Entries from October 2007 ↓
October 21st, 2007 — Opinions
All across the U.S. mainland the big box stores proliferate. Wal-Mart. Home Depot. Costco. Target.
Wherever such stores congregate, local merchants and small businesses suffer. Such is the result of ridiculously low priced merchandise sold in bulk.
In some locales, businesses lobbied to reduce big box store incursions, much to the lament of most money-paying customers who actually prefer large selection, low prices, and convenient hours vs. shopping for a parking spot only to pay more for the same product as sold in nearby communities without a chip on their collective council’s shoulders.
Continue reading →
October 20th, 2007 — Places
We live in an era of compare and contrast. Hawaii is always listed in the Top 10 Beaches in the US. We rank football, basketball, even volleyball teams.
American’s have a Top 10 List for everything, including the ridiculous (ala David Letterman’s Top 10). Music. Movies. Even presidential candidates number sufficiently to have a Top 10 list.
We love to compare what we have with what others have. In an age where bigger is better by default, my brain is bigger than your brain.
Continue reading →
October 19th, 2007 — News
Hawaii may not be the number one vacation destination these days, but the state remains a leader.
No, it’s not college volleyball. Both University of Hawaii men’s and women’s teams have trouble cracking the Top 10 the past few years. Breaking out of the Top 10, maybe. The UH football Warriors, even undefeated, don’t rate a spot in the Top 10.
Hawaii leads the nation in killer germs.
Continue reading →
October 18th, 2007 — News
Hawaii’s darling professional golfer now has a greater appreciation for why golf is flog, spelled backwards.
For a few years, Michelle Wie could do no wrong. She challenged the men on a PGA event. She didn’t win a tournament on the women’s tour, but she came close half a dozen times.
These days she can’t do anything right, especially hit a golf ball like she used to. Whatever happened to Michelle Wie?
Continue reading →
October 17th, 2007 — Places
The popular television program, Lost, is filmed in Hawaii. Last week we saw the film crew in action in the Diamond Head crater.
I was driving my visiting grandmother to Diamond Head for a quick look at the mountain she wants to scale at age 98, when we came across a road block immediately after leaving the tunnel. A young man carrying a walkie-talkie asked if we would wait awhile as the show was being filmed.
Continue reading →
October 16th, 2007 — News
Guess what? The University of Hawaii’s football team is in the Western Athletic Conference (the WAC). Hawaii is about as far west as a college football team can go.
The other WAC teams are also western in nature, with the eastern most team being Louisiana Tech, still west of the Mississippi, my arbitrary line of east vs. west. That’s where the craziness begins.
Continue reading →
October 15th, 2007 — Fiction
The largest single parking lot in Hawaii is operated by the State’s Department of Transportation. We call it the highway.
Every day, more people seem to be found parking on H-1, H-2, and sometimes H-3 than anywhere else in the state. King Street, Beretania Street, and Kapiolani Boulevard all rank in the Top 10 Parking Lots of Hawaii.
Believe it or not, parking in Hawaii’s state run lots is free but comes with limitations. You can’t leave your vehicle unattended. You may feel like it, but you can’t. Otherwise, even more cars will begin parking– right behind yours.
Continue reading →
October 14th, 2007 — Places
So, you want to travel to a neighbor island to escape the teeming hoardes of people and traffic on Oahu? You need a checklist. Here’s my friend Kalani’s Top 10 Check List for Neighbor Island Visit.
Continue reading →
October 13th, 2007 — Opinions
Visiting relatives, coffee drinkers, recently asked the one question for which I don’t have a qualified answer: “What is Kona coffee?”
“Well,” I replied in the most fake authoritative voice that a non-coffee drinker could muster on severely short notice and without a Google opportunity in sight, “it’s coffee that is grown along the Kona coast of the Big Island.”
There. That should satisfy their curiosity. Let’s move along to questions about high gasoline prices and why there are no caucasians staying in their hotel, and why it seems that half the women from Japan are pigeon-toed or bow-legged? Or both. Honestly. I have answers for those questions.
Continue reading →
October 12th, 2007 — Places
Mainland family members came over to Honolulu today for a wedding this weekend. We put them up in one of Waikiki’s hotels along the beach. Dinner tonight left us wondering what happened to Hawaii’s aloha spirit and plain on customer service.
We dined tonight at a hotel restaurant on the beach. Entertainment included hula dancers and music. Dinner was a typical hotel buffet. That means the food was not very good and the service was worse. On second thought, the food was worse than the service. The only thing good was the price and the view. The price for four people was under $200. Kamaaina rate.
Continue reading →
