First, from the incoming mail, a reader comments on the HGEA negotiations:

Yesterday’s article seemed like a puff piece fed by Lingle’s office blamming the Mayors for holding up a contract with HGEA. Absent from the reporting were such details as how long the Mayors have had to review the details of the proposed contract and what role, if any, the Mayors played in settlement discussions. While all of us want a settlement, it struck me as a typical Lingle media piece. Wouldn’t prudence dictate that the Mayors actually review what they are agreeing to first? This rings particulary true since the county mayors may have been simply cut out of the process by the adminstration and then given a take it or leave it kind of deal.

This note from Bob Jones:

love Hawaii, but oh the joys of the cheaper mainland. just returned from Louisiana where I was paying $2.14 a gallon for gasoline and the average price of a restaurant dinner with endless shrimp, crab, alligator and sweet potato fries was $10.

Still on the food theme, this note is from a friend now in Paris on an emergency trip:

Food, btw, is amazing here. I have never been fond of French food but I now know that’s because I never actually had any. Such amazing cheese and truly exceptional bottles of wine at every corner store for a (converted) $3. I bought a (converted) $13 bottle of wine for comparison purposes and there was little discernible difference in quality. (I’d heard this was the case but had to test for myself!)

Street markets have incredible arrays of fruit, meat, olives, and prepared foods. Hard for me to figure out price comparisons with both kilo and euro conversion to calculate, but since it’s clearly cheaper than eating at restaurants, I’ve not allowed myself to become overly concerned with those details.

We did eat at a lovely cafe the first night I was here as a celebration of sorts. Prices there were comparable to mid priced Honolulu fare but the food quality was over the top. These folks really know how to enjoy the moment! And they make those moments last. . .dinner hour begins at 8-9 p.m. and extends to 2 a.m. On cafe night we watched elderly couples arrive for dinner at midnight as we were finishing our meal. Quite a cultural phenomenon for me. . .

From Susan Schultz at Tinfish Press:

I am writing to announce publication of our 19th issue of the annual journal, which is beautifully designed, covered by hand-made stuffs, and full of wonderful work. Please support our efforts to publish experimental poetry from the Pacific.

We are charging $12. To order, go to Tinfishpress.com, click on “purchase,” go to the bottom of the 2checkout page and order that way) because we no longer get our postage from UH. You can also order by mail at 47-728 Hui Kelu Street #9, Kane`ohe, HI 96744, the home office.

For more, please read the Editor’s Blog, which includes photographs of our making the covers by hand, and of very cute children (if I may say so myself!).

Here’s a sound bite from the ongoing rail debate:

No rail project like the Vancouver SkyTrain elevated hot third rail system, the one Mayor Hannemann’s administration has used as a model, has been built in any other major Canadian or US city in the 23 years since the SkyTrain was built in 1986.

Toronto, Calgary, Montreal, Seattle, Portland, Sacramento, San Francisco, LA, San Diego, Denver, Phoenix, Salt Lake City, Dallas, Houston, Charlotte, etc. all chose a more flexible technology.

If that SkyTrain is so great, why didn’t any of those other US and Canadian cities build a similar system??

I know the city has canned answers. But I don’t think they’ve got any good answers.

And, from Manoa, something for the “bureaucracy” file:

Since the 1990s, this university has seen an explosion in both the number of administrators and the salaries they receive. In 1994, there were 20,041 students at UHM, in 2008, 20,169, a percent increase of .6. In 1994 there were 2,008 faculty and in ’08, 1,984, or a decease of .1%. In 1994 the UH system and UHM administration had 62 positions, in 2008, it had 234 for an increase of 277%.

Those are the numbers. Here’s a story of those numbers in action:

According to a story making the rounds, David Ross, the Chair of the Manoa Faculty Senate Executive Committee, invited President Greenwood to attend the Senate’s convening of the Faculty Congress at the end of October. He received a reply saying that proper protocol requires that he ask the Chancellor to invite the President on his behalf–and that the President will reply to him through the Chancellor.

I certainly hope that he asserted the rights of the faculty and extended the invitation directly, rather than being shunted off through “channels”.

Don’t miss Sunday’s New York Times story by Julie Creswell detailing the collapse of the Simmons Bedding Company, brought down by a series of investors who bought the company, buried it in debt, extracted huge profits without concern for the ongoing business, and then jumped ship.

When crooks do it, it’s often referred to as a “bust out”. In the case of hundreds of large companies, it’s called “leveraged buyout”, I guess.

I wonder what this kind of digging would show about Hawaii’s hotels. How much of current financial pain in the visitor industry is the result of similar leveraging of our island assets? I would guess it is substantial, but it would be a big project to track down the data.

And did you catch NPR’s story last week about Venezuela’s system of musical training for kids? Amazing.

Equally amazing was that there was no mention of Venezuelan leader, Hugo Chavez, a popular target of media demonization.

It seems that we’ve got a thing or two to learn from Chavez and Venezuela, if this musical program is any indication.

Here’s another indication that big money will be flowing into federal elections.

From the First Amendment Coalition:

The Federal Election Commission (FEC) decided with a 4-1 vote that a consulting firm, Black Rock Group, can act as a vendor for individuals who want to run political advertisements without violating campaign finance law. The FEC approved the advisory opinion allowing the political consulting firm to provide guidance to clients, each acting as their own liability companies (LLCs), without being regulated as a “political committee.”