June 11, 2005 - Saturday

I'll start this morning by taking a brief break from family affairs. We've been up early, walked up and down and around this part of Yosemite West, a development of private homes along the southern fringe of the park, caught a view from a vantage point up a long grade from here, and now have settled down with coffee to await the emergence of the rest of the hibernating clan.

Apologies to those who tried to look at the promised larger version of the Thomas Hill entry yesterday. I forgot to include the link, but that's been remedied since.

Another loss for the Star-Bulletin, this time business editor Alan Vaughn, who departs at the end of the month. Staff got the word at the beginning of this week. Vaughn joined the S-B in 2001 as assistant biz editor, then moved to city desk, then moved back to biz editor less than a year ago.

One observer comments: "He did the job well during very tough times. He never lost his cool. I fear that it is going to be really hard to replace him with someone good. The SB business section has been a lackluster disappointment, with more fluff than substance, and Alan has been one of the few bright spots. The last thing the SB needs is another crappy editor."

A reader shared the following tidbit from last night's 6 p.m. news on KHON:

Joe Moore's "Did you know?" at the end of his newscasts has sometimes been pretty ridiculous but tonight he really outdid himself. Did you hear it?

He let us know that ancient Romans used to put a hand on their testicles to swear an oath and that's where the word, testi-mony comes from.

He's right but ....what!

Interesting fare

Meda's sister, Mae, who lives in San Francisco, brought along a few gifts: "Magnetic Personalities", finger puppets and magnets featuring key figures in the Bush administration. Last night we were introduced to the Bush, Cheney, Ashcroft and Rumsfeld figures. There are lots of possibilities inherent in these fine figures. Anyway, according to the attached tags, you should be able to find more info at www.philosophersguild.com.

Previously unread email from the beginning of the week included Ernest Murphy's delightful "Pizza Essay". This is primo reading if you like to cook or to eat, or just have a taste for pizza.

"I was really lucky in that the first pizza I ever ate was in Italy when I was a little kid," Murphy writes. And that experience has shaped his approach to this food group. Lucky for us, Murphy freely shares the result of his years of culinary research. I've been reading and rereading his essay and wishing we were home to try out his approach.

We did finally get out yesterday and drive up the road to Glacier Point. From that vantage point, you've got a panoramic view of the various parts of Yosemite Valley. We went late in the afternoon after the crowds had thinned. Definitely a memorable view!

click for larger version

June 10, 2005 - Friday

We made it to Yosemite yesterday. Somehow the relatively short drive (in miles) from Groveland ended up taking two hours or so. For the driver, it was an exercise in frustration. Meda would utter an exclamation: "Wow, look at that!" as we drove into sight of one or another natural wonder. Driving, eyes more or less on the road, I could just grind my teeth and move on. Traffic was moderate, but the road is tiny, parking at the observation points we passed extremely limited. Grand valley meets mass tourism.

Here's my jaded view of Yosemite Valley--the inside of the crowded shuttle bus between the central parking lot and anywhere else. It was just like being home on TheBus. "Move to the rear, please move all the way to the rear of the bus, there are more people who want to get on."

Yosemite Valley

But we did manage to reach the Yosemite research library more or less on time, where my sister and I waded into microfilms of Yosemite lodge guest registers for the early 1870s. We were hoping to find the name of our great grandfather, James Yonge, somewhere in the hotel registers as part of a party headed by the famous California painter, Thomas Hill.

We made one quick shift when Bonnie's last minute check put the trip in 1873 instead of 1872. And then we decided to start out check in the late summer of that year, because Hill's party reportedly started in the Lake Tahoe area and made their way back towards Yosemite.

And then there it was, Thomas Hill's name in the register of La Casa Nevada on September 3, 1873. The names of Hill and five or six others appear alongside the notation, "Gold Hunters Club", which could also be found on other names sprinkled through the lodge records.

California painter Thomas Hill La Casa Nevada, Sept 3, 1873 click for larger image

Unfortunately, James Yonge was not among those who signed the ledger with Hill. Was this because he wasn't there, or because Hill's crew didn't get to stay in the lodge with the big guy? We don't know. The research continues. As does our family adventure.

June 9, 2005 - Thursday

On the road in California. You definitely have to love driving to survive for long up here in the mountains of California. Any destination requires what islanders would consider a long drive. Here driving is apparently like breathing, done automatically and without thinking. We spent yesterday morning at Hetch Hetchy, which provides a good chunk of San Francisco's water from the now-flooded valley next to Yosemite. The dam, the lake, and the surrounding mountains are quite spectacular.

And then last night we gathered at the mexican restaurant in downtown Groveland for dinner with two parts of the family that I've never met. There's my second cousin, Andrea, who has moved here from Scotland with her husband, photographer Mark Nouillan. And then my nephew, Kimo Lamont, drove up from Manteca with his wife, Lu, and three girls, Kayla, Kianna and Brianna. Although we've known Kimo since infancy, we thoroughly enjoyed meeting Lu and the girls for the first time.

Today we're off for another dose of family adventure with Meda's mother and siblings down in a private development known as Yosemite West, somewhere at the southern end of Yosemite National Park. Stayed tuned, although whether there will be available Internet access there remains to be seen.

June 8, 2005 - Wednesday

Do you suppose the special rental car insurance provided by American Express covers bear damage? That's the question of the night as we try to plan out logistics for the next several days. The Yosemite guide book warns to remove all food or "scented items" and place them in special "bear boxes" apparently available around parking areas. But there's a problem here. We may not be able to get into the house Meda's family has rented on Thursday before our appointment to examine microfilm records of visitors to the park in 1862. And, since we've got to cart in a portion of the food that's supposed to feed the festive family through the weekend, the car will definitely have food. So do the bear warnings apply right in the middle of Yosemite Village or only to less crowded locales? How are we supposed to know? And what are we supposed to do if there's an unavoidable conflict in our schedules?

1872. That's the year, according to family tales, that my great grandfather, James F.M Yonge, volunteered to drive a team of horses into Yosemite Valley for the great California artist Thomas Hill in exchange for painting lessons. [oops. I initially had it as 1862, a decade off. Bonnie quickly corrected me, but not quickly enough to intercept the initial version of this entry.] My sister is hoping that he'll have signed a guest register or left other evidence of his presence, something that we'll find in the park's records of that year, or perhaps the next.

We had dinner last night with my sister, Bonnie, and her husband, Ray Stevens, who is slowly recovering from a long illness. Outside their home in the community of Pine Mountain Lake, six or more deer grazed in the wild grasses, apparently unworried by our voyeurism. By the way, there's a web cam at the Pine Mountain Lake "airport", a small private field. A google search should turn it up.

Ray & Bonnie Stevens

Today we're scheduled for our initial foray into Yosemite, a visit to Hetch Hetchy dam. My sister retired a last year from her job with the administration of the water system, which involved among other things regular visits to Hetch Hetchy. She'll be leading this tour onto her former stomping grounds. If the weather stays dry, it will be a good day. Then if we can just sort out the bear-food problem, all will be fine.

June 7, 2005 - Tuesday

Kauai County is in the midst of a relatively significant sunshine law battle over disclosure of minutes of an executive session of the council. The county has staked out a position that is directly opposed to rulings by the Office of Information Practices, and the dispute is really testing OIP's authority.

A reader had this lengthy reply to my query about why we, as news consumers, don't see news reported about the tension between advertisers and newspapers/broadcasters:

Your question of why we've not seen news stories about the sometimes editorial-advertiser adversarial (or intimidation) role in newspapers and TV is perfectly good, but, of course, you already know the answer.

The "wall" that separates editorial from sales is pretty thin at best. It's really non-existent most places as between the owner/publisher, the editor/news director and the general manager/sales manager. The triumvirate determines the health of the business.

If the editorial side is chasing away advertising, the paper/TV cannot survive any more than it could if editorial were chasing away readers/viewers.

Sales and editorial have a relationship they don't like to address. Well, at least the editorial side doesn't. Sales people loudly discuss why editorial doesn't do more things to help their sales prosper. It's the "don't those people understand where the money comes from?" discussion.

Also, nobody does in-house stories about in-house disputes. Columnists in an organization don't attack fellow columnists. Nobody does a story admitting somebody dropped advertising (the hope is that the ads will quickly be lured back and you don't antagonize the advertiser any more.)

Even other media shy away from a colleague's momentary distress. The same may befall them at any moment.

So the only discussion tends to be in journalism reviews, in bars after work, and places such as your blog. You're a one-man operation with expenses limited to your web-site host. No shareholders. No vice president somewhere asking why your "hits" are down.

News has long been a big business. Money drives the product. Keep the buyers entertained and don't piss off the people paying for the workers, the utilities, the property amortization and the shareholders. Above all, the shareholders.

Occasionally, a news-product seller surprises us. The Washington Post during Watergate, the New York Times during the Daniel Ellsberg affair. Even CBS in its wrong-direction report on the Bush wartime record.

Mainly, the newsroom discussions today boil down to what sales is saying about sales, and how that will translate when the vice president at Gannett or Black or Hearst-Argyle or Emmis gets on the phone to discuss the coming year's editorial budget and what has to be cut.

Now this is real news. We're slowly developing a reasonably good tasting and low fat pizza that allows us to indulge that craving without taking a health hit. I make up the dough and sauce from scratch, then add topings of olives, anchovies, green peppers, hot peppers, low-fat chicken sausages from Foodland, and low fat cheese. Joined at the table by Meda's salad and a glass of red wine. It is easy enough that I have to wonder why you can't find a commercial low-fat pizza?

Now for the good news/bad news--we're off-island again. We stayed near the San Francisco airport last night and are driving east today towards the mountains. We'll be in the thriving metropolis of Groveland (you know, right there next to Pine Mountain Lake) for a couple of days with my sister and then head on to Yosemite where we will meet up with Meda's family for the weekend. Family "reunion". It should be a movie.

The problem is that I don't know whether I will have access to a phone line or other means of getting this page posted. I should be okay tomorrow, although it may not be at my "regular" time. Beyond that it's anybody's guess. I'll do my best. Otherwise, back to the normal schedule next Monday.

June 6, 2005 - Monday

D-Day. June 6. Also, for us, Acquisition Day, the day that we adopted Kua, our second calico, from a pet store in Kalihi back in 1987, if I recall correctly. The historical date helps remind us of her each year.

Still more on advertisers and pressure on editorial content from another reader:

After Hawaii Business ran a piece on the Bankoh restructuring a few years back (which featured a cover graphic with a bullseye superimposed on a Bankoh logo). Bankoh went beserk and pulled all ads for (I think) six months. It was a fairly crushing blow as the local biz rags rely heavily on the banks for ad dollars. Note that HB has not run a seriiously negative piece since then.

It's interesting to see how many local examples of this have come up since the topic arose last week. It's obviously a problem that is glossed over as far as readers and viewers are concerned.

There were a bunch of high school graduation parties out our way this weekend. And, perhaps by a very unfortunate coincidence, Longs in Kaneohe had 150 proof grain alcohol prominently displayed on their liquor department shelves along with other advertised specials.

Photo taken in Longs Kaneohe Bay branch with Treo 650-- click for larger version

It's not something I can recall seeing there before. By my reckoning, this stuff has no earthly use except to get groups of people roaring drunk by spiking the party punch. Did anyone at Longs worry when approving this display for a young persons' celebratory weekend?

Like other long-time Macintosh users, I'll be waiting anxiously for word on Steve Job's appearance this morning and whether he confirms Apple's shift to Intel's family of computer chips.

June 5, 2005 - Sunday

There seem to be quite a few tales of pressure by advertisers floating around town. Here are several more.

From Star-Bulletin writer Burl Burlingame:

Back when I was covering the film business and Consolidated was the big dog in town. I did a story about Consolidated delaying the opening of the third (or "sixth") Star Wars movie, "Return of the Jedi." It was to open five weeks later here than on the mainland.

The reason was, as a monopoly, Consolidated could do that. It was a benefit to them because after a month, exhibitors' rates on films increased -- the percentage they made off the movie being screened.

Well! Consolidated yanked their display ads out of the Star-Bulletin, complained bitterly and even went on the radio, calling us liars. Then-editor John Simonds stuck to his guns, however.

And then when the movie opened on the mainland, it didn't open here until five weeks later, exactly what we had reported. It took a couple of years to get those display ads back, and Conosolidated management was ... well, brusque ... with us forever after.

Did they think the public wouldn't notice the movie was delayed here?

And from Dave Pellegrin at Honolulu Publishing:

A few examples from HONOLULU Magazine come to mind ...
-- Sheraton once canceled its full-page, full-color ad for a year, sometime in the '80s, when columnist Tom Horton wrote that he "scrubbed himself with a wire brush" after a visit to Waikiki.

-- Also in the '80s, Philip Morris pulled its advertising when our media columnist, Tom Jordan, wrote an anti-smoking piece. The objection was not to the column as such, but to the fact we didn't alert them and give them the chance to withdraw the ad for that issue. We had slipped up by neglecting to do so.

-- The number of times restaurants pulled advertising because of unfavorable reviews are too numerous to count.

The bottom line is that advertisers with hurt feelings almost always return because they were advertising in the first place out of their own self-interest, not ours.

Meanwhile, it looks like another beautiful sunrise in Kaaawa this morning, so I'm heading out to enjoy it. A bit of my own self-interest, I suppose.

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