Hilo Days: A Humiliating Day in the Park

When I was young, I could always managed to find experiences that tempered any arrogance and self-confidence I might have felt at the time. Like the time I fancied myself quite the fisherman. Boy, did I learn another lesson in life, so much so that I wrote about it in my now-defunct website, Hilo Days.

Fishing  Derby White-Wash

A bunch of us entered a fishing derby at Liliuokalani Park, which was newly opened after the [1960] tidal wave took it apart.

The county parks and recreation department had announced that a fishing derby was going to be held at the park, and anyone who wanted to enter could do so by showing up on the designated Saturday.

Artie Kimura, Ron Takata, Gary Sato and I (there may have been others) got our gear in shape, buying new bamboo rods, tsuji [what we called fishing line], floats, hooks, buckets to keep our fish in, and frozen prawns to use as bait. I was actually quite excited and had dreams about the huge mullet that I was going to bring home for dinner.

So we show up, and there are about a million people there, all jostling for space and the hot fishing spots. After registering, we picked a likely looking area and waited for the starter's whistle. When the shrill blast filled the air, a million lines hit the water, floats started bobbing, and suddenly the water boiled with hungry fish.

To the right of me, a kid pulled out a big tilapia. To the left of me, another kid pulled out a large mullet. Across the pond, dozens of fish were being hauled out of the water. At the pond behind me, the anglers were going crazy.

And I stood there with my line in the water. I dabbed my bait on the surface, pulled it in, threw it back out, moved it from left to right, pulled it in again and threw it back out again.

Nothing.

What? Did I have bad breath, or something?

How embarrassing. Kids who had no idea what they were doing were catching fish, and there I was, my line in the water. Artie caught a few, Ron and Gary did okay too. Me, I was the only one with nothing but warm, stink bait to show for my day's efforts.

Plus, I got a sunburn — the back of my neck, my forehead, nose and cheeks were red and irritable for a week. Serves me right for thinking I knew how to fish.

Here to Stay (Mark Edwards)

London science teacher Elliot Foster first meets veterinary nurse Gemma when she tours his Cuckoo Lane garden during a local Open Gardens Day. Two months later, they marry.

Everything is great, until one day, her parents and 28-year-old sister — Jeff and Lizzy Robinson, and Chloe — return from France and move in with them for a couple of weeks. Right from the start, they establish a mutually irritating and complicated relationship.

The Robinsons are sloppy and overbearing. They’re authoritative, rude and impolite. They are boorish, curt and cunningly insulting. Their clothes are often on the floor and they don’t flush the toilet. Lizzy has allergies and has problems with his cat Charlie. It doesn’t help that their granddaughter Katie shies away from them.

And Chloe. Something’s terribly wrong with her, despite her parents’ protestations. She’s always submissive, secretive, reclusive and terrified.

The Robinsons have secrets, slowly revealed through intermittent flashbacks. Elliot has reason to suspect them of child abuse and the brutal murders of his neighbors — a retired doctor and his wife. A short visit to the town where Gemma grew up reveals quite a bit, thanks to a chat with two fishermen in the local pub.

It becomes intolerable when they refuse to move out and take over the house. Things get ugly. Very ugly. Gemma, it turns out, had plans of her own all along.

There are a few story transitions that could be improved, but this is not too bad a read. Well, except that the first third of the book was rather irritating as the Robinsons’ characters were established. Their behavior reminded me of spoiled bratty kids that bully others. But I guess in this case, it’s a good thing, huh?

Grade: C+

Here to Stay

Author: Mark Edwards

Genre: Psychological Thriller

Thomas & Mercer (2009)

Random Musings 35

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

* * * * *

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

* * * * *

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

* * * * *

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

* * * * *

Would lightning go faster if it didn’t zigzag?

* * * * *

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

* * * * *

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?

* * * * *

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

* * * * *

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.

The Sixth Extinction (Jack Rollins)

The Earth has gone through five mass extinctions of living creatures, the fifth and most recent being the dinosaurs. Scientists now believe we are in the midst of a sixth, with 30,000 species dying off each year.

The principal cause is us — humans.

The Sixth Extinction begins with three gruesome deaths witnessed by now-famous naturalist Charles Darwin aboard the HMS Beagle as it lay anchored offshore of Antarctica — Terra Australis Incognito (“The Unknown Southern Land”). This reference will begin to make sense in Chapter 7.

One hundred and eighty-three years later ... a biological threat has been released (accidentally, or intentionally?) from a secret military laboratory near Bodie State Historic Park in California. Was it a saboteur? An inside job?

Enter Painter Crowe, director of Sigma Force, charged with solving scientific/technological global threats. What the lab was working on is too technical and complicated to cover here, except to say they were studying desert varnish — Project Neogenesis. But it’s discussed extensively in Chapter 3. (How’s that for a simple non-explanation?)

Meanwhile, 24-year-old park ranger Jenna Beck witnesses an attempted eradication of the site and escapes an ominous bio-hazardous cloud. Jenna joins Painter’s investigation. Something has escaped during the contamination breach. Worse yet, the death zone is spreading.

Some of the team visits the Halley Research Station in Antarctica for answers, while circumstances lead the Painter and Jenna to Brazil, where they root out something called Dark Eden. Meanwhile it’s storming in California, literally, and despite Sigma’s efforts to contain it, the contagion is spreading. The nuclear option is on the table.

Oh ... did I mention the gigantic underground ecosystem — Hell’s Cape, a “shadow biosphere” — being studied in the Antarctic underground? Unbelievable. I could write an entire blog post on that. But I won’t. You’ll have to find out for yourself. Suffice to say it’s “prehistoric-ish” and what Dark Eden is salivating over.

California, Brazil, Antarctica — three operating theaters, all intrinsically tied together. Tension galore!

Interestingly, in light of what’s happening today, Dark Eden’s purpose hints at an eerie relevance to the current coronavirus pandemic.

Grade: A

The Sixth Extinction: A Sigma Force Novel (#10)

Author: Jack Rollins

Genres: Suspense, Action

HarperCollins (Paperback, 2015)

Restaurant Seafood Meals: California

Going out to eat is one of my favorite hobbies, especially when I fly from Hawai’i to visit family in California.

I can’t wait until it’s prudent to fly there again. Damned COVID-19 restrictions.

When I’m there, I tend to order Cal-Mex, or seafood. I usually post directly from table side to my Facebook page, then when the event pops up on my Facebook memories 1+ years later, I jump on Twitter and tweet the picture.

Here are a few. Enjoy!

Special Shrimp Omelet

Black Bear Diner (Milpitas)

Seafood Combo and Chips

The Fish Market (San Jose)

Crab Cakes Benedict

Classic Diner (Fremont)

Filet of Sole Petrale Doré

The Tides Wharf and Restaurant (Bodega Bay)

Chirashi Bowl (sashimi over sushi rice)

Satomi Sushi (Fremont)

I can’t wait to get back there.

Restaurant Seafood Meals: Hawai’i

One of my most popular Twitter post categories is meal pictures, generally posted straight from the restaurant on Facebook.

When the pictures pop up on my Facebook memories, generally 1-9 years later, I post 1-2 a day on Twitter.

As I eat breakfast out a lot, most are from diners. I have hundreds, and posting all would be ridiculous. So, I decided to concentrate on seafood entrees instead. Here are a few from Hawai’i restaurants:

Mahimahi and Eggs

Like Like Drive-Inn (closed)

Mahimahi and Eggs

New Eagle Cafe

Shrimp Enchiladas (delivered)

Los Chaparros Mexican Restaurant

Shrimp and Veggie Tempura, Ahi Sashimi

New Eagle Cafe

Real Crab Fritatta

Big City Diner Ward (closed)

Scrambled Eggs and Sea Hawaiian Style

Jack’s Restaurant

Misoyaki Butterfish

New Eagle Cafe

Next time: California seafood meals.

Where Hawaii Ranks 51

How Hawaii fares in a few best/worst categories:

Top “Foodie” Cities in the USA (Yelp 2019)

1. San Francisco, CA
2. St. Louis, MO
3. HONOLULU, HI
4. Plano, TX
5. San Diego, CA

Worst States for Beer Drinkers (Groupon, 2019)
(Quality, affordability, enthusiasm)

1. North Dakota
2. HAWAII
3. Kansas
4. Alaska
5. New Mexico

Healthiest State for Seniors (United Health Foundation, 2019)

1. HAWAII
2. Utah
3. Connecticut
4. Minnesota
5. Colorado

Worst States to Drive In (WalletHub 2020)
(Cost of ownership and maintenance, traffic and infrastructure, safety, and access to vehicles and maintenance)

1. HAWAII (3rd year in a row)
2. Rhode Island
3. Washington
4. California
5. Colorado

Top States for Health Care (U.S. News and World Report, 2019)

1. HAWAII
2. Massachusetts
3. Connecticut
4. Washington
5. Rhode Island

Worst States for Opportunity (U.S. News and World Report, 2019)

1. Louisiana
2. California
3. New Mexico
4. New York
5. HAWAII