iPhone euphoria quickly collided with the typical reality. While I’m up and running with my phone, Meda’s phone isn’t properly recognized by her computer. Supremely frustrating. So we’re off to visit the Genius Bar at the Apple Store later today. Hopefully we’ll be able to resolve the issues without spending more money. We’ve done enough of that patriotic duty for a while.

It seems that yesterday didn’t bring the last word on the relative performance of Honolulu’s competing daily newspapers during last week’s blackout. A reader offered this further comment yesterday:

Sorry to rain on the parade, but the real story is being lost amid all this after-the-fact hand-wringing and back-patting.

That story is your initial reaction; that you had no idea there was no paper edition of the Advertiser, or that there was a paper edition of the Bulletin (which came out long after power was restored). That your first reaction was to praise the Advertiser’s Web coverage.

What’s been going on here in the days since has been an effort to rewrite history. Unfortunately at this juncture, history will show that it missing a day of printing under these circumstances was not a big deal, even though it hadn’t happened in more than 50 years. With the very existence of newspapers threatened, this blip is insignificant, and trying to play this up in the context of competition between the papers is grandstanding and not just a little ridiculous. It’s kind of like crowing about which of the Big 3 made the most SUVs this year.

I don’t like the implications of this any more than the next industry person, and I am by no means cheering it. But the fact that the Advertiser could make the decision to break a 50-year printing string and be both praised by the pundits and forgiven by the public with barely a shrug (if they noticed at all) – that is the real story.

Perhaps relics like Burl don’t realize yet … “what we do” isn’t just putting out papers anymore. If only it were still that simple.

Oh, and correct me if I’m wrong, but doesn’t the bulletin still have an afternoon press run? If so, there’s the reason it made sense for the Bulletin and not for the Advertiser. Both papers missed the overnight press run, but the Bulletin’s next run just happened to be that afternoon. Their staffers and distribution network would not be working overtime or off-hours to get an Afternoon edition out.

Meanwhile, newspapers across the country continue to struggle. Black Press, which owns the Star-Bulletin, is in the process of cutting back operations at several of its Pacific Northwest newspapers.

So the whole paper vs. online issue is certain to be front and center until the direction of the industry as a whole is ultimately resolved.

The Washington Post has an interesting story on the influence of Hawaii on the president-elect.

There are consequences to living on a small land mass surrounded by the ocean. There is a theory of behavioral science that islanders behave differently than mainlanders, that on an island competition is not rewarded as well as it is elsewhere.

“When you live on a rock, on an island, you learn to understand that everyone is critical to the success and survival of that space,” said Ramsay Taum, a Honolulu native and administrator at the University of Hawaii. “You have to get over your quibbles quickly.”

It’s back to work on Monday for staffers hired just for the duration of the legislative session. And briefings are already starting on the state’s financial outlook and the Lingle budget.

I’m going to defer today’s Friday Felines in order to share a few photos from yesterday’s New Year’s brunch at the home of friends just around the corner in Kaaawa. What a feast, featuring a wonderful vegetarian frittata made fresh on the spot. We’ll have to do some extra laps on our walks for the next few days to make up for our excesses! But it was a great way to welcome the new year. Do click on the photo for a better look.