Film-watching is an excellent activity for ailing hands. Someone else tears the ticket for you (you'd be surprised how painful stub-tearing can be) & after that the hands just lie there in your lap, or on the armrests, doing nothing. (Maybe eating popcorn, which the left hand can handle on its own.) So this year I'm even more grateful than usual for the S.F. International Asian American Film Festival.

Last night was especially entertaining as a packed house adored, heckled & laughed at the infamous Frank Chin. Afterwards, I was trying to come up with the right word for him: Firebrand? Idealogue? Curmudgeon? I'm kind of a curmudgeon myself, or at least well on my way to being one. It definitely gives me pause to think I could easily end up being similar to Frank Chin in temperament (rant! rant!), while I could only aspire to being similar to him in accomplishment. Not that I want to pick as many fights & rack up as many enemies as he has, but it might not be so bad to be a Living Icon of Asian American Culture. On second thought, though, that could really drive a person crazy. Nevermind!