There's a little flap going on here in my home town of Huntington, Long Island. The local high school is doing a production of the 1960s movie musical Thoroughly Modern Millie. The movie was a fluffy but harmless romp, with Julie Andrews in the title role and Mary Tyler Moore and Carol Channing in support.

There is, however, a subplot featuring a white slavery ring: sinister Orientals—the IMDb website actually lists them as "Oriental #1" and "Oriental #2," played by Jack Soo and Pat Morita respectively—kidnap young American orphan girls and ship them to Peking. Uh-oh.

That has Long Island's Chinese people up in arms. Activists are planning some kind of protest or demonstration. I know this because Mrs. Derbyshire has been getting calls from one of these activists, trying to enlist her in aid of whatever it is they're planning to do.

I wish them luck. My better half is an intelligent and opinionated person, but far from being an activist. She thinks the whole thing's a bit silly. She has, though, expressed the wish to watch the movie, so I've put it on our Netflix rental list. I shall report back on the consequences, if there are any.