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February 1, 2003 - Saturday
Another milestone. This site will pass 250,000 visits sometime later this morning, so watch the counter at the top.
It's early morning in Kaaawa. Cat wake-up call at 4:20 a.m. Leo's looking for food, a bit jumpy after being punished for misbehavior last night. I'm feeling a little guilty, worried about his mental health, trying to boost his ego. Pop a can of cat food, not our typical night feed. Cats run from all directions to the sound of the can. So I spoon out tiny amounts into a series of bowls. Leo gets his first. Make him feel special. Then a team effort, Duke, Toby, and Wally at my feet. Then a special bowl for Miki, the oldster, who needs special encouragement. Then Kili roars through the cat door, shaking off the rain and leaving a track of wet and somewhat muddy footprints across the room and into the kitchen. Leo gets another tiny serving.
The rain, which has been at a steady drizzle much of the night, begins a six-minute crescendo, rising to a steady tropical pounding, then tapering off again for several minutes until back at a drizzle.
I called the Advertiser this week to ask about their subscription rates, as we're getting to the end of one of the introductory cheapo promotion period. The only rate listed on the "renewal" form is $32 for 12 weeks of daily + Sunday delivery. I'm interested in knowing if there's a savings for a full year order, as with most subscriptions, and also want to know what the cost is for Sunday only delivery.
So I call the number on the form. The sales person is pleasant but definitely not forthcoming. I explain that I've received a renewal form and want further information on rates. This is a special rate, I'm told. No further info offered up. So what's the full year rate, I ask. She answers. There's no discount for an annual subscription. I never do hear what the annual rate is. They're obviously trained not to mention this, because it sounds like a lot. Apparently you've got to do the math yourself: 32 divided by 12 ($2.666) times 52 equals $138.66.
So I ask what the rate is for Sunday only. The answer: Usually if you downgrade from a promotional rate, there is no special rate.
But I'm a professional, used to difficult interviews. So I ask it again. What is the rate for Sunday only? This is like pulling teeth to get clear information. Where do you live, she asks. Finally the answer. Sunday only is available in our area for $24 for 12 weeks. That math is easy. It's $2 a week, and they'll throw the other six days in for just 66 cents a week total. That's just 11 cents for the paper and delivery each of the other six days of the week. Obviously they're trying to discourage the "Sunday only" choice.
So I finally had the information. We talked it over the next day and decided not to sign up at all. Not that it's too much money. More that the grating experience and the traditional Gannett pushiness was enough to make us reconsider the hassles of getting two daily newspapers. That's a big stack of paper to deal with every week, although some days we did enjoy comparing their coverage while sipping our morning coffee. So I'll just consider that Gannett did us a favor by discouraging our renewal.
January 31, 2003 - Friday
Another week gone, along with another month.
Congratulations to Meda's sister, Margaret Chesney, who was just named first deputy director of the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM), one of the National Institutes of Health.
A reader received this response yesterday from the Legislature after submitting testimony to a Senate committee via email:
Aloha and Thank you for submitting testimony on this Senate Bill. However, we have been informed that the Senate is no longer accepting email testimony.
You may be able to fax your testimony directly to the Senate Sergeant-At-Arms office at 586-6659. Please refer to the hearing notice for specific instructions. We apologize for the inconvenience this may cause.
He said several individual senators claimed no knowledge of such a policy, so we have to wait and see whether this mechanism for obtaining public input has actually been eliminated.
The sponsor's name of the short video ads referred to yesterday is Business Leaders for Sensible Priorities, an organization which has apparently been around for several years and which boasts a number of high-profile business types.
| And now that we've gotten to the end of January, here's a new round of Kaaawa sunrise photos from the past month. It's rough, but somebody's got to do it. Just click on this Kaaawa dawn. |
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January 30, 2003 - Thursday
I've been meaning to heap praise on Susan Essoyan's series this week in the Star-Bulletin, Schools under stress. Excellent work.
I also enjoyed Andrew Gomes' story in Sunday's Advertiser concerning the Fong family battle over control of the Market City shopping center. Rob Perez wrote about the lawsuits after they were launched last year, but Gomes adds more details and texture.
Bush's threat of war has sparked a lot of creativity. I was pointed this morning to the group, For Mother Earth, which has issued a report by its own weapons inspectors of the deployment of weapons of mass destruction in the Netherlands.
Here are two wonderful "Win without war" ads that are apparently part of a larger campaign. Unfortunately, I can't read the fine print that states the group that paid for the ads.
MoveOn.org has their own ad prepared for broadcast, which has gotten quite a bit of press.
I've also taken spins this morning through the web sites of True Majority, which has a simple system for sending easily personalized letters opposing the rush to war in Iraq to the president and members of congress. I also find FCNL's page of Iraq policy background useful.
It's been raining most of the night. All the cats are in right now except for Mr. Silverman. Harriet is curled up about 8 inches from my keyboard. She's not especially happy about the compulsory stay indoors, but at least she's dry and warm. Lindsey is closed in my bathroom with a towel to sleep on and a bowl of food. By now he's likely peed on the counter. If I'm lucky, he used the sink. Of course there's a cat box on the floor, but he'll need to show me that he's upset. Leo already threw his plastic food dish onto the floor along with the remaining crunchies, also just a bit of creative expression. All par for the course in a nine cat household.
January 29, 2003 - Wednesday
I added a late note yesterday about the morning's green flash. But the unusual morning didn't stop there. We were preparing to leave about a half-hour later when I saw a large splash of white water straight out at sea. I looked out, expecting to see what kind of boat caused it, but the white splash receded and there wasn't any boat. So I grabbed the binoculars and it happened again, but this time the cause was clear--a large whale was breaching, propelling itself out of the water in a graceful arch. I yelled for Meda, and a few seconds later, it happened again, this time a smaller whale repeating the same routine. The two, swimming next to each other, repeated their dance perhaps a half dozen times before taking a break and moving on.
Francis T. sent this link to an article in yesterday's Japan Times on missing plutonium at a reprocessing plant, and added his note:
Don't tell "DubYa's" administration!!! Is Japan building bombs?!? Shall "we" do a preemptive attack to take them out, again?!? Just making wise with your observations at the end of your journal [yesterday].
Japan Times reports today that the Bush speech yesterday has pushed their stock market down close to a 20-year low, while the Dow also fell this morning.
Bush was, as usual, a master of hypocrisy. He denounced storied Iraqi torture as the epitome of evil, then appeared to relish in a veiled reference to disappearing thousands of prisoners alleged to have Al Qaida links, widely reported to include releasing some prisoners for "further interrogation" to countries that practice torture.
Europeans already see Bush as "a trigger-happy, unilateralist half-wit," according to a comment by the Washington correspondent for the Independent, a British newspaper. Yesterday's speech certainly did nothing to alter that perception.
I managed to finish the selection of my favorite photos of 2002. It wasn't easy, and I couldn't slim the number down as much as last year. Not all cats, but they are well represented. Just click the "Best of 2002" banner (top/right).
January 28, 2003 - Tuesday
The New York Times reported yesterday on the settlement of an antitrust investigation into the pact between weekly newspaper chains New Times Media and Village Voice Media. While not admitting guilt, the companies, which had cooperated in shutting down competing newspapers, will now have to pay substantial fines and sell those assets and assist buyers entering their market.
I was surprised by the news that former KHON reporter Mary Zanakis won her federal lawsuit against Emmis Communications, owner of Honolulu television stations KHON and KGMB . Zanakis said she had been demoted and then fired after and a result of exercising her right to maternity leave. It's only a surprise because other journalists joined station management in testifying against her. It appears their big problem was that although there was testimony that Zanakis failed to produce as much as expected, these criticisms were never communicated to her and so there was apparently no record to back it up.
Are you ready to talk back to President Bush and his war administration? Various groups are urging increased public participation in this war-peace debate, including a coalition of groups at UH, and my favorite for stable, reasoned political analysis, the Friends Committee on National Legislation. FCNL provides phone numbers and emails of the White House and Congressional offices.
Listening to Secretary of State Powell on the news last night about Iraq's "missing" weapons, I couldn't help thinking about the various things our much more sophisticated bureaucratic apparatus has lost. How about plutonium and enriched uranium? Nuclear fuel rods? Laptop computers with from the Navy and the FBI? The list goes on.
Late note, 7:35 a.m.: Back from our walk. We were treated to a strong green flash this morning, which always adds a bit of pizzaz to the day.
January 27, 2003 - Monday
| It warmed up a bit over the weekend after the cold weather last week. Cold, in the relative terms we use here, refers to temperatures falling below 70 degrees F. |
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So I enjoyed this description from Anna, a corespondent from Canada:
Saturday night in Edmonton, it's -21 C outside and here I sit afore the computer trying to reach out and touch a warmer spot of the planet. I should have shoveled the driveway today. We had another 10 cm of snow last night but I am sure it will still be there tomorrow. There is a masochistic pride in this frozenness. It won't go away, so you might as well be proud of it. The blower motor in my car heater bit the dust the other day, I can't drive far without the windshield icing up so I steer with one hand and scrape with the other!
Regarding the NY Times on campus, a reader had this reaction:
I highly doubt that NYT news racks are an option. Who carries 27 quarters on Sunday or even 7 daily? The UH bookstore already sells NYT daily. Being able to offer speakers and educational programs comes within a 1.7 million circulation budget. I doubt either local papers can afford it.
January 26, 2003 - Sunday
From a friend's email--she captures my emotions precisely:
I started crying early this morning, at Manoa laundry mat no less, when I read the Advertiser story about the Pentagon getting ready to use nukes. So many who have spent lifetimes working against this and Bush + friends so easily move in this direction.
You realize how much our daily news is flavored by the Bush administration's propaganda when the occasional contrary voice penetrates the airwaves. Two instances really impressed us this week. On Monday night's PBS News Hour, former CIA analyst Judith Yaphe was excellent. And while driving into town yesterday morning, NPR's Weekend Edition featured an interview with former U.S. chief of mission in Iraq Edward Peck and Eric Rouleau, the former French ambassador to Tunisia and Turkey. The program is still available online.
The Annenberg School for Communication at USC has now scheduled its own forum on the FCC's proposed changes to ownership rules. The USC event is set to run all day on February 18. Unknown if any interested parties from Hawaii are planning to attend.
| It was Thursday, the morning after Meda's birthday. The box that carried a slew of b-day goodies from her sister had been recycled into a cat toy. After our morning walk, the cats were busy playing in that box and, as usual, I put down my coffee for a couple of minutes and snapped a few pictures. From left to right, that's Duke, Toby (in the box), and Leo. |
Post-birthday gift
(click for larger photo) |
A while later, after I got out of the shower, I noticed the box was still a center of attention. At that point, Duke had occupied the box and was stretched out, tail undulating. What a beautiful tail, I thought, noticing it's rich colors. One spot seemed a bit darker than the rest, which interested me because Duke's colors seem to be darkening over time. As his tail slowly shifted in the box, that darker spot seemed to take on a life of its own. Then I found out why as it it moved away from the rest of the tail and turned slightly to reveal the eyes and snout of a very scared rat that had apparently been dropped into the box as an additional cat toy.
Mr. or Ms. Rat made a break and got a few feet to the nearest wall with several cats in loose pursuit. That's one thing about this generation of cats. They're hell on hunting but a bit lax on dispatching the prey. This time was more of the same as they trapped the poor rat but then sat back at a reasonable distance to watch. The last time this happened that big rat was loose in our house for several days, ending up in our bedroom, before big sister Kili took rodent control into her own jaws. Not relishing the thought of a similar extended hunt, I grabbed the nearest tool, a plastic kitchen container, and plopped down, trapping the rat inside. Then I carefully slid an old issue of Consumer Reports under it (June 2002, "The truth about diets") and carried magazine, container and rat across the yard to give the cowering rat another chance.
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