Back on the Shelf

Remember when I wrote in mid-January that bottles of Pepcid Complete antacid were pulled off the shelves because of defective containers?

They were recalled while Johnson & Johnson repaired their machines (a protruding screw had been poking holes in some of the bottles). The stores ran out of the product and weren’t expected to start offering them again until March after machinery had been inspected and retooled.

It’s March. I went to Costco last week and they still weren’t on the shelf. However (Hallelujah!) when I went today, there they were, standing proud as though they’d never been missed.

Well, they WERE missed. By me, and I’m sure by lots of other people.

Welcome back, Pepcid Complete.

A Peaceful Sanctuary

Sanctuary ... Quiet and Peaceful

There is a quite-peaceful spot at Queen’s Medical Center, in the midst of hospital hustle and bustle that I like to visit whenever I’m at Queen’s and need a break from waiting.

It’s located near the Harkness Building and is outfitted with benches nestled in a small little mini-park bordered by plumeria and other plants. (Is “small little mini“ redundant?)

One other good reason for sitting out there during the day is the warmth. One occasionally needs to get out of the frigid air-conditioned waiting rooms inside.

Ahhhh … peace and quiet.

Last One, I Promise

The nurse who connected my IVs during my trigger thumb corrective surgery the other week had problems with my left hand. She poked me several times trying to get that little anesthetic IV needle into the vein on the back of my hand.

“Sorry … sorry … sorry …” is what I heard.

Three days later, when the swaddling bandage came off, this is what my left hand looked like:

Pretty bruised. But the bruise has gone away and the hand looks normal again. Finally, this morning, the doctor removed the stitches. All that’s left is a final check-up in two weeks.

Hey! Thanks for hanging around.

Random Musings 8

Do you think Edward Scissorhands covers his mouth when he coughs?

* * * * *

Wouldn’t it be more prudent to put a quarter under a kid’s pillow when he loses a tooth? That way the kid gets a new tooth for only 25 cents. I’m just saying.

* * * * *

Why aren’t there any right-handed baseball pitchers nicknamed “Righty”? I mean, don’t they deserve as much recognition as the “Leftys” do?

* * * * *

Why do guys always hide their privates from other people’s x-ray vision? X-rays can only see the hard stuff, like bones and … and … wait. Never mind!

* * * * *

I hear some people only give their spoiled dog bottled water. I was just wondering … where can you buy bathroom toilet water in bottles?

Chinatown Gateway Plaza

Situated at the intersection of Bethel and Hotel Streets in downtown Honolulu is the Chinatown Gateway Plaza, encompassing a 26-story apartment building and an open plaza adjacent to the historic Hawaii Theater.

Guarding the entry to Honolulu’s Chinatown are two marble Chinese lions, a gift of Kaohsiung, Honolulu’s sister city in the Republic of China.

The park itself features a pond, over which swims a bronze sculpture of a honu (Hawaiian green turtle), created by Paul Saviskas in July 1999 on commission from the city’s Commission on Culture and the Arts.

In the sheltered corner of the park stands a sculpture of Dr. Sun Yat-sen at age 13, honoring his education in Honolulu at Iolani School. The artwork was sculpted by Chu Tat Shing in 2007, a gift of the Dr. Sun Yat-sen Hawaii Foundation. An adjacent plaque recalls Dr. Sun’s leadership in the overthrow of China’s Qing Dynasty, establishing democracy in China in 1911.

It’s a haven of peacefulness in the hustle and bustle of downtown Honolulu.

Worddities

Worddities: (n) word oddities. Source: Craig’s Dictionary

I don’t know why things like this interest me, but they do. It must be because I made a living arranging words on a page in a manner that made sense. Did you know that:

·    “Stewardesses” is the longest word you can type using only your left hand?

·    “Lollypop” is the longest word you can type using only the right hand?

·    “Dreamt” is the only English word that ends with “mt”?

·    “Tremendous,” “horrendous,” “stupendous,” and “hazardous” are the only four English words that end in “dous”?

·    “Abstemious” and “facetious” are the only words in which the vowels “a-e-i-o-u” appear in alphabetical order?

·    “Typewriter” is the longest word you can make using only one row on a keyboard?

I betcha you didn’t know all of that. And if you didn’t, it’s probably because you don’t care, or it never even entered your mind to figure it out.

For me, it was all of that. But now that I know, I feel so much better.

Don’t you?

Gertrude Dove

Have I mentioned Gertrude before? She’s a zebra dove (at least I think it’s a she) that flies over to greet me whenever I settle down in my reading chair outside.

It’s not out of love, I know that. It’s because she wants something to eat. She’ll walk around in front of me, looking up, then prance around me, sometimes even walking under my director’s chair.

A couple of times she’s flown up to the table next to me and given me the eye. Once, when I stared her down, she jumped down and roosted on my leg for a minute or so before heading down to the ground for her pick-n-peck routine.

She even flew up behind me once and settled on my head for a couple of seconds.

I thought I needed a picture of her the next time she landed on me, so I’ve been bringing my camera out with me. Unfortunately, she hasn’t repeated her “roost on Craig” performance … not even once. So I had to settle for a picture of her pecking away at the ground.

Two smaller zebra doves sometimes come around when she’s not there … I call them Hector and Victor. They’re both small, so I surmise they are much younger than Gertrude. Hector is the smaller of the two and cracked me up the other day.

When Victor was pecking at some cracker crumbs I’d left, Hector sidled up to him and began pushing him away with his “shoulder,” muscling in on the goodies, moving slowly to his right until Victor was out of the picture entirely.

That’s when Gertrude came running over from where she was foraging near my orchid plants, headed straight for the two and chased them away. You know what? I think Gertrude is her mother and she was letting them know who’s boss in these parts.

Boys, don’t mess with momma.

The Bread Code

Did you know the color of the plastic tag or twist-tie used on your loaf of bread tells you what day of the week the bread was baked?

Yep, it does, and it’s even been confirmed by Snopes.com. And here’s the scoop:

·    Monday: Blue

·    Tuesday: Green

·    Thursday: Red

·    Friday: White

·    Saturday: Yellow

This was reported on Hawaii’s local news yesterday, but really, folks, all that proves once again is that Hawaii is so way behind the times. This is old news – Snopes.com ran a sample email inquiry about this 10 years ago.

So … is this bread code thing a big deal? You may think so, but the bakers remove bread from the shelves regularly, and the code actually is used to determine which loaves should be removed. Any bread you buy won’t be more than a couple of days old anyway.

Plus … it’s not an industry standard – the colors may change in your area.

Still, if it makes you feel smarter, then use it!

Luke Nguyen’s Vietnam

Another of my favorite Cooking Channel shows is “Luke Nguyen’s Vietnam,” with new episodes airing on Sundays.

Nguyen (pronounced “win”) is a restaurateur whose restaurant, “The Red Lantern,” is located in Sydney, Australia. Every week, his show takes us to a different region of Vietnam, the country of his heritage.

His cooking is fun to watch, as he never sets up at a kitchen. Instead, he sets up in the street, on a hillside, in farms, at businesses … giving us a flavor not only of the food, but of the Vietnamese people and their daily lives.

Just this weekend, I watched him prepare Hmong black pig skewers, kohlrabi and buffalo salad, and a red Dzao salmon steam boat. Definitely not your everyday fare. Plus, it’s rather spicy; nearly every dish he makes in his wok includes a number of red chili peppers.

But frankly, it’s not his food that keeps me coming back, it’s the photography. It’s gorgeous! Street views, landscapes, architecture, the markets, the clothes, the people … beautifully composed and lighted, it’s almost like viewing art.

Credit for the magnificent cinematography goes to Chris McHattie and Wayne McPherson, who are cited as the show’s cinematographers and apparently are the ones who lug the video cameras up hills and along the countryside. Some the credit also goes to Nguyen’s partner and the show’s still photographer, Suzanne Boyd.

Bravo, Luke.

Initial Stitches

My left hand no longer looks as though it’s been wrapped up for arctic hitchhiking. The doctor removed the wrapping and checked out the operation site.

His verdict? All clear. A week from today, he’ll remove the stitches. See them? They’re those thin black fishing-line threads.

And notice the initials “RK” on the flat of the thumb? That’s the doctor’s initials. As part of the hospital’s procedures, he wrote them there to indicate he personally made sure he operated on the correct thumb.

And, see how the hand has an orange tint to it? That’s because they swabbed Betadine all over the hand from fingertips to ‘way past the wrist before operating. Prevents infection.

Safety and accuracy first. I like that.

Shucks, No Jesus

When I went for my left trigger thumb surgery last Friday, one of the first things they did was insert an IV needle into my right arm. Usually, it’s not a problem. The insertion seemed to go fast and easy enough, so I didn’t think anything about it.

Then, after the surgery, they removed the IV needle and bandaged it up to staunch the tiny drip of blood that ensued. Later that afternoon, I removed the dressing. It looked okay, albeit a little bruised; and again, I thought nothing of it.

Until a day later. Apparently, the IV nurse either missed the vein or the needle poked through at some point, because here’s what the arm looked like:

Guess what the first thing is that I did. G’wan, guess.

I checked to see if I could see an image of Jesus. See, if I could see Jesus’ face, then (I thought avariciously) maybe I could charge people to view the hematoma and take pictures of it. Ebay is out of the question because I didn’t want to put my entire arm up for bidding.

But … no Jesus. Shucks. There goes my next Vegas vacation.

Trigger Thumb Part 2

Two-and-a-half of years ago (September 2008), I had my right thumb fixed – trigger thumb surgery. Since then, everything has been going hunky dory, the thumb no longer “pops” and it’s like nothing ever happened to it.

About two months ago, my left thumb began popping. Uh oh, I thought, here we go again.

As happened with the right side, the popping at first was a mere annoyance.

Then, just like the right side, it started getting painful. It reached the point where it hurt like the dickens every time my thumb flexed.

So yesterday, I had it operated on. My left hand is now all bundled up but I’m happy knowing that in a couple of weeks or so, it’ll be as though the trigger thumb never happened.

I can’t wait.

Bye Bye Sahara Hotel

And another one bites the dust.

Long a landmark on the Las Vegas Strip (and the oldest casino on South Las Vegas Boulevard), the Sahara Hotel & Casino is going to close its doors forever on May 16 after 59 years.

That’s pretty sad, but inevitable as Las Vegas continues to reel from the deep recession that’s kept Vegas tourism down for the past three years.

I have stayed at the Sahara a few times and it’s one of the last remnants of an era that entertained Frank Sinatra’s famous “rat pack.”

The hotel rooms weren’t anything special, but they were cheap and they were on The Strip. The restaurants weren’t anything to write home about, and frankly, the buffet was awful. Only the House of Lords fine-dining restaurant can be considered a good-eating spot (great prime rib).

I remember staying there twice during Super Bowl weekend, and once during New Year’s Eve. But I haven’t been back there in a while.

Now it seems I’ll not get the chance again. Too bad. RIP Sahara!

Email Domains and You

Okay, this is interesting. Hunch, a website that says it “personalizes" the Internet, claims that your choice of an email domain says a heck of a lot about you.

To summarize:

Gmail: Average users are career-oriented, college-educated, single, city dwellers. They generally travel a lot and are politically liberal. Mostly, they’re thin young men who are single and childless. They are urbanites and have traveled a lot – to five or more countries. They mostly read blogs, have an iPhone, MP3 player(s) and laptop. They wear t-shirts and jeans at home and like salty snacks.

Hotmail: Age-wise, users compare to Gmail users, but they are generally female suburbanites who straddle the fence politically. They’re usually women 18-34, are high school graduates, read mags and contemporary fiction. They have a laptop and MP3 player(s) but don’t have DVRs. They lounge around in t -shirt and jeans and like sweet snacks.

AOL: Okay, if you use AOL, you’re not going to like this. Users tend to be overweight women in a long relationship, have children, and are age 35 to 64. They are politically middle of the road, live in suburbs and haven’t traveled outside the country. They read magazines, and have one to three DVRs attached to the home TVs. They lounge around in sweats. Optimistic extroverts, AOL users prefer sweet snacks.

Yahoo: Virtually identical to AOL users, they tend to be younger – ages 18 to 49. They are spiritual but not religious. Middle of the road politically, they have children and are in 1-5 year relationships. They are rural and haven’t traveled much. First priority is family. They read magazines, have computers and have 1-2 DVRs. At home, you can find them in pajamas eating sweet snacks.

So … my primary email account is on Hotmail, but I do have additional emails accounts on Gmail and Yahoo. What does that say about me? Seems I’m a mixed bag, huh?

Okay, since my primary account is at Hotmail, let’s see … I used to be career oriented until I retired, got my graduate degree, lived in cities and suburbs, have travelled a lot, read blogs, have a smart phone, MP3 player and a laptop. I use my DVR, I don’t read magazines any more, I wear a t-shirt and shorts at home, I like salty and sweet snacks. I’m basically an introvert who can be extroverted when the occasion calls for it.

Hmmm … Seems I have all the characteristics (except for femininity and thinness) of all these email domains.

No wonder I’m confused all the time!

Better Late Than Never

It took a while for Arthur Welch to get his recognition, but last week, he finally received a Purple Heart medal that he earned in the Korean War.

More than a half-century ago, in 1953, Marine Private First Class Welch of Muncie, Indiana, suffered shrapnel wounds during a gun battle.

He actually was awarded the medal while in the service, but it seems the medic who treated him was killed soon after and the necessary paperwork just wasn’t processed. If it weren’t for the fact that he applied for Veterans Affairs medical benefits at age 80, he never would have learned the medal was awaiting him.

Additionally, he received the United Nations Service Medal, the National Defense Service Medal, and the Korea Service Medal.

It’s about time. Congratulations, and thank you, Pfc. Arthur Welch.

Parking Fee & Iced Tea

You already know that I don’t care for the Pagoda Floating Restaurant. Well, I had lunch there again yesterday. Couldn’t help it, it was a family birthday party, so I had to go. And that’s okay.

Two shocks. Since the last time I ate there, Pagoda has:

STARTED CHARGING A PARKING FEE. If you park in their two-level parking structure, you need to put $2.00 in the fee box and remember your space number. When you leave the restaurant, tell them your space number and they return your two bucks.

I guess they want to prevent neighbors from parking there without permission. And I guess that part of the deal works because the lot was pretty empty when we got there.

The problem, as I see it, is two-fold. What if you don’t have $2 in bills or change on you when you park? Especially those who don’t know about the new fee. And what if some smart-ass walks into the restaurant, checks out the buffet, then walks back out with a crowd and tells the desk person that your space number is his?

The thought of it is pretty annoying.

STARTED CHARGING FOR ICED TEA. This one galled me. A cup of coffee or hot tea is still complimentary with your meal, and so it doesn’t make sense to pay for iced tea. What is it? Did they buy a state-of-the-art iced tea machine, whose cost they need to amortize over a short period of time?

Isn’t coffee more expensive than iced tea? I didn’t ask, but what if you wanted a refill on your hot tea and asked for another tea bag. Would they charge you extra for the tea bag? What if you want more hot water for the tea? Would they charge you extra for having to boil more water?

I mean … iced tea is nothing but flavored water over ice. Wait! Maybe the price of lemon wedges has gone up? No, that shouldn’t matter if they give you a lemon wedge with hot tea anyway.

This one makes no sense to me.

Don’t ask me how the food was yesterday. It was the same selection and it tasted the same as before. I suppose so anyway, I was too annoyed with the parking fee and iced tea things to notice.

Charlie Sheen Night

Borrowing a page from minor league baseball, the Bakersfield Condors hockey team hosted its “Charlie Sheen Night” when they played the Idaho Steelheads in an ECHL game.

(“ECHL” used to stand for East Coast Hockey League, but obviously, Bakersfield is in California on the west coast.)

The promotion included “tiger’s blood slushies,” a reference to a highly publicized photo of Charlie Sheen guzzling a bottle of Tigers Blood snow cone syrup.

Anyone who brought proof of a clean drug test got in free, and if you dressed like one of his characters (e.g., with a fedora and/or bowling shirt), you got an admission discount. Additionally, the Condors are trying to break his Twitter record by exceeding a million followers in less than 25 hours and 17 minutes.

Here’s the best part – the first 1,000 fans got a Charlie Sheen mask on a stick. Woo hoo!

The promotion worked … the Condors beat the Steelheads 2-1.

And no, Charlie Sheen did not show up. Shucks.

Heart Pentagon

While walking near the King Street parking entrance of Neal Blaisdell Center  near downtown Honolulu, I noticed what looked like a pentagon created by five dried seed pods.

They had fallen, apparently having dropped their seeds and dried out. Unopened pods still on the tree appeared to be green, with slightly opened ones being red-orange.

Interspersed amongst the green and red were dried clusters like the one on the ground.

I wish I could tell you what species of tree it was, but I have no idea. Anybody care to hazard a guess? I’d appreciate it and will give you a hearty thank you.

Tsunami Redux

Last night sort of reminded me of the “cautious panic” that Honolulu experienced last year following the devastating earthquake in Chile – Waikiki tourists trudging down Kalakaua Avenue, headed for higher ground or friends’ hotel rooms on higher floors.

Tourists Abandoning the Moana Surfrider Hotel in Waikiki

As for the locals, many did as expected. As soon as they heard the tsunami warning sirens blaring around 10 p.m., they did the usual thing … they rushed on down to their nearest supermarket and stocked up on rice, spam, batteries and toilet paper.

I wonder how many will be returning sheepishly to the stores today to see if they can get a refund?

Again, I muse … I guess it’s better to be safe than sorry. If I were a tourist, I’d be terrified, especially after seeing the devastation the 8.9 earthquake inflicted on the north-eastern coast of Japan’s Honshu Island yesterday.

Weren’t those images incredible?

As for the locals, I guess one can’t suppress the “mob-let’s-just-be-sure” gene. It dwells somewhere in all of us.

Laura Calder

I’ve altered my morning television viewing habits since our local cable station added The Cooking Channel. One of my new favorite programs is French Food at Home, which originally was broadcast on the Food Network Canada channel, with its lovely host, Laura Calder.

Laura (if I may be so bold as to use her first name as though she’s a close friend) used to have a desk job in journalism (hey, just like me!). Didn’t suit her. She wanted to be a chef, so it was “Culinary school, here I come.” Still not enough. She honed her skill in California wine country before being turned on to French food. Before you knew it, she was in France, studying at Ecole de Cuisine LaVarenne.

She has a soft yet animated personality that mesmerized me from the start (I love the way she flips her hands in the air to demonstrate her enthusiasm). And the fact that she’s very lovely with a comely stature doesn’t hurt one bit. Her recipes are very simple – perfect for the home cook – and they turn out very well, lending a sort of French elegance to everyday cooking.

With two cookbooks to her credit – French Food at Home (2003) and French Taste (2009) – she has established herself as a sort of neo-Julia Child, a leader in French cooking at home.

And, she’s awfully nice to look at in the morning.

For more about Laura, check out her website: www.lauracalder.ca

Doggy Doings

We all know how dog owners (and cat owners, and bird owners) pamper their home buddies and shower them with all kinds of good stuff.

Well, at the recent dog show I meandered by the booths set up to separate owners from their money. There weren’t as many as I thought there would be, but what they had there for sale was kind of interesting.

Here’s a sample:

Product Booths

Doggy Magazines (For the owners, not the dogs)

Doggie Jerky Nibbles

Show Sponsor Eukanuba's Doggy Treats

And that’s it for the Hawaiian Kennel Club Dog Show last weekend.

Good doggie! That’s a good boy!

A Non-PC Offer

I’m not saying the guy in charge of promotions at Hawaiian Rent-All is leaving himself (or herself) open to criticism, but if there are any plus-sized eloping fiancées out there, they might be giving him/her a call.

I think it’s safe to say that should the need arise, common sense would dictate that the elopers use the back door to sneak out, especially if the need for a ramp IS indicated.

By the way, over the years, Hawaiian Rent-All’s sign has entertained us with humorous and witty sayings. Long may they continue!

Hawaiian Kennel Club Dog Show 2

Watching the judging at the Westminster Kennel Club’s annual dog show at Madison Square Garden each year has always fascinated me. It takes a mighty educated eye and a wealth of experience and knowledge to select the best entrants based on a list of standards.

The Hawaiian Kennel Club Dog Show held this past weekend at the Neal Blaisdell Center Exhibition Hall afforded me the opportunity of watching first hand.

Judges are brought over from the mainland to preclude the possibility of local favoritism. Two competitions are held using the same judges, who switch off which breeds and groups they will judge – in essence creating a whole new dog show. And indeed it is.

Sunday’s was the 168^th All-Breed Dog Show, and Saturday’s was the 167^th. Judging were James E. Frederiksen and James E. Noe, both from Knoxville, Tennessee; and Terry and Jacqueline Stacy of Chapel Hills, North Carolina.

Here are Mr. Frederikson and Mrs. Stacy at work, plus a few more of the beautiful dogs in the competition:

James Frederiksen Judging a Havanese

Jacqueline Stacy Judging a Standard Poodle

Bearded Collie

Shetland Sheepdog

Norwich Terrier

Hawaiian Kennel Club Dog Show 1

Yesterday I did something I’d never done before – I attended a kennel club dog show. Never would have know about it if the wife and I didn’t go to the Collectors’ Expo at the Blaisdell Galleria exhibition hall last week.

I love dogs … they’re such good-looking animals, not to mention they are great companions. And the Hawaiian Kennel Club’s 167^th All-Breed Dog Show was a great place to check out purebred competition-quality canines.

And, there was an extra added bonus for me. I met a long-time friend whom I haven’t seen in years – Barbara Ankersmit, president of QMark Research & Polling. I wasn’t surprised to see her there, for I’ve known she was a breeder of Newfoundland dogs in the past.

It turns out she’s segued nicely from the big ol’ Newfies to the bouncy Papillons. Quite a transition from the Working Dog Group to the Toy Dog Group. As she put it, it’s so much easier to care for a seven-pound Papillon than a 160-pound Newfoundland.

Barbara, it seems, was a steward at the show.

I took a bunch of pictures yesterday … here are a few (more tomorrow):

Australian Shepherd

Golden Retriever



Pomeranians

  

Toy Poodle



Yorkshire Terrier

The dog show continues today, from 7:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. And don’t worry, today’s show is an entirely new competition. It’s the 168^th All-Breed Dog Show, which gives all the entrants a second chance at vying for Best of Breed, Best of Group, and Best of Show.

Click on Picture for Larger Image

The judges, who come from the mainland, will switch breed and group duties, so it indeed will be a new competition. Apparently, lots of mainland shows are also doing this, because people travel great distances to show their dogs (in Hawaii, they come from neighbor islands, incurring travel expenses for the owner, handler and dog).

Woof! … in case you who don’t understand Newfie language, here’s a Papillon translation … Arf!

Blaisdell Center Fish

The other day, I wrote about tilapia mysteriously appearing in the Hawaii State Capitol’s reflecting pool.

That reminded me of some fish I’ve seen recently at the ponds between the Neal Blaisdell Center Arena and the center’s Galleria exhibition hall.

There’s quite a variety of fish there, and I certainly don’t pretend to know all their names. But I do recognize a few.

Tilapia

For example, there are hundreds of tilapia there (y’know, the biblical fish that fed the multitudes). In addition to the regular ones, there are some orange ones. At least I think the orange ones are tilapia – they hang around together.

Humuhumunukunukuapuaa

A couple of the Hawaii state fish – humuhumunukunukuapuaa – zip around the pool at the water’s surface. It’s easy to locate them, just look for the “moving V” ripple. It’s difficult to photograph these guys because they move so fast and there’s a lot of reflection on the water.

Barracuda

Then, I’ve seen a couple of barracuda. They just hover there … waiting … watching … smiling evilly. I wonder what they’re looking for? The Blaisdell pools are sometimes used by homeless to bathe in. Maybe the barracuda were put in there to discourage that?

If you see someone pushing a filled shopping cart around, limping … maybe, just maybe …

Wally’s Garden Orchids

We stopped by Wally’s Garden near the corner of Beretania and McCully Streets the other day to pick up some gardening materials.

While the wife was jabbering away with the sales guy, I wandered around to the nursery area to check out some beautiful flowers that were on display.

Good thing I had my camera with me; I was able to snap a few photos of some exquisite orchids. Check these out:

Dendrobium Burana Sundae Alulani Hinojosa

Dendrobium Ekapol x Pale Face

Epidendrum Lake View Pink

Nice, huh?