Niles Dolbeare was listening when NPR's "Political Junkie" show asked the trivia question "Who was the first Asian American elected mayor of a major American city?" The correct answer, as called in: Norman Mineta. (S.F.-centric Dolbeare is questioning the designation of the city to the south as "major," but that's a chauvinistic view of the neighbors.)

A new movie version of Jack Kerouac's iconic "On the Road," to be directed by Walter Salles, is on the way. But long ago, someone else had dreams of turning the novel into a movie.

An undated letter to Marlon Brando, written probably in the late '50s by Kerouac himself, proposed that the actor buy the rights to the book and make a movie of it. The letter, which was unearthed among Brando's papers by an entertainment memorabilia specialist and is duplicated online on the website Collectors Weekly, tells the actor that the writer will compress the plot for the movie, and offers, in particular, to turn several trips into one "from New York to Denver to Frisco to Mexico to New Orleans to New York again." Kerouac, who would play Sal, wants Brando to play Dean, "because Dean (as you know) is no dopey hotrodder but a real intelligent (in fact Jesuit) Irishman."

He ends with his motivation for the project. "I'm bored nowadays and I'm looking around for something to do. ... Writing novels is getting too easy, same with plays."

At Casa Orinda restaurant, Christina Fa heard a woman talking with her friends about rising tuitions at the University of California. "I remember when I went to Cal," she said, "the tuition was $3,500 a year. No, I mean $350 a year. ... I mean $35 a year."

The speaker was born in 1929.

-- Park Station police report from the Haight-Ashbury (eye of the sit/lie storm and my own hood, so I feel free to roll my eyes): "Resident opened her front door electronically thinking that the person who rang the doorbell was her roommate. Ten minutes later she found an intruder, a 31-year-old SF woman, sitting cross-legged as she meditated on the kitchen floor." An officer "escorted the trespasser from the premises."

-- Julie Wilson, who has appeared here at the Plush and Rrazz rooms, is the mother of Holt McCallany, who is the star of FX's new boxing drama, "Lights Out." Friend Bill Lanese calls this "a great career boost for both mother and son," which is really something, as mother is 87 years old.

-- Jim Shock says he can't understand why everyone hates his "short review of '127 Hours': 'A Farewell to Arm.' "

-- Media escort Martha Cullimore accompanied former World Bank President James Wolfensohn, whose new book is "A Global Life," to his World Affairs Council talk last week. Wolfensohn, famous in global circles as an investment banker and philanthropist, told a tale of other talents. (Obviously, a tale he relishes. Googling revealed it's an oft-told tale.)

He began playing the cello at 42, after a conversation with his friend, cellist Jacqueline du Pre, who told him that multiple sclerosis was ending her concert career. He told her she still could teach, and asked to be her first student. She agreed, on the condition that he perform a concert on his 50th birthday.

He did, at Carnegie Hall, and has followed that with concerts on his 60th and 70th birthdays; he's planning another on his 80th in three years.

Wine author and educator Kevin Zraly is hosting a Feb. 10 reception, class and dinner at the cafe of GAP headquarters as a benefit for the St. Anthony Foundation (bit.ly/zraly). "In this fast-paced, action-packed class you will expand your knowledge of wine beyond the fundamentals while enjoying a full scope of varietals," says the description.

Touting the pleasures of wine when so many foundation beneficiaries need help because of over-enjoyment? "For 60 years, St. Anthony's has brought people together, whether that's to eat a meal, volunteer to serve a meal, recover from addictions, or share in their appreciation of food and wine in support of us," said St. Anthony's Shaun Osburn.

Open for business at (415) 777-8426 or e-mail lgarchik@sfchronicle.com, tweets @leahgarchik.

This article appeared on page E - 8 of the San Francisco Chronicle