What’s New with Wu

In the Hawaii statutes I found one of the best laws ever:

(b) In exercising their power on behalf of the people and in fulfillment of their responsibilities, obligations and service to the people, the legislature, governor, lieutenant governor, executive officers of each department, the chief justice, associate justices, and judges of the appellate, circuit, and district courts may contemplate and reside with the life force and give consideration to the “Aloha Spirit”.

The entire law is here.

Here’s another example — this time a letter from an LA reader attacking my New York provincialism.

In your 9/27/06 Slate article, “A Dumpling Manifesto,” you write, “your best bet [for finding good dumplings] is to seek out tiny shops serving northern-style dumplings…. [They are c]ommon in New York and slowly sprouting up across America…” — as if New York City were the Dumpling Capital of North America, determinedly pushing its culinary influence out into the hinterlands like tendrils of kudzu.

I gather you have never visited the Los Angeles metropolitan area (or, as some call it, the “Queen City of Asia”), specifically Chinatown — the Empress Pavilion, for example — or virtually anywhere in Monterey Park. I suggest you contact Jonathan Gold, food writer for the L.A. Weekly, for some suggestions as to where to find the best dumplings not only in Los Angeles, but in the United States. New York indeed; the provincialism of its inhabitants never ceases to amaze me.

Fair point, though having been to LA I’m not sure New York has a complete monopoly on provincialism.