Random Musings 35

If good judgment comes from experience, how can experience come from poor judgment?

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A train station is where trains stop, and a bus station is where buses stop. So what happens at a work station?

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Are people who read the Bible more when they get older cramming for a final exam?

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If we took the sponges out of the ocean, would the oceans get any deeper?

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Would lightning go faster if it didn’t zigzag?

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If a chameleon can’t change color, does it have a reptile dysfunction?

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If you totally understand the health benefits of eating dried grapes on a regular basis, then tell others about it, would you call that raisin awareness?

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Why get angry at lazy people? They haven’t done anything, have they?

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If an Italian chef dies, does he pasta way?

Original Coffee Meme Creations

I love to create memes. If you’ve read my blog before, you may know that since I’ve previously posted a number of them.

In recent months, I’ve created a number of coffee memes for a very simple reason — I love coffee. And I’m not the only one. My daily coffee meme posts on Facebook have quite a few positive reactions, both on my home page and in a private humor group.

The procedure is simple. Sometimes the phrases are from my thoughts, sometimes they come from simple (IMHO too simple) previously published images. I Google-search for nice, appropriate  coffee scenes, open my Photoshop Express on my iPad, merge the phrases and images, edit and crop ... and voila!

If you want, you may download and use these; you have my permission. Of course, attribution and credit would be nice, but it’s not necessary.

Enjoy!

Are you a coffee-holic like me?

Murder at Volcano House (Chip Hughes)

Private investigator Kai Cooke postpones some weekend Waikiki surfing a bit to discuss a job at Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park on the Big Island. He takes the case, though it means interrupting another investigation.

Former Miss Hawai’i runner-up Donnie Lam Ransom believes her husband Rex, former CEO of Ransom Geothermal, is the victim of revenge by the Hawaiian volcano goddess, Madame Pele. She wants Kai to shadow him for a couple of days, while they’re at a funeral.

Why? Two of Rex’s former associates have died in Pele’s domain in as many years. Their deaths appeared accidental but in the first incident, an old woman and a dog were seen in the vicinity — a familiar incarnation of the legendary Pele. And, as we all know, bad things come in threes.

It’s interesting, but pretty routine for a while, until the morning the Ransoms (and Kai) are scheduled to fly out. Rex insists on walking the Crater Rim Trail alone, and Donnie gets a cursive note warning her to stay away from Pele. On the trail, a woman in red appears, and Rex dies at the bottom of a steam vent.

Case and investigation over, right? It seems so, and Kai gets back to work on his interrupted investigation. But the Volcano House case just doesn’t go away. Rex’s daughter from his first marriage, Caitlin, gives Kai a call and the case changes from murder prevention to murder investigation.

There are a few revelations that appear out of left field, but eventually things work out for Kai and he’s able to bring his two investigations to satisfactory conclusions.

Lots of local history and customs are presented in the narrative — like why do cars carrying pork stall as they approach Oahu’s Pali Lookout, and descriptions of the Volcano House hotel. It’s almost like being on a narrated private tour.

Murder at Volcano House is quick-moving, interesting, and an easy read. Those not familiar with Hawai’i culture may stumble a little over local vocabulary, colloquialisms and dialect, but they just add to the color.

Grade: B+

Murder at Volcano House

(Surfing Detective Mystery Series #4)

Author: Chip Hughes

Genre: Murder Mystery 

Amazon.com (Kindle, 2014)

Iconic 1960s Photos

One thing about the aggravating worldwide COVID-19 social isolation condition — it’s giving me time to reflect on my life.

Watching PBS’s recent “Asian Americans” series, I thought a lot about my college and post-graduate days, and how dramatic news dominated our lives.

It was a memorable, dramatic, sometimes horrible, time in our nation’s history. Fortunately, it was capped off by two heart-lifting events that gave me hope, and I presume, most of America as well.

So I’m sharing some iconic ‘60s photos with you.

Pres. John F. Kennedy assassination,
November 1963

JFK assassin Lee Harvey Oswald shot
November 1963

UC Berkeley free speech demonstration
December 1964

Malcolm X assassination
February 1965

Watts (Lost Angeles) riot

August 1965.

Saigon execution, Vietnam War
February 1968

Rev. Martin Luther King assassination
April 1968

U.S. Atty. Gen. Robert F. Kennedy assassination
June 1968

Democratic Nat’l Conv. (Chicago) riot

August 1968

Mexico City Olympics Black Power salute
October 1968

Apollo 8 Earthrise
Christmas Eve 1968

Apollo 11 astronaut Neil Armstrong moonwalk
July 1969

What a memorable decade THAT was.