|
|
|
|
Yesterday was Friday the 13th, and someone set us up the bomb. The bad luck day lived up to its reputation, at least here in our household.I couldn't find my camera to take on the early morning walk, and determined later in the morning that it had been stolen sometime on Friday. It was probably my own fault. I left it on a shelf in the garage Friday morning, intending to take it into town with me to photograph the UHPA demonstration, but forgot it as we left the house. When we got back home evening, the camera wasn't where I expected to find it, but I initially chalked it up to my own bad memory. No such luck. Nowhere to be found.
Then, mid-afternoon, strike two. Our Macintosh G4 crashes and won't restart. The dreaded question mark appears, which would have been bad enough, but it won't boot from the cd drive, indicating the problem is something other than a bad system file on the startup disk. Not good news.
But it's Friday the 13th. It gets worse. Strike three. All my tax return data, carefully entered and due for completion this weekend, is on that computer. No current backup. But, after all, it's Friday the 13th.
At the end of the day, following dinner and a bottle of wine, I collapsed in front of the television to vacate my mind of rational thought. Lindsey, who's been hanging around the house much more recently, strolled right over, rubbed lightly across my leg, then casually turned away, raised his tail, and...well, you cat people know what followed. Perfect.
Everything is bound to improve today. Sure it is.
Good Friday. A state holiday in Hawaii. Schools are closed, along with other state and local government agencies. So no picket lines today.
I thought this sign at yesterday afternoon's rally at the state capitol said it all. The governor probably doesn't care, but history will. What a sad legacy, Ben.
Yesterday's entry about the Hawaii Publishers Association competition drew a lot of comments. Several people noted an unintended consequence of the Advertiser's absence is the potential impact on the high school journalism competition which benefits from the funds raised through entry fees. No entry fees and fewer luncheon guests translates into fewer funds towards this important student activity. Of course, Gannett may contribute directly to offset its refusal to participate. I hope so.I'm told more telephone lines have now been installed in the Star-Bulletin newsroom, to the relief of all.
If at first you don't succeed...run away!A year ago, despite the turmoil of potential closing, the Star-Bulletin swept the annual competition sponsored by the Hawaii Publishers Association, grabbing top awards in ten categories, after which Jim Kelly, then Gannett/Advertiser Managing Editor, reportedly hurled one of their awards into the trash while telling staffers, "here's what we think of second place!"
This year, they didn't take part at all, choosing instead to boycott the entire competition. The Advertiser submitted no entries, and didn't show up at the awards gathering yesterday. Even Gannett/Advertiser executive Dennis Francis, president of the publishers' group this year, failed to show.
I was told Advertiser staffers didn't know their work wouldn't be entered in the competition and were surprised by the disclosure.
Comments one S-B staffer: "nice little message from management for the morale of the troops, eh?"
Meanwhile, the Star-Bulletin took the top awards yesterday in nine categories and over 20 awards overall. Expect a story in today's paper. Of course, these awards were earned by the "old" Star-Bulletin, and it will be another year before we find out whether the new operation will be able to follow suit.
I spent a while yesterday visiting several picket lines set up by striking University of Hawaii faculty along University Avenue, and found faculty generally in good spirits and convinced that their action is necessary in order to save the university system from disaster.
Faculty on the picket lines are now worried that saving the semester becomes more difficult each day the strike goes on, and time could run out as early as next week. The problem is that logistics of rescheduling enough classroom hours to meet legal requirements for granting credit is difficult, and a scheduled summer session keeps the semester from being extended indefinitely.
Students are already circulating information about a potential lawsuit to recover tuition from the state if the semester is lost, but students who will be prevented from graduating, or who lose out on entry to law school, graduate school, or other opportunities could have additional claims. This is uncharted territory for the university system and for the state, and its unclear whether elected officials understand the severity of the situation.
Faculty note that their salary demand is quite modest, aimed simply at keeping even with the rise in the cost of living, but the state's offer even lags behind that goal.
Click here for other pics
from the picket lines
Although the two sides are talking about an increase of 9-11 percent over a two-year contract, there have already been two years with no increases since the last contract expired in 1999, and any gains this time around have to be averaged over that four year period to be meaningful. Even if the state accepts the faculty union proposal, it means UH salaries will continue to fall even further behind those of comparable institutions on the mainland.Somehow our education governor manages to understand the concept of competition for talent and the need to pay competitive salaries when it comes to hiring a football coach or a university president, but refuses to extend that to the faculty, which are the guts of the university. The University of Hawaii could remain an outstanding place of learning without a football team, and even without a president, but without a faculty it is nothing.
Our early morning walks are a bit of a strange experience these days. They are a daily exercise routine merged into a form of walking meditation. Each day the route is the same, but small changes in light, color, smell, ocean currents, waves, tides, and both people and animals we pass give the moment a particular personality.
And now, midway through the experience, as we walk along the sandy shoreline with the sun just breaking the horizon, social reality intrudes as we pass the early shift of teachers on the Kaaawa Elementary School picket line, which brings a whole different energy and requires a response from us.
Yesterday's crew included this humorous message. "Marry me," her sign reads, "so I can afford to teach."
Kaaawa School,
Tuesday, April 10
And the newspaper war continues.
If you rely on Starbulletin.com, you most likely missed this little story, reprinted at right, that appeared in the print version of the paper on Monday.
I guess that things are a bit heated out on the streets, hotter than most of us are aware of.
But I wonder--Is there really a Honolulu Newspaper Agency? There used to be the Hawaii Newspaper Agency, which was the operating entity of the joint operating agreement that was dissolved on March 14 with the sale of the Star-Bulletin.
But even before the March 14 sale, the HNA name was being removed from all the company vehicles and replaced with Honolulu Advertiser labels, since the Advertiser was set to be the surviving entity. HNA, according to the plan, was to disappear as part of the closing of the Star-Bulletin deal.
[The story was quietly corrected later in the online edition.]
Star-Bulletin papers allegedly stolen from kids
...Police are investigating the alleged theft of newspapers from two street vendors yesterday.
...The street vendors, both minors, were selling copies of the Honolulu Star-Bulletin and Honolulu Advertiser when a district manager from the Honolulu Newspaper Agency informed them they could not sell both newspapers and confiscated their copies of the Star-Bulletin, said Brian Borges, single-copy sales manager for the Star-Bulletin.
...Borges said he retrieved the newspapers from the HNA later yesterday and filed a police report accusing an HNA district manager of fourth-degree theft, a misdemeanor.
...Reached at home last night, the manager said the incident was "just a misunderstanding."
...He declined further comment.
[Police/Fire, Honolulu Star-Bulletin, Monday, April 9, 2001.]
A note from Maui:In the Kihei area, the Star-Bulletin continues to be available in a timely manner at the vending boxes in front of Longs and across the street at Star Market. Foodland and the new Kihei Safeway also seem to have an adequate supply at their courtesy counters. This was the case before March 15 and it seems to have continued with no addition or deletion of available outlets. I've not yet attempted to subscribe to the new SB, so I don't know if it's available, but I voraciously consume all local media here (neighborhood weeklies, the local daily) and have seen no promotion on the availability of the new paper. I continue to receive the Advertiser on Sunday only and the price has not been reduced...it's always been rather expensive, I think $35 for 3 months of Sundays, and that hasn't changed. As you may know, the Maui News has significantly beefed up their paper in recent months, adding a Saturday edition on March 10 (just prior to the new SB debuting). This week they are featuring a 5 part "investigative" series on the traffic situation on Maui...the first time I can recall such a multipart effort in the 5 years I've subscribed. I'm taking a wait-and-see on subscribing to the Sunday SB. I'm still reading the SB daily on-line, and I've been a little disappointed on their editorial stance, particularly Halloran's inexcusable treatment of a letter-to-the-editor from a local high school student back on the 2nd day of publication of the new SB.
It's a windy and wet morning in Kaaawa, Day 6 of the statewide education strike.
Meda reports that police were out in force at the University of Hawaii yesterday, actively harassing picketers at several locations.
Whether this strike will be settled soon, before UH students lose their whole semester, depends on whether Gov. Cayetano lives up to his reputation for being vindictive or chooses to craft a solution in the public interest.
Kaaawa, Monday, April 9
Last week's return of the old "Honolulu Star-Bulletin" banner to the new paper's front page was accompanied by the disappearance of the morning-afternoon edition designations. One diary reader sees this as an attempt to deceive readers:I think they have done this to mislead the consumer. Remember, they do not put afternoon papers in the racks! But, consumers are used to having the Star Bulletin in the rack in the afternoon. You see, David Black is trying to get consumers to pick up a Bulletin in the afternoon (having them think it is an afternoon paper when it is not) and getting credit on the count.Of course, selling morning papers throughout the day is exactly what Gannett's Advertiser has done for years, and with much success. So it shouldn't be a surprise to see the Star-Bulletin following suit, now that it is in a position to produce a competitive morning paper.
S-B staffers say "morning edition" was dropped from the first edition, which is delivered to street racks and to the neighbor islands. A second edition is printed later in the morning, and is delivered to some homes on Oahu, while the third edition with a "night final" designation emerges after noon with the day's final stock prices and any news updates and is used for most home deliveries.
The Star-Bulletin is now being viewed as an "all day" edition, just as the Advertiser now describes itself.
One S-B staffer reports he finally succeeded yesterday in getting a paper actually delivered to his home! A major milestone. Does this mean delivery problems are finally getting solved?
And just two weeks ago, Star-Bulletin editorial director Richard Halloran wrote that his position as a director of a Hawaiian Electric Industries subsidiary for several years did not create a conflict of interest because he had recused himself from writing editorials about the Waahila power line controversy. But yesterday Halloran, who has resigned from the board of HEI Power, penned another jab at power line opponents in his own "editor's scratchpad". So much for staying out of this conflict situation and safely away from the appearance of a conflict of interest.
And a happy birthday greeting to my sister, Bonnie! Your card is on the way, really!
Oh, also add my apologies for getting this up a bit late today. I thought I had uploaded it before the walk, but it turns out cat feeding and coffee making distracted me, and it just went up at 7:30 a.m.
Yesterday was a replay of last weekend in the dueling Sunday editions. The Star-Bulletin had a respectable product, while Gannett's Advertiser was again extra thick, filled with advertising, and lots of copy. Gannett still has a lock on real estate advertising, and a vast lead in classifieds.There was also a delay in getting the Star-Bulletin edition online. It wasn't available until sometime overnight.
Pacific Business News seems to be doing the best reporting on the newspaper war. Debbie Sokei reports this week that Gannett's Advertiser retains a 2-1 margin in the share of overall advertising, although the ratio varies from day to day. PBN analyzed ads in the print editions of both papers during the March 15-April 3 period.
Into the week of March 19, the Bulletin's volume dipped below eight ad pages daily while the Advertiser maintained between 15 and 23 pages. On the next large day for the Bulletin -- Friday, March 23 -- a jump to about 21 pages still was less than half of the Advertiser's nearly 50 pages. The next day, Bulletin ads declined to just under 4 paid ad pages, while the Advertiser had more than four times the volume -- 17 pages -- for its Saturday edition, one of the slower ad days in the weekly cycle. That day, the Bulletin's house ads -- nearly three ad pages -- came close to its total paid volume.But Sokei notes:
While the Bulletin may have a smaller ad share, it also has a smaller infrastructure to support with advertising revenue. The Advertiser has more than 900 employees in its administration, editorial, advertising and circulation department. The Bulletin/MidWeek staff totals 425, with 102 committed to Bulletin editorial, 10 to MidWeek editorial and the remainder serving circulation, advertising and administrative functions.Startup woes continue at the Star-Bulletin. The latest is that staff medical insurance didn't kick in as scheduled on April 1, and so staffers have had to pay their full medical bills while waiting reimbursement from the company. Of course, medical insurance is required by the state as well as by the Guild contract, so there shouldn't be any questions about ultimate responsibility for these bills. In the meantime, its an added irritation.
One staffer commented to me, though, that many problems have been exaggerated.
for instance: from time to time, no characters appear when one is typing. the monitor display isn't refreshing. you show someone that if they double-click the title bar to close the window, then double-click it again to reopen it, all is well. it is a simple workaround, the kind familiar to computer-comfortable people. the reaction? "well, i can't work under these conditions."there you have it. for some, the problems are easy to deal with. for others, the problems are insurmountable.
I decided to archive these entries weekly rather than every two weeks in order to reduce the file size and allow this main page to load faster. From now on, I'll make the switch each Sunday. You can find last week by just clicking "Previous week" or choosing "Archive" at the top of the page.
George Steele surprised me last night by taking one of the photos of Silverman and transforming it into a sepia toned image. But the toning destroyed the impact of Silverman's blue eyes, so I simply layered the color version of his eyes over George's version and here's the result.
Another surprise this morning was this email from a former Star-Bulletin reporter:i don't know what possessed me, but at 1:30 a.m. today i awoke, went to altavista.com, found your web site and started reading ˜ jumping from april 2001, to march 2000, to september 1999, and finally to anonymous letter (before i leave to go back to sleep at 4:12 a.m.), but i wanted to write and thank you most sincerely for what i can look forward to reading from front to back; i guess i didn't read your site before for the same reason i started "bury my heart at wounded knee" and then stopped, because it was/would be too painful; having put off reading your journal, notwithstanding, i have empathized from the beginning with the travail ˜ and saluted the courage ˜ of my former coworkersAnother S-B staffer says delivery problems haven't been banished yet.
Bulletin: Hello, this is the Star-Bulletin. We're calling to see if you're getting your newspaper.
Wife: No, not yet.
Bulletin: None at all?
Wife: No, we haven't gotten any papers since the takeover.
Bulletin: SINCE THE 15TH?!!!
Wife: But my husband works for the Star-Bulletin, so we know.
Bulletin: Yes, I noticed that over here.
Bulletin: But you haven't received ANY papers yet?!!!
Wife: No, none at all.
Bulletin: OK, thanks. Good-bye.At least they're calling to check, but the guy could have added something about getting it corrected quickly. And no, we didn't get a paper today.
The season is definitely changing. The sun now rises at 6:18, which means we don't have quite enough time to get down to the beach before sunrise when we leave the house at 6.
I noticed this week that the crabs have gone into homemaking mode, with fresh holes tunneled into the sand all along the beach. Pretty soon, it's party-all-night time for the crab families living on the beach.
Search this site,
courtesy of the folks at Atomz.com
Since November 2, 1999
\*/.
