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January 3, 2004 - Saturday
I'm writing this from my office across from the convention center at the edge of Waikiki, where we spent the night to avoid driving back to Kaaawa in yesterday's deluge. It's still dark and wet this morning, but hopefully we'll get back to the other side of the island safely.
Bravo to the Star-Bulletin's team of photographers for trampling the competition with coverage of yesterday's storm. The photos accompanying today's S-B story--George Lee's shots of the rescue of a group of hikers, and Dennis Oda's Diamond Head landslide and the raging stairs--raised the bar several notches. Great work. Too bad the web isn't being used to showcase more of their photographs.
In case you missed it yesterday, Dave Donnelly's column was back in the Star-Bulletin with his "small world" experience in the medical aftermath of his fall in San Francisco. Welcome back, Dave. By the way, I had several inquiries about his condition in recent weeks, including one from a transplanted islander now in New Zealand.
Here's one that I missed last month while I was scanning photographs of the feminist protest against Kahala Mall's stag night promotion. Back on December 5, Pacific Business News recalled a relevant bit of history from its December 7, 1970 issue:
PBN reported that Kahala Mall will hold a "Stag Night" from 5-8 p.m. December 13. No women will be allowed to enter the mall. An Afro-Cuban band, prize drawings and a fashion show will entertain the men.
"Stag Night is the first event of its kind on a grand scale ever held in Hawaii, and it may mark the first time that men will have a reason to look forward to doing their Christmas shopping," the article concluded.
So it appears the protest was held the following year, followed in 1972 by a series of confrontations that led to a lawsuit and the end of the stag night experiment.
Abundance of caution? I found this definition in the Dictionary of Small Business by Carl O.Trautmann
ABUNDANCE OF CAUTION
In banking, a lender's requirement that the borrower's collateral equal more than the asset to be purchased with the loan and that the borrower have enough money invested to insure the borrower cannot back out without significant loss of personal finances. If the borrower has his or her own money invested, the borrower will be more committed to succeed.
Ah, so it means the party with power uses it to derive additional advantage from the powerless while cloaking it in the rhetoric of "abundance". That fits.
Januaray 2, 2004 - Friday
Political junkies should schedule regular checks of the Des Moines Register's Campaign 2004 coverage. Right now, it's providing quite a comprehensive daily update on the Democratic contenders. Yes, it is a Gannett newspaper, but they've got top-notch coverage.
If you've been following the mad cow crisis, UPI reports that the USDA has refused since July to release test results from its mad cow surveillance program, claiming that the documents could not be found.
I'm still looking for a definitive answer to the question of what islands are seen from Kaaawa on clear mornings.
In the meantime, Deborah from Punaluu provided the most informed reply to date:
I believe your photo shows (from left to right) Molokai's east end and Mt. Kamakou. Next I think it could be the highest point of the sea cliffs on the north side of Molokai. If you have ever been to Kalaupapa you have probably seen part of these sea cliffs. They are among the highest in the world. I think that is Maui peeking over the last part of Molokai's mountains. To the right is Lanai. I could be wrong... but that's my take.
She also linked to this satellite photo showing the alignment of islands.
We were awakened early on New Year's Day by a crashing sound outside, which turned out to be a plastic chair on the deck being tossed into the side of the house by a strong gust of wind. The unusually strong winds continued in bursts for several hours. These were southerly winds that picked up strength as they came over the mountains and swept down the slope into Kaaawa. Combined with the rain that fell most of the day and it made for an unusually gray and wintery January 1st.
| Now I'm rushing to process the last photos from last year before starting in with 2004. So here are the last cat photos of 2003. Just click on Ms. Wally's picture, and enjoy. |
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January 1, 2004 - - Thursday
| We were still working on the celebratory new year's pizza when we got a phone call with bad news. A friend on the other end of Kaaawa, John James, died earlier in the day after a lengthy battle with a rare form of brain cancer. John and his wife, Louise, moved to Kaaawa just a few years ago, and we met them soon afterwards on one of our early walks. |
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It might be Kaaawa itself, or it might be the peculiarities of these friendships that originate in the neutral ground of Kaaawa's morning beauty, but in either case it has allowed us to strike up otherwise unlikely friendships. John was an career Marine stationed at Camp Smith, a veteran of the first Gulf war. We're longtime pacifists. But we worked around that, or simply sidestepped it, in order to get to know John and Louise.
He was an interesting guy who could tell a good tale, and both were pleasant to be around.
John said he met many other Gulf vets with similar illnesses, which he attributed to factors related to that war. John and Louise battled this together, staying strong and upbeat until the end.
The news about John's death put a bit of a damper on the evening, and wet weather also contributed to a less rowdy new year out here. By 9 p.m. we had all nine cats locked safely inside. Most were hiding in dark places. Silverman, Duke, and Miki, the oldster, were getting drugged up with some catnip in the middle of the living room floor. The occasional burse of firecrackers sent gray blurs from here to there at supersonic speed in search of ever more secret hiding places. But in a few hours it all passed.
In any case, welcome to 2004. Twenty years after 1984, and suddenly Orwell's vision of Big Brother seems much closer to reality.
December 31, 2003 - Wednesday
It's an outbreak of Mad Flack Disease! I think it's the only explanation for the sudden outbreak of "an abundance of caution" in official statements across the land. It started last week with Secretary of Agriculture Ann Veneman's announcement of a recall of meat from a cow found to have mad cow disease. These rules obviously aren't really necessary, but adopted out of "an abundance of caution." Right. It was repeated by other officials all week, including Gov. Lingle, quoted by KITV : "The chance of any contaminated beef being in Hawaii is extremely remote, but we're exercising an abundance of caution as is the federal government."
Further evidence of the epidemic surfaced yesterday with the new rules barring meat from sick cattle for human consumption, all adopted, of course, with "an abundance of caution." The topper came during yesterday's press conference in which Deputy Attorney General James Comey announced that AG Ashcroft will recuse himself from the probe into the leak of a CIA agent's identity. According to the New York Times:
"The attorney general, in an abundance of caution, believed that his recusal was appropriate based on the totality of the circumstances and the facts and evidence developed at this stage of the investigation," Mr. Comey said in announcing the decision at a news conference, which Mr. Ashcroft did not attend.
Then it dawned on me! Mad Flack Disease! Unlike the cattle version, this one appears to be highly contagious, spreading rapidly within the herd, even without direct contact. More surveillance will be needed to determine whether the outbreak has been contained.
Burl Burlingame has a New Year message posted announcing the demise of the Honolulu Newspaper War site along with the birth of a new, as yet unnamed, blog to appear soon.
It's 5:30 a.m. and the rain is slowing down. It rained lightly through much of the night, and it's been pouring for the last hour or more. Most, but not all, of our cats are safely inside. I can see Leo perched on the railing of the deck outside, but under the overhang of the roof so that he's relatively dry. Silverman was wet when he came in to eat a while ago, but he gets so hyper when confined that I opened the door for him as soon as the rain slowed. Harriet is the only one unaccounted for. She's been out all night, but seems to have a hiding place that is relatively protected. We'll see.
I'm hoping the rain continues through tonight so that the fireworks count will be reduced. Cats and fireworks just don't mix well, making New Year's Eve a tense experience in our household, where we shut ourselves up with the increasingly frantic bunch of wide eyed cats.
| Poor Mr. Toby. His new year's adventure was a trip to the vet on Sunday. I tried to tell him it wouldn't be scary--just a couple of vaccinations in honor of his 1st birthday. But he felt differently. That's him hiding in the very back of his carrier while we were waiting to see Dr. Lee Loy. And it wasn't all in his mind, as the "hidden camera" photo of on German Shepard sharing the wait demonstrates. Oh--I took these photos with my Palm Zire 71. And Toby's already forgiven me. |
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Here's wishing all of you a happy and safe new year celebration!
December 30, 2003 - Tuesday
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We didn't get the flash floods the weather service warned of, but it was definitely gray and threatening yesterday morning. Still beautiful, though, as you can see. |
Click on either photo for larger versions. |
If you haven't done this already, check out the "Bush in 30 Seconds" contest being sponsored by MoveOn.org. It's gotten several good write ups, like this one in the St. Petersburg Times.
I just came across this interesting report by an unusual delegation that visited Iraq in early December.
| Here's a little year-end Hawaiian geography quiz which we have failed to pass. The basic question is simple: What are the other islands that we can occasionally see from the beach in Kaaawa? Molokai, for sure. But what else? Just click on this photo for more. Just email me your suggestions, please. |
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December 29, 2003 - Monday
Where's the beef? Credit to StarBulletin.com for it's Sunday "Breaking News" update reporting that meat from the cow infected with "Mad Cow" disease was distributed in Hawaii. The Star-Bulletin posted the AP report at 11:19 AM. As of 3 p.m. Sunday afternoon, there was nothing about the issue on the Advertiser site. They finally got something posted at 3:44 PM.
The Powerpoint story referred to on Saturday pointed to this hilarious item: The Gettysburg Address if Lincoln had been using Powerpoint. It makes me think that it might be worth an attempt to report on the Gettysburg Address as it might have been done by Gannett, or by Fox News, or your favorite news source. Anyone want to give it a try?
A friend in Victoria, Canada (Star-Bulletin owner David Black's home town) referred me to www.bushwatch.com, maintained by Jerry Politex down in Austin, TX.
| With the end of 2003 looming, here are just a few more photos of our Kaaawa dog friends, including a couple pictured here for the first time. Click on Ms. Pua's photo to check them out. |
Ms. Pua |
December 28, 2003 - Sunday
We're still awaiting the heavy rains that were forecast for last night and today. We did get a bit of lighting and thunder, and some light rain starting just before midnight, but no substantial precipitation. Yet.
| Friday night's meal somehow bounced from extremely ordinary to someplace quite a bit higher on the taste scale.
A couple of small pork chops went from the freezer into one of my trusty cast iron frying pans along with some olive oil and garlic. I no longer worry about the cast iron on this smooth top range with the definitely breakable surface because it's still the cookware of choice for this kind of meal.
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Click for larger photo |
Once they browned a bit, I added some white wine, fresh lemon juice, an anchovy or two, a few pinches of thyme, and several splashes of hot pepper water that came our way at Christmas. Then it just requires a bit of monitoring to avoid too much burning, adding liquid of some variety as needed.
At some point during the cooking I added a dollop of hot pepper jelly to give it a shot of sweet mixing with the tang of the lemon and bite of the anchovy. An excellent combo. Then I took several apple bananas harvested from our yard earlier in the week and cut them in half lengthwise for frying. They went into a second pan at medium heat until slightly browned and sweet. With an estimated five minutes to go, I chopped up a large green pepper and popped it into the pork mix, steaming just long enough to glisten and turn deep green. A couple of servings of frozen peas went into the microwave at the same time.
Served with rice on collectible Redwing "Tampico" dinner plates with a bottle of Chilean sauvignon blanc, a bit of extra hot sauce, and salt and pepper to taste. Ahhhhh.
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