Fiction: Susan Choi's ‘Flashlight'

Susan Choi's 'Flashlight' begins with a disappearance. It is 1978 and Serk Kang is taking a nighttime walk with his 10-year-old daughter, Louisa, on the breakwater near his seaside vacation house on Japan's western coast. Soon after, bystanders find Louisa soaking wet and unconscious on the shore. When she wakes she has no clear memory of what happened. There is no trace of her father.
Serk, who could not swim, is officially declared dead from drowning, and Louisa is thought to have collapsed from shock and struck her head. But good novels rarely opt for the simple explanation when a complicated one is possible, so 'Flashlight' travels both back and far ahead in time to peel away at the mystery of Serk's fate.
That mystery is satisfyingly layered, and Ms. Choi's excavations yield some of their richest material in answering the seemingly basic question: Who is Serk? Born and raised in Japan, Serk grew up believing himself to be a fully Japanese boy named Hiroshi. But when World War II ended, and with it Japanese imperial rule, his parents revealed that they are ethnic Koreans and that his given name is Seok.
Lured by propaganda, his family then returned to North Korea, leaving Seok behind, where he was stripped of his citizenship—in 1952 Koreans in Japan were reclassified as resident aliens—and with it his career prospects. He immigrates to the U.S. and takes yet another identity: Serk, an approximate, Anglicized phonetic spelling of Seok, is a made-up name he can no more acclimate to than he can to his life abroad.

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New York Post

2 hours ago

• New York Post

How the New York Order changed pro-wrestling forever

In 2002, Mark Raimondi was waiting for his breakfast in a restaurant in Tokyo. As he waited, the local man serving the food spotted the black hoodie he was wearing, adorned with the logo of the New World Order (nWo), the 1990s movement that revolutionized pro-wrestling, and simply smiled at him. 'He didn't speak English and I can't speak any Japanese, but we were able to connect through memories that meant something to both of us,' he recalls. 9 Pro-wrestlers Kevin Nash, Scott Hall and Hulk Hogan became household names as part of pro-wrestling's New World Order, which became a '90s pop-culture phenomena whose influence transcended far outside the competition ring. WWE via Getty Images In 'Say Hello to the Bad Guys — How Pro-wrestling's New World Order Changed America' (Simon & Schuster), ESPN journalist and former Post writer Raimondi investigates just how the rebel New World Order not only changed the face of professional wrestling but also manage to tap into the national psyche unlike anything before. Advertisement 'The kids, teens, and young adults who grew up watching the nWo from 1996 to 1999 — and there were millions — are now leaders of industry, politicians, writers, producers, entertainers, musicians, and professional athletes, all of whom are helping to shape American culture right now,' he writes 9 Hulk Hogan, arguably the best-known of the New World Order-members. Getty Images In the late 1990s the fierce competition between rival pro-wrestling organizations the World Wrestling Federation (now known as WWE) and World Championship Wresting reached its zenith, as their events went head-to-head on live television and each tried to outdo the other with increasingly spectacular stunts and controversial storylines. Advertisement The resulting surge in popularity and unprecedented mainstream attention was largely down to the emergence of an outrageous new faction in the WCW — the New World Order. Conceived by WCW senior vice president Eric Bischoff, it featured former WWF wrestlers Scott Hall and Kevin Nash and a mysterious 'third man,' later revealed to be another ex-WWF wrestler, the legendary Hulk Hogan. Rebellious and edgier than their counterparts, the New World Order were portrayed as outsiders, a band of unsanctioned invaders intent on taking over the WCW with the key storyline being Hogan 'turning heel' and switching from good guy to one of the baddies. 9 The New World Order singlehandedly reinvigorated professional wrestling and helping to turn it into the multi-billion dollar entertainment machine it is today. Advertisement 'That's where the nWo was born, at the intersection of genuine and phony. Lines became blurred. The antiheroes became the main characters,' says Raimondi. 'And pro wrestling was never the same again.' Nothing was off limits for the nWo. They even used storylines based on Hall's chaotic private life. Advertisement A self-destructive character, he often drove drunk and had totaled eight Cadillacs in just a few years and now it was all part of the act. 'He started stumbling to the ring holding a cocktail cup, acting like he was drunk on television,' adds Raimondi. 'Or maybe he actually was drunk. At that point, it hardly mattered.' The fans lapped it up. 9 Donald Trump raising the hand of Bobby Lashley in victory at Wrestlemania in 2007. Getty Images 'The idea of the antihero being the protagonist wasn't an especially new one in the entertainment industry,' says Raimondi. 'But the nWo hit in such a formative time and was consumed by millions of people every week.' Being in the nWo gave Hulk Hogan's career a much-needed boost, too. When he first left the WWF in 1993, the wrestler's popularity had plummeted, not least because he had admitted to taking steroids. Now though, he was once again in the good graces of the nation's wrestling fans. 'The boos and indifference toward Hulkamania were gone. It was running wild again,' says Raimondi. Advertisement 'All it took was Hogan to be a dastardly son of a bitch for several years before fans wanted to see the old him again.' With their distinctive black and white branding and anti-establishment personas, the impact of then nWo's arrival was so significant that soon the WWF would follow suit. They launched their own Attitude Era, where they enlisted box office names like Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Rock and Triple H to push the boundaries still further with edgier storylines, profanity and even sexualized content. 9 Former pro-wrestler Dwayne Johnson with daughter Simone Johnson, who is also a well-known wrestler. Getty Images For author Raimondi, the burgeoning popularity of wrestling at the time was part of a wider cultural shift in the late '90s, when a wave of pseudo-reality shows like The Jerry Springer Show and The Real World pushed the limit of credulity to great success. Advertisement 'Like wrestling, few really believed everything happening on Springer or Real World was completely on the up-and-up,' he writes. 'Yet, people watched anyway — at a high rate ­— and bought in, to an extent, to their staged realities. 'Almost everyone has been aware for decades that pro wrestling isn't a legitimate sports competition, but Robert Downey Jr. isn't actually Iron Man, either.' 9 Rapper Kendrick Lamar has reference the New World Order in lyrics to songs related to his 'beef' with Drake. AP Wrestling's surge also came at a crucial moment for network television as the expansion of cable meant an increased demand for entertaining and low-cost programming. 'Talk-show guests and reality television contestants came much cheaper than actors,' adds Raimondi. Advertisement 'So did pro wrestlers.' Today, the success of the New World Order and the transformative effect it had on the fortunes of both pro-wrestling organizations continues to permeate all aspects of modern life. President Trump, for instance, hosted an episode of Wrestlemania and once shaved the WWE owner Vince McMahon's head in the ring. More recently, Trump even appointed McMahon's wife Linda, a former CEO of WWE, as the secretary of education. 9 Pres. Trump with Linda McMahon, now US Secretary of Education. REUTERS Advertisement Dwayne Johnson, a former wrestler whose daughter is now in WWE, is now the highest-paid actor in the world and one of most recognizable people on the planet. In music you would be hard pressed to find a hip-hop artist who has never rapped a lyric about pro-wrestling. Kendrick Lamar, for instance, used the line 'sweet chin music,' in his definitive Drake diss track 'Not Like Us,' a reference to the finishing move of WWE Hall of Famer Shawn Michaels. In 2017, meanwhile, influencer Kendall Jenner even rocked an oversized nWo logo shirt at a Michael Kors show during New York fashion week. 'To understand pro wrestling is to understand America itself,' writes Raimondi. 'It's capitalism, it's materialism. It's bombast. A wrestling program is like a TikTok algorithm come to life.' Almost inevitably, the success of nWo and the WCW meant that WWF — the bigger of the two operations — began to eye its competitor and in March 2001 bought out its rival, acquiring all of the organization's assets for $4.2 million. Now, the nWo was living on borrowed time. While Hogan, Hall and Nash briefly rehashed their act in WWF — and new members of the faction came and went — Vince McMahon announced that the New World Order had been disbanded on July 15, 2002, during an episode of 'Raw.' While the nWo was no more, the founders could at least take comfort from the impact they had, both in the wrestling ring and outside it. 'The nWo was more than just a wrestling faction; it was a cultural phenomenon that redefined the landscape of professional wrestling,' adds Raimondi. 9 Author and former ESPN journalist Marc Raimondi. And while Kevin Nash and Hulk Hogan are still here to tell their story, the other founding member, Scott Hall, passed away in March 2022, after he suffered three heart attacks as a result of a blood clot that developed after a hip operation. He was 63. Prior to his death, when Hall was first inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame, he gave a speech explaining what being a member of the New World Order had meant to him. 'Hard work pays off — dreams come true,' he said. 'Bad times don't last. But Bad Guys do.'

Los Angeles Times

a day ago

• Los Angeles Times

The perfect summer corn fritter to welcome you back to downtown L.A. restaurants

Returning to downtown L.A. restaurants after the curfew. The spirituality of red Fanta. 'The most exciting place to eat in the South Bay in recent memory.' And a Crunchwrap Supreme plot twist. I'm Laurie Ochoa, general manager of L.A. Times Food, with this week's Tasting Notes. I was happily eating a light lunch of poached chicken with an array of radishes, tarragon mayonnaise and buttered milk bread toast dusted with sea salt when our friendly and attentive waiter, just four days on the job, walked up holding a plate of sunshine: three beautifully fried corn fritters with flash-fried basil, a wedge of lime and a mound of salt for dipping. There was a dish of chile sauce too, but the corn's sweetness, salt and herbs were all I needed on the day before the official start of summer. I was at chef Giles Clark's Cafe 2001 with the editor of L.A. Times Food, Daniel Hernandez, and every table in the place was filled. The cafe's big brother restaurant, Yess, from chef Junya Yamasaki, was boarded up at the front entrance facing 7th Street — the dinner-only spot closed during the recent downtown L.A. curfew — but we saw activity in the kitchen when we peeked through the glass blocks on the side of the restaurant and were hopeful that Yess would reopen that night. As columnist Jenn Harris wrote this week, the seven-night curfew left downtown L.A. streets empty: 'All along 2nd Street, the windows and doors were hidden behind plywood. ... The frequently bustling Japanese Village Plaza, where shoppers dine at a revolving sushi bar and stop for cheese-filled corn dogs, was desolate.' Now there are tentative signs of recovery. 'Hours after the curfew was lifted Tuesday, downtown started to show signs of coming to life again,' Harris wrote. 'Just before 7 p.m., a line began to form at Daikokuya in Little Tokyo ... known as much for the perpetual wait as it is for its steaming bowls of tonkotsu ramen. It was a hopeful sight.' Yet, as Harris also reported, Kato, the three-time No. 1 restaurant on the L.A. Times 101 list, whose chef, Jon Yao, was named the best chef in California at this week's James Beard Awards, 'was still looking at a 70% drop in reservations for the upcoming week' after the curfew's end. 'The direct impact of the media's portrayal of DTLA being unsafe, which it is not, has impacted Kato,' Ryan Bailey, a partner in the restaurant told Harris. Certainly downtown is frequently portrayed, 'as a sometimes dodgy place to live and work.' But 'despite myriad challenges,' reported real estate specialist Roger Vincent this week, 'downtown L.A. is staging a comeback. ... Occupancy in downtown apartments has remained about 90% for more than a year ... slightly higher than the level before the pandemic. ... In fact, the downtown population has more than tripled since 2000, reflecting a dynamic shift in the city center's character toward a 24-hour lifestyle.' On Tuesday night, I met reporter Stephanie Breijo at Hama Sushi, another Little Tokyo spot where the wait is usually lengthy, and was able to get a spot at the sushi bar by arriving before 6 p.m. The place quickly filled up behind us. Though some were at Hama to support downtown, many came to pay their respects to the memory of recently deceased owner Tsutomu Iyama. Breijo will be reporting on the life and legacy of Iyama in the coming days, but on Tuesday night the longtime staff was on top of its game, serving affordable but excellent sushi, without gimmicks as Iyama intended. Two days later I was at Cafe 2001, which has become one of my favorite — and most useful — restaurants in the city, open all day and into the evening on weekends. In our recent brunch guide, I wrote about Clark's red-wine-poached egg, my partner, John, swears by Clark's caponata, and deputy food editor Betty Hallock loves 'his versions of a quintessential yoshoku icon, the Japanese potato salad ... [sometimes] kabocha pumpkin and puntarelle with blood orange and fermented chiles [or] a verdant pea and potato salad with lemon-y pea tendrils.' But my current favorite Clark dish? Those light and crisp corn fritters. They were the perfect welcome back downtown gift after a tense week of closed restaurants. 'I've ... had customers come in and tell me, 'The American dream doesn't exist anymore.'' That's Evelin Gomez, a juice bar worker at the Carson location of Vallarta Supermarket, speaking with reporter Lauren Ng. Ng checked social media accounts and conducted interviews with people in grocery stores and restaurants founded by immigrants and the children of immigrants about what they are witnessing with the recent Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) enforcement actions in Southern California. The independent-minded Casa Vega owner Christy Vega, who supported Rick Caruso over Karen Bass for mayor in the most recent election, 'has been an outspoken critic of ICE,' Ng wrote. 'I protested in honor of my Mexican immigrant father, Rafael Evaristo Vega, and the very people Casa Vega was built on since 1956,' Vega wrote on Instagram of her attendance at a 'No Kings' protest. 'I will always remember my roots and ALWAYS fight for the voiceless immigrant community.' Some restaurateurs, as Stephanie Breijo reported, have been coordinating grocery handouts and deliveries for those fearing being swept up in ICE raids. 'We understand the feelings that are happening in our community right now, even if we are legal,' said Xochitl Flores-Marcial, a partner in Boyle Heights' X'tiosu with its chef-founders, Felipe and Ignacio Santiago. 'Even if we have documents, that doesn't exempt us from the danger that so many people are facing right now and in our culture.' Meanwhile, assistant food editor Danielle Dorsey, put together a guide to 15 different food fundraisers and events to support those affected by ICE actions. Many are happening this weekend. The young and ambitious staff at Vin Folk — with two alums of Aitor Zabala's Somni leading the team of chef-servers — charmed columnist Jenn Harris during her visits to the Hermosa Beach restaurant created by chefs Kevin de los Santos and Katya Shastova. 'The dining room crackles with the hopeful, earnest energy of a start-up company, ripe with possibility,' she writes in her restaurant review published this week. 'And with food that has all the technique and precision of a tasting menu restaurant with less of the fuss, it is without a doubt the most exciting place to eat in the South Bay in recent memory.' Some of the dishes she highlights: a savory tart that could be 'a love child of mussels in escabeche and pot pie'; headcheese toast, 'a loose interpretation of the patty melt at Langer's Deli'; pritto, 'a take on Taiwanese popcorn chicken'; 'exceptionally tender' beef tongue, 'an homage to Shastova's childhood in rural southern Russia,' and a risotto-style interpretation of Singapore chili crab. Vin Folk is also nurturing a new generation of chefs and restaurateurs: 'Staff are trained in multiple positions, both in and out of the kitchen,' Harris writes. 'Everyone helps with prep, then De los Santos and Shastova [place] members in positions where they may be strongest.' 'We are teaching them,' Shastova tells Harris. 'You go through everything because we believe it's important to learn every single detail of the restaurant if you want to have your own one day.' In her latest Grocery Goblin dispatch, correspondent Vanessa Anderson examines why strawberry red Fanta — 'known as Fanta nam daeng, or 'Fanta red water'' — is seen in so many Thai shrines or spirit houses, many of which are set up at local grocery stores and restaurants. 'Much like those on this earthly plane, the way to a spirit's heart is through his or her stomach,' Anderson reports. 'In the past when we would do offerings to ghosts, it would be an offering of blood,' Pip Paganelli at Thai dessert shop Banh Kanom Thai, tells Anderson, who concludes that 'the bubbly strawberry nectar has since replaced animal sacrifice.' Paganelli, Anderson adds, also posits that red Fanta's 'sickly sweetness ... is beloved by ghosts because of just that. Most spirits have a sweet tooth.' The anniversary none of our social media feeds or TV news anchors will let us forget this week is the release 50 years ago of Steven Spielberg's 'eating machine' blockbuster 'Jaws.' But columnist Gustavo Arellano has another anniversary on this mind this week — the debut 20 years ago of Taco Bell's Crunchwrap Supreme. 'The item has become essential for American consumers who like their Mexican food cheap and gimmicky,' he wrote this week, 'which is to say, basically everyone (birria ramen, anybody?)' The plot twist is that Arellano, author of 'Taco USA: How Mexican Food Conquered America,' had never actually eaten a Crunchwrap Supreme until this month. And when he finally did try it? Let's just say it lacked the crunch he was looking for. I'll let you read his column to find out why he prefers the bean-and-cheese burritos and Del Taco. Bonus: Arellano references Jenn Harris' 2015 story and recipe for a homemade Taco Bell Crunchwrap Supreme, to be enjoyed in the comfort of your home, without the 'bad playlists, scratchy paper napkins and fluorescent lighting' of a fast food restaurant. I think hers would have the crunch Arellano seeks.

Epoch Times

a day ago

• Epoch Times

‘Come to the Stable': Blessed Bethlehem

NR | 1h 34m | Drama, Comedy | 1949 Director Henry Koster's breezy film 'Come to the Stable' (1949) draws on writer Clare Boothe Luce's story, believed to be loosely based on the real-life heroism of two nuns, American Benedict Russ and Frenchwoman, Mother Mary Aline Trilles de Warren. Both nuns immersed themselves in charitable work in France during World War II, then left Europe and, against heavy odds, set up America's first Benedictine monastery for women.