i L i n d . n e t

Monday Trivia #1:

This is an old Primo bottle opener that Meda found in one of her thrift shop runs. It is marked “Hawaii T.H.”, placing it prior to Hawaii statehood in 1959.

And it shows a long neck beer bottle with a Primo label.

You can click on the photo for a larger version.

So the trivia question is this: Did Primo ever come in long neck bottles or is this just an example of a stock advertising illustration? By the time I became familiar with Primo, it was in those distinctive stubby bottles. Anybody know about its earlier history?

Monday Trivia #2: Jack Eagle’s obituary appeared yesterday in the Honolulu Advertiser. I knew Eagle as the ex-father-in-law of Charles Chidiac, the free spending Lebanese businessman behind Palace Development Corporation. Chidiac spent more than $40 million of other people’s money while pushing his Hawaiian Riviera Resort proposed for an undeveloped section of Kau on the Big Island in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Chidiac, part of an influential Lebanese family, came to Hawaii to go to college and married Eagle’s daughter. Chidiac is also a former international arms dealer who was an unindicted coconspirator in the Banca Nazionale del Lavoro scandal and later turned FBI informant in the investigation of the Asian fundraising scandal during the Clinton era that led to the convictions of former Hawaii residents and political players Nora and Gene Lum.

Whether the Hawaiian Riveira was a scam or simply another development done in by too much state regulation is open to interpretation. Chidiac claimed he was shaken down by state officials, but given Chidiac’s background, anything is possible.
Monday trivia #3: What is this bug?

We’ve been attacked by these bugs, whatever they are.

They are perhaps a half-inch long. They do fly, but spend most of their time just sitting on walls and ceilings.

What are they and how do we get rid of them?

Help!

One bill I’m very sorry to see up for final approval is HB2730, now in a conference draft and awaiting final votes in both House and Senate. It carves out new sunshine law exemptions applicable only to neighborhood boards. But it’s obvious that once you begin exemptions for one type of agency, others (like the county councils) are sure to be right there in line asking for their own special conditions.

Some provisions, such as allowing board members to attend meetings of other groups or public information meetings, aren’t bad and should be generally applicable.

But the Office of Information Practices rightly warned that another provision to allow matters to be discussed that are not on the posted meeting  agenda could–I would say will–be misused to raise issues and discuss matters without proper notice. That’s a bad precedent, even if some board members think it will be beneficial. This could allow proponents on one side of an issue to preemptively influence the board without the other side being able to respond. It’s very hard to ignore or erase the effects of such discussions even if no votes are allowed until later.

I would have hoped that this Legislature would not water down the sunshine law, but that’s what they are about to do.