i L i n d . n e t

Tomorrow will be the eighth anniversary of the slightly premature 1999 announcement of the Star-Bulletin’s closure. If Gannett had its way, the S-B would be only a dim bit of Hawaii media history. Instead, it continues as a thorn in the side of Gannett’s Honolulu Advertiser. How time flies when you’re having fun.

The recent revelations about Democratic fundraiser Norman Hsu are like a time machine back a bit more than a decade, when I wrote one of the first investigative stories on the Hawaii roots of what was later referred to as the Asian fundraising scandal. My first story appeared on September 1, 1995, with others following over the next several months. The reporting moved on, but these stories were way out in front of the crowd.

On Iraq, it’s Orwell time. Failure is success, war is peace. It’s hard to watch the news without yelling at the television.

Also relating to Iraq and the small world file…Ambassador Ryan Crocker was a couple of years behind us at Whitman College. Meda and I graduated in 1969, and he followed in 1971. I don’t think I ever met Crocker. And if I had, I doubt I would admit it today. I don’t know what Crocker majored in, but there was a student of conservative icon Leo Strauss teaching in Political Science who might have had a run at Crocker during that formative period.

I was watching the 5 p.m. local news on KITV yesterday when Dick Allgire aired a story on a woman’s adrenal gland surgery. It didn’t look like a local story, although Allgire gave no indication that it wasn’t his own story. But a quick search showed the story has aired on numerous stations across the country. Here’s one version that aired last week. I’m not even sure where the story was originally produced. But passing this off as a local story and failing to credit the original source deserves a clear thumbs down.

This was the scene yesterday morning when Toby met Tiger for the second time. Well, maybe the third. We were out on our little street just after completing our morning walk. Toby came running to greet us, and Tiger, very excited at seeing a cat, crawled at top speed in his direction. Toby displayed his best rolling greeting, but Tiger was afraid to actually touch him. Toby learned all about kids from our favorite twins, and is now putting that knowledge to use again.