What a shame–and what a sad statement–that on the day Maui poet W.S. Merwin was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for poetry, the Star-Bulletin snagged a few short paragraphs, mostly from an Associated Press story, to report the news. Not a single local quote or bit of extra work.

[Update: A reader properly notes that today’s S-B has extended that initial story somewhat, slightly longer and with a photo of Merwin and one of his past dogs. Still pretty slim pickings by comparison. I didn’t see it in the online offerings earlier this morning because it only appeared at least one level down from the main page.]

But that was still far better than the Advertiser, which today included a Washington Post story in which Merwin’s prize is reported among the many others announced at the same time.

So what’s that about? Merwin lives way over on Maui so we don’t care? The Advertiser was apparently too busy reporting “breaking news” about free mini-burgers at Jack in the Box to follow up the Pulitzer story.

You have to turn to the Maui News for real reporting. Thanks to Rick Chatenever for his excellent piece today.

Compare the Honolulu dailies stories to the treatment the announcement got in Merwin’s home town, and in Seattle, home of Merwin’s publisher. Even the New York Times managed a telephone interview from a great distance.

I’m very happy for William. Not so happy for us Honolulu news consumers.

NPR is featuring a 2008 interview with Merwin. Audio, according to a note on the NPR web site, will be availabe at about 3 p.m. Eastern Daylight time.

I was checking out the situation of Gannett’s Tucson Citizen, which the company is trying to either sell or shut down, and ran into this little piece which brought back lots of fresh memories, and this one which thinks about the path taken recently by French factory workers.

My mother recently was successful in retrieving a painting that lived for years on the wall behind my father’s desk in his cluttered office at Honolulu Restaurant Supply Co., the firm he founded back in 1959.

On closer inspection, it turns out to be a painting by the late Ray Higuchi, art director at the Star-Bulletin for 40 years. Higuchi died in 2002 at the age of 82. [Link fixed]

This painting is of Makapuu with a view down the Waimanalo coastline towards Kailua.

I was shocked to see several of Higuchi’s paintings of a simnilar size listed by Robyn Buntin of Honolulu for prices of $4,700 and up!