by Raphael O’Suna

When he told her that he would have a relationship with her essence, she wasn’t sure what that meant.

He had called her his muse, but she said she had never been a muse.

In fact, she had begun to worry. She never used the word “obsess,” or thought the word “stalk,” but her anxiety was the type that is felt by a victim or a prey.

He seemed fixated on her, but never expressed it. Desire was there, but so was shyness. Things he said or wrote were veiled, implicit, ambivalent.

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Int’l Museum Day Day 139 of 2011 226 days left in this year

HAWAIIAN WORD OF THE DAY — ‘Oia‘i‘o: Truth
PIDGIN WORD OF THE DAY— Tok tru: Truth
HAWAIIAN PROVERB OF THE DAY — “A cuttlefish is a creature that moves two ways.”
HAOLE SAYING OF THE DAY — “A hair divides what is false and true.” (Omar Khayyam)

TODAY: Tax Money Giveaway by Council Members Continues. Five Maui County Council members continued the practice of giving pay bonuses to their office staff members, for fiscal year 2012. Council Members Danny Mateo, Gladys Baisa, Don Couch, Mike Victorino and Bob Carroll have approved “salary supplements” or bonuses of $11,950 to 13 staff members. Elle Cochran, who holds the West Maui residency seat, has not granted any bonuses. More >

HAWAII EVENTS ON THIS DAY — May 18th

1959: President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs into law the statehood of Hawaii. On the same day, in its last act, the Territorial Legislature decided to adopt the slogan “The Aloha State.” Thus ends badly, since 1893, a 66-year struggle for the independence of a country first taken over by a pineapple baron and some marines. Where there’s greed and a will, there’s usually a way.

• 1889: Artist Jules Tavernier dies in Honolulu.
• 1899: The Board of Education abolishes fees for attending public schools in the Hawaiian Islands.
• 1910: The federal court of claims finds no merit in Queen Lili’uokalani’s claim for compensation for the loss of crown lands after the overthrow. The court said the lands were the property of the government of Hawaii, whatever that form of government may be, and thus were the property of the Territory of Hawaii.
• 1939: Oahu’s first blackout drill is declared a success. The warning signal for the drill was flashed by radio, by the sounding of the Aloha Tower siren and the blowing of plantation mill whistles at 8:36 p.m. The drill lasted 19 minutes.
• 1942: Price-control measures go into effect in Hawaii. Retail stores are allowed to charge no more than their highest April price for any item.
• 1963: About 150,000 people turn out to see a Honolulu parade honoring astronaut and former UH student Gordon Cooper, who splashed down in the Pacific on May 16 after 22 orbits around the Earth.
• 1982: Dole announces an immediate 2,000-acre cutback and a long-term 25 percent cutback in Lanai pineapple production because of poor prices for the canned fruit.
• 2010: In the first graduation exercises as the University of Hawaii Maui College, about 170 students received diplomas and certificates in ceremonies at the Maui Arts & Cultural Center’s Castle Theater. More >
• 2011: Gov. Neil Abercrombie and his Homelessness Coordinator Marc Alexander unveiled a nine-point plan yesterday that they called a “significant step” to helping people find permanent housing and long-term job training within 90 days. More >

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Peace Day Day 138 of 2012 227 days left in this year

HAWAIIAN WORD OF THE DAY — ‘Waiue: Milk
PIDGIN WORD OF THE DAY— Bulmakau: Cattle
HAWAIIAN PROVERB OF THE DAY — “The food hidden in the bosom.”
HAOLE SAYING OF THE DAY — “I could dance with you until the cows come home. On second thought, I’d rather dance with the cows until you come home.” (Groucho Marx)

TODAY: “What I saw in Zuckerberg’s bungalow. We should have seen it coming. We kick ourselves and wince. We fed it everything, this insatiable beast: credit card numbers, social security numbers, names of first pets and mother’s maiden names. Christ, some of us learned sex from it, had sex on it, watched people having sex in ways we still do not understand. But we kept one thing forever hidden from it, until everything we’d given wasn’t enough-and the internet took our face.” More >

HAWAII EVENTS ON THIS DAY — May 17th

• 1940: The University of Hawaii Board of Regents fires Otto Klum, who had been head football coach for 19 years.
• 1947: The battle-scarred former battleship Oklahoma, veteran of two world wars, sinks while being towed to Honolulu.
• 1949: Some 10,000 people rally at Kapi’olani Park to protest the dock strike than began May 1.
• 1956: Lihue Plantation announces it will revamp its fields and its mill grounds to convert from rail to truck hauling. The Kauai plantation is the last in the Islands to make the change from railroad hauling of harvested sugarcane.
• 1982: Pesticide-Poisoned Maui Milk Recalled. Heptachlor, that nasty pesticide that Maui Cane & Pineapple used for years on its pineapple fields, gets into cattle feed, and the milk the cows produced, poisoning the milk supply on Oahu. All Maui milk was pulled off shelves, and residents were told to destroy all containers in their homes.The use of Heptachlor was fully discontinued by 1987 and no poisoned feed was served to bovines thereafter on Maui, as far as we know.1985: A leaking valve in a 70,000-gallon storage tank used by Brewer Chemical Co. to hold liquid ammonia sends pungent fumes through the Kahului commercial area and forces the evacuation of hotels, shopping centers and homes.
• 1989: Compelled by public disclosure requirements in federal tax law, Bishop Estate trustees reveal that they were paid $1.57 million each in 1986-88 commissions and voluntarily waived another $1 million each during the same two-year period.
• 1993: State House Speaker Joseph Souki reveals that a private company has found three electronic listening devices when the company made a sweep of his State Office Tower office during the crucial final days of the legislative session. Four electronic listening devices are also found in House Finance Committee Chairman Calvin Say’s office.

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Nat’l Sea Monkey Day Day 137 of 2012 228 days left in this year

HAWAIIAN WORD OF THE DAY — ‘Kaaahi: Train
PIDGIN WORD OF THE DAY— Trene: Train
HAWAIIAN PROVERB OF THE DAY — “The birds poise quietly in the gentle breeze.”
HAOLE SAYING OF THE DAY — “A critic is a gong at a railroad crossing clanging loudly and vainly as the train goes by.” (Christopher Morley)

TODAY: Koyo USA Corporation, which sells MaHaLo Hawaii Deep Sea in Japan and elsewhere from it’s Kona plant will pay $2 million to settle violations of state law for selling bottled water for human consumption from an unapproved source, the DOH said at the time. State health officials said from 2006 until 2011 the company was taking ocean water rejected by its reverse osmosis filtration and desalination system and adding it to its final product. More >

HAWAII EVENTS ON THIS DAY — May 16th

• 1890: A committee formed by Oahu Railway and Land Company unanimously selects the name Pearl City for “the town recently laid out at ‘Ewa.”
• 1954: The Advertiser reports the number of television sets in use in Honolulu may now total 40,000. Television had been on the air for 18 months in Hawaii and there were three television broadcasting stations. Some 20 brands of television sets were available.
• 1956: The last island in Hawaii to use Railroad announces that it won’t anymore. The railroad at Lihue, on Kauai, which was used to transport cane to the port, says that by summer, it will use trucks to haul all its cane.
• 1974: University of Hawaii Chancellor Wytze Gorter resigns over the way the UH Board of Regents handled contract negotiations with football coach Larry Price. 1975: The Russian oceanographic research ship Dmitri Mendeleev leaves Honolulu for its home port of Vladivostok 28 hours late and minus one of its scientists. A 27-year-old geophysicist on the vessel had defected while here.
• 1985: United Airlines’ pilots go on strike. At the time, United carried more passengers between Hawaii and the Mainland than all other airlines combined.
• 1997: Brook Mahealani Lee of Pearl City is crowned Miss Universe.
• 2009: For the second time in just 6 months, the CEO of ML&P resigns. Maui Land & Pineapple Co. President and Chief Executive Officer Robert Webber has resigned the position he held for just 6 months, effective next Friday, the company announced yesterday. More >
• 2011: The Maui Hotel & Lodging Association raised a record $406,380 in the 33rd Annual Visitor Industry Charity Walk held in Kahului Saturday. More >

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Int’l Family Day Day 136 of 2012 229 days left in this year

HAWAIIAN WORD OF THE DAY — ‘Ike: Knowledge
PIDGIN WORD OF THE DAY— Save: Know
HAWAIIAN PROVERB OF THE DAY — “Knowledge is set up in the clouds.”
HAOLE SAYING OF THE DAY — “Some animals are more equal than others.” (George Orwell)

TODAY: An estimated 275 stand-up-paddlers gathered at Maliko Gulch in Haiku on Saturday, May 12 for one of the year’s most popular downwind SUP races – the Fourth Annual OluKai Ho’olaule’a. Women and Men champs competed for a $15,000 purse. More >

HAWAII EVENTS ON THIS DAY — May 15th

• 1918: The first air-mail service in the United States is inaugurated between Washington and New York. The aircraft was capable of carrying 600 pounds of mail.
• 1949: The ILWU says dockworkers will unload food and dairy feed from strike-bound ships in Honolulu Harbor. The dock strike began May 1 and lasted almost six months.
• 1954: Qantas Imperial Airways inaugurates trans-Pacific service through Honolulu.
• 1963: Air Force Maj. Gordon Cooper, a former University of Hawaii student, orbits the Earth 22 times in the last of the Mercury space missions.
• 1964: Japanese Crown Prince Akihito and Princess Michiko arrive in Hawaii on a 20-hour visit.
• 1995: The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says the upper-atmosphere ozone layer over Hawaii thinned to unprecedented levels during the previous winter, subjecting the Islands to higher-than-normal levels of ultraviolet radiation.
• 1997: Between 700 and 1,000 people march from the Royal Mausoleum to downtown to show their concern over conflict surrounding the administration of Kamehameha Schools. Alumni and parents complained that the trustees of Bishop Estate had overstepped their policymaking role by interfering in administrative matters.
• 2011: Hawaii’s new Foreclosure Reform bill stops most nonjudicial foreclosures, at least temporarily, and provides homeowners the opportunity to work out a loan modification. Read The Maui News  story>

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National Bike Month Day 134 of 2012 231 days left in this year

HAWAIIAN WORD OF THE DAY — Hau‘oli: Joy
PIDGIN WORD OF THE DAY— Strongela: Strong
HAWAIIAN PROVERB OF THE DAY — “He is ruthless with the hands of a gale.”
HAOLE SAYING OF THE DAY — “Our truest life is when we are in our dreams awake.” (Henry David Thoreau)

May 14th, 1948: Dream City comes true. The Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar (HCS) and the Kahului Railroad announce that they are planning to build a new “model” city in Kahului. During the next ten years, more than 800 homes will be built on what was until then cane land. Most of the homes are offered to local workers from those cane fields, as well the railroad and some local shop.The first area to be constructed is the Kahului Shopping Center, which opens in 1951. (Two years ago the center had a bad fire which destroyed most of the east side of the complex, including Ah Fook’s Food Store, Del’s and the Salvation Army store).

Over the years, there have been live and movie theaters at the 19-acre site, along with magic stores and a horse riding accessories store.The houses were built simply and for low cost, keeping in mind the low pay of the cane workers. Some homes total cost was less than $4,000. Today there are homes in the Dream City area, which includes Wakea, Lono, and Kamehameha Streets, which are worth more than $1 million.

HAWAII EVENTS ON THIS DAY — May 14th

• 1902: The Pacific Commercial Advertiser reports that the widening of the Waikiki road is making rapid progress.
• 1902: The Chamber of Commerce joins with the Merchants’ Association to advertise the Hawaiian islands throughout the United States.
• 1905: Gas is manufactured in Honolulu for the first time. The Honolulu Gas Company in Iwilei began manufacturing the new household fuel in its new plant makai of the Pacific Oil and Union Oil companies.
• 1940: The “main line” of the U.S. fleet, the 10 battleships at Pearl Harbor, puts to sea under cover of heavy sea, air and submarine security patrol.
• 1941: Twenty-one Army B17 bombers complete a mass flight from San Francisco to Hawaii in a move designed to strengthen the aerial might of the Islands.
• 1948: Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Co. and Kahului Railroad Co. announce plans for a new “model” city built around the port of Kahului on Maui.
• 1949: More than 5,000 Hawaii residents send telegrams to President Truman asking him to intervene and end the Hawaii dock strike, which began May 1.
• 1958: James Drummond Dole, the founder of Hawaii’s pineapple industry, dies at the age of 80.
• 1983: A state report concludes that tourism has an even greater impact on the state’s economy — especially employment — than previously thought. The report said tourism supplied a third of all civilian jobs in the state and each dollar spent by tourists generated a total of $2.04 in sales as money was recycled through the economy.
• 1984: The state Board of Agriculture grants Safeway’s application for a license to bring in Mainland milk after Federal Judge Martin Pence imposed a deadline on the board and gave it almost no choice on how it could vote.
• 1994: Fire destroys the prized Japanese tea house in Hilo’s Queen Lili’uokalani Gardens Park.
• 2005: Mother Marianne Cope, who worked in the Hansen’s Disease settlement on Molokai, is beatified in ceremonies at the Vatican.
• 2009: The Hawaii Supreme Court denied Hawaii Governor Linda Lingle’s motion to reconsider its ruling that shuts down the Hawaii Superferry

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Mothers Day Day 134 of 2012 231 days left in 2012

HAWAIIAN WORD OF THE DAY — Makuahine: Mother
PIDGIN WORD OF THE DAY— Haus Piksa: Mami
HAWAIIAN PROVERB OF THE DAY — “Heed well the voice of your heart.”
HAOLE SAYING OF THE DAY — “An ounce of mother is worth a ton of priest.” – Spanish proverb

TODAY: “Today is Mother’s Day, a day designated to honor mothers across the United States. We take time today to honor those wonderful women who bore us, wiped our noses, bandaged our scrapes and, oh yeah, shaped our characters.” More >

HAWAII EVENTS ON THIS DAY — May 13th

• 1865: The Clipper D.C. Murray arrives in Honolulu and by nightfall everyone in Hawaii has heard the shocking news: President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated. True, he was assassinated on April 15 and long buried, but out here, a month was about right for news to travel. Hawaii is the most isolated chain of islands in the world, as measured by distance in any direction to any continent. Even today, this location gives one pause — you can’t “get away” from it all any further than this location, for to move in any direction will move you closer to “it all,” however you define IT. We think it’s why people moved here in the first place.1908: Congress approves $3.1 million for a naval station at Pearl Harbor.
• 1929: James Arthur Rath, organizer of Palama Settlement and its director for more than 20 years, dies at the age of 58.
• 1908: The Pacific Commercial Advertiser reports on Prince Jonah Kuhio Kalaniana’ole’s, first speech to Congress.
• 1921: C. Brewer & Co. purchases a lot at the corner of King and Richards streets for a new office building.
• 1924: Halema’uma’u erupts violently, spewing rocks and lava 1,800 feet into the air. Eight people are injured.
• 1940: Torrential rains on the northeast side of Kauai wash out six homes and a number of chicken coops, disrupt traffic and leave the Nawiliwili valley under floodwaters.

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