Well, we’re thankful to have made it through Tuesday night’s storm without significant damage, except for several uprooted plants and lots of leaves and bits in the yard. Others out here weren’t as lucky. Part of a large banyan came down just below and across the street from us, landing on their front deck and narrowly missing the house. You can click on the photo for a larger version, or click here to see where that house is in relation to our own (photo taken from our deck, looking across to the house below).

We were saved at the end of the day by a neighbor’s gas grill and good company. And right in the midst of our battery-powered dinner, about 8 p.m. or so, the lights came on. We cheered, poured
more wine, and finished eating.

Now, catching up.

According to an entry on Hawaiirama.com concerning the new Ossipoff exhibit, it appears that Advertiser writer and one-time Honolulu Weekly editor Lesa Griffith has parted ways with Gannett and is now the new communications director for the Honolulu Academy of Arts. Congrats.

UH spokesman Gregg Takayama provided some corrections to my earlier report on a new study of football graduation rates.

I’d like to follow up on your item yesterday about UH football graduation rates. We do take the academic performance of our student-athletes very seriously and have instituted new policies that we believe will lead to improved results, especially for our football team members.

But there were some factual errors in your story:

You reported that: “The University of Hawaii graduates fewer of football players than any of the other 63 teams headed to major college bowl games…”

This is not correct. According to the study released by The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport (TIDES) at the University of Central Florida, there are four other schools with football team graduation rates lower than ours, including our Sugar Bowl opponent Georgia (41), Oklahoma (44), Michigan State (43), and Texas (42). (Our score is 45.)”

We realize that being fifth worst is nothing to brag about, but it is better than being dead last.

The complete list of schools is available here.
You also reported that: “Over time, historical penalties will be put into place for schools who continue to fall below the 925 APR. Of the 17 teams below the 925 score this year, only Hawaii will be subject to contemporaneous penalties by the NCAA”.

The historical penalties come into play for teams (not schools) whose APR falls below 900 (not 925). The statement about Hawaii appears to be correct.

Thanks for the opportunity to set the record straight.

The first error was mine. The quote regarding penalties is from the Chronicle of Higher Education.

On the Sugar Bowl ticket flap, I can’t help being sympathetic to the UH dilemma in deciding whether it could risk taking on its full allocation of tickets, given the financial problems the athletic department has been facing. But the woman quoted in today’s Advertiser who wondered why an informal survey of season ticket holders hadn’t been done makes a good point.

The Star-Bulletin reports: “An additional 3,000 tickets were reserved for the team and university use. About 1,500 tickets were reserved for travel packages, and 500 tickets went to corporate partners.”

I presume that the tickets for travel packages and sponsors were set aside pursuant to existing contracts, although that isn’t clear. But what does “team and university use” mean? Will any of those be available to UH students, who otherwise don’t appear to have a place in the ticket line unless they were season ticket holders. Who else gets to dip into that special university allocation?

Why am I always so suspicious about how such goodies are distributed? Could it be past experience?

The Honolulu Community-Media Council sent out an alert this week with cites to a number of stories regarding action by the Senate Commerce Committee, chaired by Hawaii’s Sen. Dan Inouye, to slow down the FCC’s rush to loosen rules on cross ownership of newspapers and broadcast stations,including this piece from Broadcasting & Cable and another from the Los Angeles Times.

Ah, sigh, electricity is such a nice thing to wake up to!