril.

Among terms thrown out about him were "broodingly handsome."  America's first male sex symbol?  Wow.  He commanded $5,000/week that year.  Because he was Japanese, he ran into problems finding roles with movie companies, so formed his own and produced 23 films, earning $2 million/year from 1916 to 1921.  He did everything, from producing to acting to writing to acting and directing.  In those days when silent film stars had to over-act, he was the first to feature a Zen-style, or muga, by under-acting.

Shortly before Prohibition in 1920 he bought a large supply of liquor and held the wildest parties.  He lost $1 million one night gambling in Monte Carlo.

He left Hollywood in 1922 and for the next 15 years performed in Japanese and European cinema.  He became particularly popular in France.  He was the first non-Caucasian actor to achieve international stardom.

He transitioned well into talkies, his first being Daughter of the Dragon (whole film) in 1931 with Anna May Wong, with Warner Oland.  He was trapped in France during the Second World War, joined the French Resistance,  and supported himself there by selling his watercolor paintings.

He didn't do much until 1949 when Humphrey Bogart found him to play a role in Tokyo Joe.  After all that, he is best remembered for his 1957 role as Colonel Saito in The Bridge on the River Kwai, where earned a nomination for Best Supporting Actor.

Rotten Tomatoes rated his films well:

• Three Came Home (1950)  100
• The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)   95
• The Cheat  89
• and the lowest score of all his rated films--82 for Swiss Family Robinson in 1960

He became an ordained Zen master.  Interestingly enough, he was 5 feet 7 inches tall and weighed 157 pounds, exactly like me today.  He passed away in 1973.

That book to the left, Zen Showed Me the Way, published in 1960, can be purchased from Amazon for $56.  A more recent effort in 2007, Sessue Hayakawa:  Silent Cinema and Transnational Stardom, can also be ordered from Amazon.  This paperback costs $30.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average went up 223 points to 28,005, yet another all-time record, now up more than 20% for the year.  Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross indicated that the trade deal with China will get done.

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