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January 31, 2004 - Saturday
Paul Krugman in a column published in yesterday's New York TImes: "George Bush promised to bring honor and integrity back to the White House. Instead, he got rid of accountability."
I'm thoroughly enjoying the Democratic primary so far, not because I'm committed to one of the candidates yet but because it has allowed diverse opinions to burst past the media gatekeepers. It is incredibly refreshing to listing to daily news that is peppered with opinions that for the past three years have been steadily filtered out of the news food chain. By the time the news made it to the consuming public, dissenting sentiments have been largely removed. But no longer, at least as long as the campaign continues.
Howard Dean's new campaign manager (using the title "Chief Executive Officer, Dean for America") has spelled out the campaign's strategy for the weeks ahead. Basically they're walking past Tuesday's primaries and concentrating on the large and delegate-rich states ahead.
Here's a quick link to a wonderful panorama of the landscape of Mars, then backtrack to this huge collection of panoramas from around the world.
January 30, 2004 - Friday
It's raining in Kaaawa again this morning. It started around 4:30 a.m. and has been falling for the last half hour. It might just be the "normal" morning rain which has been missing in action for years. Wouldn't that be nice?
Here's an excellent capsule history of U.S. relations with Saddam Hussein: "We've always had him."
Another interesting blog I ran into is "Another Day in the Empire," both eye-catching and mind grabbing.
My search for the 1941 dog dish winner has been a dead end. No leads yet back into the history of the Maui Kennel Club, which apparently no longer exists.
But I have gotten a greater appreciation for the dog subculture, which can be pretty intense. Take this bit of useful info from the other side of the country:
Indeed there are Brace classes (2 of identical breed) offered as a non-regular conformation as well as obedience class. In the conformation ring, you compete within your breed, then within your Group (Sporting, Herding, Hound, etc) where there are four placements made in Roman Numerals, then all the Group Is go on to Best Brace in Show. I actually won the Sporting Group at a Conn show many years ago and placed in the Brace class at breed specialities. I was lucky enough to have two full sisters, 3 years apart, that everyone but me thought were identical. It was more popular years ago when breeder/owner/handlers were in the majority. There are no championship points to be gained from a non-regular class, but it's a lot of fun. At Lab specialties, one of the favorites is the Team Class--four Labradors shown by one human. You can imagine the fun!
Nancy Beach//Bravo Dog Training
& the Highgate Labradors
Danbury, Connecticut
Yesterday I started on the microfilm of the Maui News published during 1941. A meeting of the Maui Kennel Club made news in January with news of their planned annual show in May. But a quick jump ahead to May yielded nothing, and I finally went off to lunch without further searching.
But that's okay. As a button circulating at the annual Investigative Reporters & Editors conference several years ago reminded, "Babe Ruth struck out 1,330 times."
Oh--the rain stopped at 5:20.
January 29, 2004 - Thursday
The tornado last weekend has been making international news. This report from a New Zealand reader:
just made TV1's news - TV1 (TVNZ) is the main channel (like KGMB used to be). The lede was "It's not the United States' Midwest, rather the middle of the Pacific."
The news reader said it was called a funnel cloud and not a tornado because it didn't touch the ground.
So, you're world-famous in New Zealand! Can you send us a couple of buckets of your rain, please?
Now, the same clip is running on CNN International. They and New Zealand must be reading the same script!
How original . . .
Check out the fledgling master calendar of government meetings and events on the state's web site. It makes for quite interesting browsing.
Well, now that Donnelly's gone, who's going to complain about cat news? So here goes.
| Remember Missie, the kitten whose rescue made such a great Christmas story last month?
One-time Star-Bulletin photographer, recently retired from the Sacramento Bee, was in Hawaii several weeks ago and dropped in to see Missie "in person", and just shared this photo of the now pampered cat. Just click to see the larger photo.
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Missie (photo by Richard Schmidt)
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On our cat front, Leo is getting over his week-long bout of sneezing with the help of some of Harriet's antibiotics. Ms. Wally also got a touch of it but seems to have pulled out of it on her own. Annie has made a colossal mess in the living room overnight by overturning a box that delivered a bunch of Meda's birthday presents and eagerly spreading all those foam peanuts across the floor. Duke's hair is growing back in the mostly bald patch left by a new cat brush I bought that was way too good at removing hair. Harriet hasn't shown up yet for breakfast, but she and her designer tongue should be here any minute. And so it goes in Kaaawa.
January 28, 2004 - Wednesday
Thanks to the Advertiser for Monday's editorial questioning the wisdom of the proposal to sell off a prime piece of public property downtown for use as a car dealership. That's not the engine of economic development or public interest that you would hope to place at such a central location.
I've got to say it: Dog people are quite an incredible breed. I've had several extremely helpful replies to yesterday's entry about the old Maui Kennel Club silver dish, with offers to help and assist in the search. Most impressive! Thank you all who have responded. Who knows? Maybe we'll eventually solve this mystery.
| Another tale...I responded to an open message on the Hawaii Macintosh & Apple Users Society online discussion list a couple of days ago. That person was inquiring on behalf of a friend who is looking for a wireless card for his new laptop computer. I offered up a card I've got sitting around, if it's the right type for his computer. |
Ms. Suiso's 2nd Grade class
Kahala School, 1955.
Click for larger version.
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His unexpected reply came back quickly: "My friend is a classmate of yours from Kahala School--Terry Baird. He was blown away to see your name."
Kahala School was a long time ago, but I remember Terry Baird. This sent me back to the pile of memorabilia now stacked in the closet at my office and there I found this gem--the class photo of Ms. Suiso's 2nd Grade class in which both Terry Baird and I appear. If I'm not mistaken, this was the then-brand new Kahala School's first year in operation.
I wonder who else will find friends who were in this class? If you do, please let me know!
| Yesterday was one of those gray, cloudy, nondescript mornings that suddenly blossomed at the very last minute into a spectacularly colorful sunrise. We had turned around and were heading along the beach towards home when I looked back and noticed what was happening to the east. All we could do was stop, stare, and grab a series of photos. |
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January 27, 2004 - Tuesday
There are probably some gems of information in the latest "Annual Report of the Salaries Paid to All University of Hawaii Executive and Managerial Personnel, Including the President, and Faculty Members" submitted to the Legislature last month. Of course, since no individual names appear in the listings, much of the report is only meaningful for those who know where to look.
Sitting through yesterday's "state of the state" speech by Gov. Lingle, I had several immediate reactions. First, she is a good public speaker. And then I wondered why her high-powered public relations team cut-and-pasted several bits from her kick-off speech last year.
Yesterday, for example, she told this story:
The problem of a single statewide board of education is highlighted by the experience of Lahianaluna High School on Maui.
The school wanted to change the date of its graduation ceremony by a couple of days.
The State Department of Education said NO!
It was only after a protracted community outcry, including a major letter writing and telephone campaign, as well stories and editorials in the local newspaper, that the statewide Board of Education acquiesced to the desires of the students, parents, teachers, administrators and the community.
But the same tale was in her "state of the state" a year ago:
Let me give you just one example.
Lahainaluna High School wants to change by exactly one week the date of this year's graduation exercises. This manini change is supported by students, parents, teachers, administrators, and the school's SCBM Council. They all want it.
But believe it or not, they have no control over the matter. The decision to change the date of any one school's commencement can be made only by DOE administrators in Honolulu.
When this same issue came up several years ago the DOE denied the same school's request for the date change. That began a massive letter-writing campaign to the Board of Education and eventually the Board reversed the DOE decision.
Regarding her cabinet appointments, yesterday she said: "Ten of my 16 cabinet appointees were people I met for the first time when I interviewed them for the job."
And last year: "The majority of people now serving in my cabinet are people that I met for the first time during their interview for the position."
There were probably others. Those just jumped out at me.
| Speaking of Maui, here's a bit of island history found at a garage sale and originally purchased by friends of ours. It's a small silver two-compartment dish inscribed "Maui Kennel Club-1941". A dog dish? We've "inherited" it, and I hope to find out who it was originally awarded to back in 1941. |
Click for larger photos
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January 26, 2004 - Monday
Lots of thunder could be heard from Kaaawa on Sunday afternoon, but luckily the storm was somewhere else. Perhaps a slight drizzle, nothing more. Lucky for us, at least. I don't now about the folks over there in the center of the island who had at least one tornado touch the ground, according to the evening news.
The Sunday Star-Bulletin carried a Newhouse News Service story with the headline, "Advantage: Bush", proclaiming the president's "significant lead over any and all Democratic challengers".
The problem: I had just finished reading an article about a new Newsweek poll show John Kerry winning a hypothetica match-up against Bush by 3 percentage points. The poll also found 52 percent don't want to see a second Bush term, with an equal number saying they are dissatisfied with the way things are going in the country.
The election is a long way down the road but, this week at least, you can no longer give W an assumed "significant lead" over the pack.
Noted: The Advertiser announced yesterday that it will participate in the military's "embed" program and send a reporter and photographer to accompany Hawaii troops being deployed to Iraq.
Anticipate loud screams from Manoa in about a week. On Tuesday, Feb. 3, bright and early, the tens of thousands of students and faculty who rely on the UH computer system for their email access will be cut off unless they have made a series of relatively obscure adjustements to their own email software. The changes stem from an upgrade in computer security to require all connections to the system to be encrypted. I'm not sure what all is entailed. In some cases software will have to be upgraded, and the changeover may require system upgrades for both Mac and PC users. I could be wrong, but I'm predicting that the change, coming at the start of a busy semester, is going to leave a lot of less adept UH computer users stranded without email access.
January 25, 2004 - Sunday
Dinner guests had just left and we flipped on the television for the late night news and got the bad news of Star-Bulletin columnist Dave Donnelly's death. This morning's S-B carries a lengthy obit. A lot of people are going to miss Dave, a master story teller in so many ways.
Congratulations to Sandra Oshiro, who was just promoted to assistant managing editor at Gannett's Honolulu Advertiser. Her promotion was announced today, along with two others. Sandy is another product of Hawaii public education who's proving she can compete with the best.
One anecdote sticks in my mind. Back when I was executive director of Common Cause, nearly 20 years ago now, our little office in the old Armed Services YMCA was staffed by a wonderful woman from Bawston who sometimes had a bit of trouble with local names. So one day I had a message waiting on my desk about a phone call from "Sandy or Sheila". I stared at that for several minutes before figuring out that it was Advertiser reporter Sandy Oshiro.
Here's a resource that will take a while to explore--a list of international think-tanks compiled by the World Press Review with Internet links. So much information, so little time.
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