Catching up on all the stuff I didn’t have time to read while traveling last week.  Some of the items that caught my eye.

NY Times – Alice in Wonderland – The 1933 all-star version of the film is the only one that comes recommended by the real-life Alice.  The cast included Cary Grant, Gary Cooper and W.C. Fields.  I haven’t seen this in 30 or 40 years and curious to see it again; going to see Tim Burton’s new Alice in one week.

New Yorker – Clint Eastwood – Nice career overview from critic David Denby, coinciding with Warner Bros’ release of a 35 disc DVD boxed set with all of the films Eastwood did for the studio.

io9 – Locus Magazine – Locus Magazine’s round-up of the best science fiction writing of 2009.

SCMP notes that Henderson Land has been filling in fish ponds that are zoned as a wetland conservation area as part of a new development project.  They’ll probably get away with it.

Also in SCMP last week, smokers upset over the possible ban of duty free cigarettes.  As a smoker myself, I think the future is inevitable. Sooner or later cigarettes will become completely illegal.  I just wish I could find a method of quitting that worked for me.

And another article on how many bars away from prime areas such as Lan Kwai Fong still tolerate smoking.   It’s an example of yet another flawed law that favors business – smokers are fined but the bar owners and managers are left alone.

New York Times – Book Review – Country Driving: A Journey Through China From Farm to Factory by Peter Hessler.  Hessler was the Beijing correspondent for New Yorker magazine from 2000 to 2007.

The Chinese rarely use turn signals or windshield wipers or seat belts or headlights. They tailgate and honk like mad. “People pass on hills; they pass on turns; they pass in tunnels,” Mr. Hessler writes. “If they get passed themselves, they immediately try to pass the other vehicle back, as if it were a game.”

The Chinese government is little help. Traffic lights are occasionally mistimed, Mr. Hessler notes, showing green in all directions. A left turn lane might be on the far right side of the road. Highway patrols are so rare that officials put fiberglass statues of police officers at some intersections, to function like traffic-calming human scarecrows. Get a dent? Hop out and haggle for an instant settlement.

That’s about all for now.  More later, of course.

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