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April 19, 2003 - Saturday
Our Roadrunner connection in Kaaawa has been acting up for days, so I can only hope that I'll be able to get today's entry up at a reasonable hour. But the cable guy is scheduled for a visit on Monday to figure out what's going on.
After only about five months, former KGMB reporter/anchor Jerry Drelling was layed off from his pr/spokesperson job for shipping firm APL in Oakland. His last day on the job will be early next week.
It looks like chaos coming with the new employer-union trust fund which is scheduled to replace the existing Public Employees Health Fund on July 1.
The state is sending out notices with sharp warnings: " Transfer to the new Employer-Union Trust Fund is NOT AUTOMATIC. If an eligible employee does not complete and submit the enrollment form by May 31, 2003, they will NOT HAVE COVERAGE after June 30, 2003."
The problem, of course, is that employees are accustomed to the current system, which requires no action as long as you're not seeking changes in health coverage. Now everyone has to reapply--you can see the disaster coming.
And from one memo at UH:
Presently, we have no information about this new plan - how it is the same or is different from what we had been offered before, whether HMSA and Kaiser are still the insurance carriers, or what the insurance premium rates and also the benefits being offered are.
But we did get some good news. It turned out that the centipede in the garage was a red herring. A trip to the vet yesterday afternoon determined that Mr. Toby was really suffering from an infection, possibly a urinary infection. A blood test, some water, antibiotics, something to bring the fever down, and a hundred and fifty bucks later, and he bounced right back, started eating vast quantities, and of course wants to go right back outside. After he gets the morning dose of his new medicines, he'll probably wear down our resistance and head out the door.
And more good news--Christopher Guest has a new film out which got a rave review on NPR yesterday. We loved Spinal Tap, and this time Guest has similar fun with the reunion of three former folk singers. Pretty much the same cast of characters as his recent outings, Best of Show and Waiting for Guffman. We can't wait!
April 18, 2003 - Friday
Pacific Business News reported yesterday that Gannett has purchased the company that publishes a series of tourist publications in Hawaii. The series includes "101 Things to Do" on each major island, as well as an accompanying web site. The news item originated with a Gannett press release.
For a while, it looked like the Advertiser had given in to the Star-Bulletin's recent vagueness in reporting certain crimes. An item in yesterday's "police beat" column reported that a man had been "hit on the head with a sawed-off shotgun and robbed". The scene of the crime was simply described as "a Honolulu hotel room."
The hotel was not identified, although that's certainly a key part of the story and the one readers certainly want to know.
But the online version (at the bottom of that linked page) of the same item does provide the info--it happened at the Pagoda. I don't know if that same info made it into the Advertiser's PM edition.
| Now poor Mr. Toby has hit another bump in the road.
He disappeared for about an hour and a half yesterday morning. When we left the house at 6 a.m., no Toby. And when we got back from the walk about 7, still no Toby. One the way out, I commented that his absence was unusual. And his continued absence made us both worry. So I started searching.
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Mr. Toby |
I looked under the house, and I walked around the yard calling him. Nothing. Then I went back into Harry's hillside area, thinking he might have followed her. Still no Toby. Then just as I was getting really worried, there he was slowly coming up the steps from the direction of the garage.
I couldn't find any injuries, but he was scared, and moving very slowly. We brought him inside and he just sat down and didn't move. Didn't want to eat. I thought maybe he had a bad scare, maybe from a dog, and had been hiding for over an hour, but none of the other cats seemed spooked, so it didn't fit.
It remained a puzzle until we packed up and headed off into town. Down in the garage, next to the car, was a not-quite-dead centipede, about 4 inches long. Did Toby mistake this centipede for prey and end up getting bitten? We ran back inside to check Toby out in light of this possibility. We still couldn't find anything specific, but it seems the most likely scenario.
This morning he's still far from normal. He's eaten a bit, but is still very slow.And he squeeked when I picked him up, so something appears to hurt. There's always the possibility that this is related to his surgery on Monday, although those incisions appear to be healing fine.
Cats. It seems to always be something.
April 17, 2003 - Thursday
What a week. Monday was spent doing our taxes. On Tuesday, I had to write the check to the U.S. Treasury so that there will be money to give a tax cut to the wealthiest. Yesterday I delivered myself to our former dentist's son for a root canal. And today I preside over a condominium board of directors meeting. What more can I say?
PBS supporters will cringe at the latest Counterspin program (4/11/03) produced by FAIR, the media watchdog group. The second part of the 30-minute program features an interview with Executive Producer Christopher Koch about this week's PBS special, 'Avoiding Armageddon'. We caught the Counterspin episode on Hawaii Public Radio during our drive home yesterday, but it is also available online.
Koch says he was directed to give the Armageddon project an international perspective, and advised: "Don't dumb it down."
But FAIR reports that Koch and his entire crew were summarily dismissed and another crew brought in to put the finishing touches onto the program, including removing even the mildest critique of American policies. Koch's description of the ultimate dumbing down is just heartbreaking for those of us who have relied on PBS for more than your average television fare. The interview is well worth a listen.
April 16, 2003 - Wednesday
The Honolulu Advertiser's business side may be trying to squeeze the life out of Honolulu Weekly, but the 'Tiser's editorial side is poring over the Weekly for good story ideas.
Yesterday, for example, two stories were pulled from the Weekly. A front page profile of former California Insurance Commissioner Chuck Quackenbush by Dan Nakaso was obviously prompted by an item in the Weekly that traced the former pols controversial past. Nakaso did a good job, including an interview with Quackenbush, but the debt to the Weekly for raising the issue is clear.
And Michael Tsai replicated my Weekly item about the wartime visit to Bagdad by one-time UH faculty member Jim Douglass. At the time I wrote my piece, Douglass and others in his group were in Bagdad without a means of communication with the rest of the world, so I had to base my story on things he had written and sent out of the country, along with calls to his wife and the trip's sponsoring organization. Tsai was able to talk to Jim after his safe departure from Iraq.
If you like to browse, a new online resource was just announced--an electronic database from the National Archives. Just click here to visit the new site.
Here's an interesting twist on campaign fundraising. The Washington newspaper Roll Call sent out this news alert yesterday: "A campaign treasurer allegedly embezzled $418,559 from Rep. John Boehner's campaign account to support his gambling habit, the Ohio Republican disclosed Tuesday."
April 15, 2003 - Tuesday
Gannett reported its first quarter earnings today with overall revenues and earnings up 3 percent over 2002, "reflecting another quarter of improved newspaper segment performance."
Carolyn Tanaka, former press secretary for Gov. John Waihee and now top deputy to Paul Costello, UH's veep for public affairs, responded to yesterday's item about the legislative hearing last week:
Regarding the absence of President Dobelle at last Wednesday's hearing on the Legislative Auditor's report, these are the facts:
The University was notified on Monday, April 7, that a hearing on the report was going to be held on April 9. We told the House Higher Education Chair, Mark Takai, that the President and other key individuals would not be able to attend the hearing due to prior commitments that needed to be honored, and asked if the hearing could be re-scheduled so they could attend. They were not able to reschedule it.
Dobelle was attending the annual Hawaii Executives Conference at the Mauna Kea Beach Hotel, sort of a cozy retreat for the business-political elite. It was apparently considered much more important than dealing with the Legislative Auditor's critical report, and getting away for part of a day was deemed unrealistic, I suppose. It's all a matter of priorities.
For those who worried along with us, Mr. Toby is fine. He didn't require the more invasive surgery after all, and he returned home last night. He seems fine despite his loss of parts.
| More of Kaaawa's dogs and cats.
I stayed home yesterday to get our taxes ready for mailing, then finished a new round of photos to take the edge off the tax pain.
Just click on a photo to check them out.
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Ms. Kili & co. |
New dogs
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April 14, 2003 - Monday
This historical gem came my way from former S-B reporter and loyal Bostonian Pat Bigold:
Seeing the Advertiser item about a move to outlaw public urination made me chuckle a bit. I'm reading "Master of the Senate," Robert Caro's book about Lyndon Johnson that just won a Pulitzer, and it seems that our 36th president was a passionate public pisser during his years in Congress.
This from page 121:
"He would piss in the parking lot of the House Office Building," says Wingate Lucas, a farm boy who represented Fort Worth. "Well, a lot of fellows did that. I did it. But the rest of us would try to hide behind a car or something. Lyndon wouldn't. He just didn't care if someone noticed him." In fact, Lucas says, he seemed to want to be noticed. "I remember once, we were walking across the lot and some [female] secretaries were behind us, and he just stopped and began to take a piss right in front of them."
That does add to our mental image of Washington life, doesn't it?
And I received this short report from someone who attended the League of Women Voters meeting on Saturday:
Yesterday at the LWV Honolulu annual meeting [a state senator] said that the Mayor is going to resign due to a forthcoming indictment. Then during the program Ann Kobayashi referred to DukeBainum as the soon to be next mayor.
Just speculation or more than that? I have no idea.
Well, we're apparently still in The Broken Zone. Add a flat tire to the string of things going wrong with our "stuff". I came out of the VCA Kaneohe Animal Hospital yesterday afternoon to find a flat on our VW. Poor Mr. Lindsey had to sit around in his carrier while the tire was changed. Not his idea of a good time. And poor Toby spent the night there at VCA for surgery scheduled for this morning. His surgery will likely be more serious than our other male cats--it seems his privates have not appeared on schedule and they may have to go looking for them. Our vet said she would call and let me know right away, so I'll be nervous all morning until I get a report on how it went.
April 13, 2003 - Sunday
Did UH President Evan Dobelle snub the Legislature? Or did UH deliberately keep him out of the line of fire?
The Star-Bulletin reported on a Wednesday hearing in which UH officials briefed legislators on the recent audit, and mentioned Dobelle's conspicuous absence.
Absent from the briefing was UH President Evan Dobelle, who was attending a neighbor island business meeting.
A "business meeting"? This is one of those times when a bit of additional detail would have been helpful. Unfortunately, the Advertiser's story on the briefing failed to even note that Dobelle was MIA.
The Maui News beat the Honolulu dailies in reporting of the two visitors swept away by a flash flood in Kipahulu. Their story yesterday, which isn't online yet as of early this morning, quotes extensively from "cousin" John Lind.
"You can hear the rocks rolling when the water comes down. You can feel the ground shake. That's why they call the place Kapahu, for the drum.’ When get steady water, you can feel the ground vibrate," he said.
I called our vets at VCA earlier in the week to make Toby's big appointment. Six months old, time for snipping, although he doesn't know it yet.
| The day I wanted was available. Then I was asked a new question: "Have his testicles dropped?" I don't think I've been asked that question with any of our previous Tom cats, of which we've had a few, and I didn't have an answer. I hadn't asked Toby about it, and to be honest hadn't checked his privates too carefully. Cats do have their pride, you know. |
Toby at 6 months
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| I added just a few photos from the Friday night feast at Leeward Community College. Just click on this preview for more. |
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