|
January 17, 2004 - Saturday
Kaaawa is in the news but it's not really the kind of visibility that we want. The community is backing a family apparently hit by retaliation for their organizing against drugs. It's good news and bad news. The situation they're facing is terrible, with several reputed drug houses clustered nearby on the other side of Kaaawa. But the community rallying to their support is very good news in the longer term.
Safeway may be in a long and bitter labor dispute in Southern California in which it claims it can't possibly survive without large cutbacks in employee benefits, but now the company has announced a major boost in executive pay. This has got to worsen an already bleak labor climate, and eventually this is going to begin hurting the chain here as well.
Here's the text of Sen. Ted Kennedy's speech about the administration's Iraq policy which has garnered so much press attention over the past few days.
January 16, 2004 - Friday
I see that the Velvet Cloak Inn, Kamehameha School's once-regal motel in Raleigh, North Carolina, is about to be sold, possibly for redevelopment, according to a story today in the News & Observer. I had been under the impression that this had been sold off previously along with the rest of the former Bishop Estate's NC ventures, but apparently not. We found ourselves at the Velvet Cloak a couple of years ago (check the May 24, 2002 entry), but didn't realize it's island ownership until we were preparing to leave.
A couple of media moves to note. PBN writer Debby Sokei is said to be heading for the Advertiser, while Honolulu Weekly's Chad Blair is picking up a microphone as political reporter for Hawaii Public Radio.
| There was a lot of storm damage visible when we walked through Kaaawa yesterday morning. Trees were blown down in several houses that we passed, and broken branches littered many others. A few roofs were peeling off or damaged, several fences blown down. And everyone had a storm story. |
Trees down in Kaaawa
after Wednesday's storm |
The silence was interrupted by a loud cat fight just off our front deck at about 5:20 a.m. It appears that Leo was defending the turf against a wandering orange cat who comes this way from time to time. He rarely actually engages any of our cats, but this was one of those times. Now the house patrol has been reinforced--Kili and Duke are stalking around under the house as well, with Annie watching from the sidelines. I of course went crashing out into the darkness and almost broke my whatever before retreating in search of a flashlight. I did eventually see the combatants and do my best to send the visiting cat off towards another part of the neighborhood.
Ms. Harriet and her mangled tongue are stable and desperately wanting to go outside, but we've been keeping her under house arrest since her surgery. I'm thinking 48-72 hours of enforced rest will assist in the recuperation. If we can stand the pacing cat for that long. She still is only eating small amounts since that tongue must still hurt, but hopefully she'll gradually get back to "normal".
January 15, 2004 - Thursday
It was a stressful Wednesday for us in Kaaawa. It was mid-day before I discovered that my dad had been confused and yesterday was a pre-surgery meeting with the doctor. So after worrying about his condition I belatedly found out that he was already back home and now looking forward to an outpatient surgery experience on Saturday.
Harriet's story was not as happy. After the storm played havoc with our schedule, we decided to brave the winds and rain (including some brief "white-outs" on the highway where you couldn't see a thing through the driving rain) and simply walk into the vet's office and wait. Lucky that we did. We managed to see our favorite vet, Dr. Lee Loy, before she finished her shift. And we found poor Harriet's problem--somehow she had cut her tongue very badly. After surgery and stitches, she's the owner of a designer tongue with it's own unique shape. But she did manage to eat and drink last night for the first time in days.
Here we go again. Now Reuters is reporting that those mortar shells suspected of containing chemical weapons tested negative in an initial examination, despite widespread news reports which almost guaranteed most Americans now believe that chemical weapons were indeed found.
Retired educator, condo activist, and former Hawaii Democratic Party chairman Richard Port is the new co-coordinator of John Kerry's campaign in the islands. He's focusing on picking up votes in Hawaii's upcoming Democratic caucuses scheduled later this month. Senator Inouye also said this week that he is leaning towards Kerry.
January 14, 2004 - Wednesday
The wind started gusting from the south just before midnight, as forecast. Within an hour or so the power went out for the first time, and has been on only sporadically through the night as the wind has increased.
It's just after 5 a.m. right now. No electricity. I've got a candle and a flashlight. I've also got a sick cat--something's got Ms. Harriet, and of course this is the day when there are no open slots at our vet until 6 p.m. Whoa, there comes the wind again howling down the valley..
Anyway, Ms. Harriet feels bad and is off her feed. To make matters worse, my dad called late yesterday to say that he injured himself moving a heavy ice box on and off his boat and now faces some kind of surgery later this morning. He claims it's done on an outpatient basis, but I haven't been able to verify that, which leaves me pretty nervous.
In any case, injured father, sick cat, roaring wind, and no power. What a morning.
[8:45 a.m.--power still out, although it flickered for several minutes within the last hour. Who said Third World country?]
[Power restored, for now, around 10:15 a.m. Wind gusts are scary. I'm hunkered down at home with the cats.]
Here's a frightening piece from the Seattle PI & Scripps Howard on the potentially broader impact of the "mad cow" situation. This is a lot worse than today's winds.
January 13, 2004 - Tuesday
What appears to be an AP rewrite of Rob Perez' Sunday story on UH football mascot Vili Fehoko was read across the world on CNN.com this weekend, as well as in other media far and wide. I always hated when AP did this to my stories without even a nod to the original source, and I still hate to see it happen to other reporters' work. In any case, congratulations, Rob!
| Ryan Ozawa, webmaster over at Hawaiinews.com, grabbed a screen shot of the strange doings of Google's "context aware" ad placement at the Star-Bulletin.
In this case, there's a large photo of the roaring UH mascot next to an ad for "Friendly mascot costumes".
Just click on this image for a larger view.
|
|
And a KITV viewer poll shows a slight majority in favor of getting rid of this mascot act, with 53 percent saying it should not continue, at least that was the result as of this a.m.
The Washington Post reported yesterday that the Army War College has published a report highly critical of the Bush administration's war on terror, charging it "is strategically unfocused, promises more than it can deliver, and threatens to dissipate U.S. military resources in an endless and hopeless search for absolute security."
January 12, 2004 - Monday
The Star-Bulletin's Rob Perez probably earned the wrath of a segment of UH football fans with his critical story yesterday on UH "mascot" Vili Fehoko. Perez points out that Fehoko has continued to violate specific guidelines established by the university and doesn't appear to give a rip about those rules. That kind of behavior and attitude doesn't appear to give campus officials much choice other than to pull the plug on his act. But Rob could find out that being the messenger could create some heat.
I had to go back a ways, but did find this description of Fehoko by former S-B writer Pat Bigold back when Vili's routine was being introduced:
MY first thought: "Where's security?" Bald guy in long grass skirt runs out on the Aloha Stadium field before last weekend's game, rolls on the turf like one of the Three Stooges, bangs his noggin against a drum and screams maniacally at the stands, something about "Wah-ree-ahs."
I guess the idea was to create a WWF ambience for the evening while indoctrinating the masses on what they should be yelling at the home team.
Speaking of sports, the Chicago Tribune notes that television ratings for the Mercedes Championship golf tournament on Maui this weekend drooped along with Tiger Woods' fortunes.
I almost missed Ms. Meda's quotes in the Los Angeles Times last week.
And here's a photo along with scientific commentary courtesy of NASA to start your week. Not my photo, unfortunately, although we've seen this kind of thing in the past.
I just saw the overnight email from a friend who lost everything when a virus wiped out her computer at home.
I've been pretty sloppy about storing files on disks, and back-ups have been non-existent. All our pictures, my family history, Jessie's homework, games, calendars -- gone, gone, gone.
New Year's Resolution: I will order that back-up drive I've been thinking about. I will order that back-up drive. Today. Today.
January 11, 2004 - Sunday
| Spend some time at home and it inevitably turns into a series of cat photo sessions.
I caught up with Mr. Leo on top of his small cat tree (as opposed to the tall cat tree which is down the hall in another room). Just click on his picture for a larger version.
|
|
The Star-Bulletin reported yesterday that Olelo CEO Lurline McGregor has submitted her resignation effective next month.
With the new revelations by former Bush insider Paul O'Neill, this little commentary from down under adds more information on the neo-conservative core of the administration.
Did you know that v-p Dick Cheney is under investigation in Europe for bribes paid to foreign officials while he was CEO of Halliburton? Apparently its one of those little things that hasn't made it onto the radar of the mainstream media. Yet.
And former Nixon lawyer and Watergate figure John Dean has an interesting interpretation of John Ashcroft's belated recusal from the investigation into the White House leak. More good Sunday reading.
Previous week • Other
Search this site,
courtesy of the folks at
|
