Pounding Poi on Maui

March 2, 2008 > MAUI TODAY, > Maui Yesterdays No Comments
Aloha    

Click for Kahului, Hawaii ForecastOld Stuff Day
Day 62 of 2008
304 days left in this year
HAWAIIAN WORD OF THE DAY — Poi: Hawaiian staff of life, made from cooked taro (kale)  corms pounded with water into a puree. (Protein: 0% – Fat: 0% – Carbs: 100%).
 PIDGIN WORD OF THE DAY— Kaikaim: Eat
HAWAIIAN PROVERB OF THE DAY — “There is no meat that doesn’t taste good with poi.” 
HAOLE SAYING OF THE DAY — “Good farmers have a good sense of humus.”
 WEB SURF SPOT OF THE WEEK — Greener Gadgets Design Competition
 WEB VIDEO OF THE WEEK — Poi Poundahz
 PODCAST OF THE WEEK — NPR-National Public Radio
 BLOG OF THE WEEK — The Huffington Post
Poi (right) made from the tarot plant (left)

MARCH 2nd: Here at the Good ol’ Maui Almanac, we’re used to finding it difficult to locate a piece of history which either took place on Maui or directly impacted Maui – every day. Once in a while, we get a date where a few interesting things happened:

1911: All poi in Hawaii is ordered destroyed by the territorial government, as officials believe some poi contains cholera. The ban is throughout the islands. Evidence is sketchy, but it appears that until the next crop arrives, thousands of people lose weight.
1966: The satellite ESSA 2 becomes the first to take a picture of Hawaii and its weather. Sadly, no improvements are made to weather predictions in the next 42 years.
1967: Back in the day – before (shockingly to this writer) the majority of Americans were born — the airlines were severely regulated by the federal government.  Desperate for tourism (ahem), the state of Hawaii sues the federal government and airlines demanding a set air fare to the islands, and the state wins. The two airlines serving the state – United and Pan Am – agree to set the round trip airfare from the west coast at $200. Using the Consumer Price Index to compare the dollar values, $200 in 1967 is worth $1, 207.19 today. People still come. Sigh.
1989:  Exxon Houston runs aground in Hawaii, spilling 117,000 gallons of oil.
1999: The Pioneer Mill in Lahaina announces it will cease operations in 2000. In 2008, nobody misses it.

HISTORICAL EVENTS ON THIS DAY — March 2nd

  • 1498: Vasco da Gama’s fleet visits Mozambique Island 
  • 1642: The first convict Labor Law in America is enacted by the colony of Virginia 
  • 1776: Americans begin shelling British troops in Boston 
  • 1799: Congress standardizes U.S. weights & measures 
  • 1807: U.S. slave importation is forbidden (takes effect on January 1st, 1808) 
  • 1819: Arkansas becomes a territory 
  • 1836: Texas declares independence from Mexico 
  • 1853: Washington becomes a territory 
  • 1861: The Dakotas become a U.S. territory 
  • 1867: Congress abolishes peonage in New Mexico 
  • 1899: President McKinley signs the bill creating Mount Rainier National
  • 1958: Dr. V E Fuchs finishes the first crossing of the Antarctic continent by
  • 1962: Wilt Chamberlin scores 100 points in one basketball game 
  • 1970: American Airlines’ Boeing 747 makes its first flight 
  • 2000: Former Chilean dictator General Augusto Pinochet leaves Britain for his homeland, hours after he is ruled mentally unfit to stand trial on charges of human rights abuses 
  • 2001: The United Nations tries unsuccessfully to persuade Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban to reverse its decision to destroy a pair of giant, ancient statues of Buddha and other Buddhist relics that the regime considered idolatrous

BORN ON THIS DAY — March 2nd

  • 1793: Sam Houston, president of Texas 
  • 1862: John Jay Chapman, U.S. advocate/poet/writer
  • 1904: Dr. Seuss (Theodor Geisel), author 
  • 1917: Desi Arnaz, Santiago Cuba, singer/actor 
  • 1931: Mikhail S Gorbachev, Soviet secretary-general
  • 1931: Tom Wolfe, journalist/author  
  • 1942: John Irving, novelist
  • 1944: Lou Reed, (Louis Firbank), rock vocalist/guitarist
  • 1949: Eddie Money, (Mahoney) singer/guitarist
  • 1950: Karen Carpenter, vocalist/drummer
  • 1950: Matthew Laurance, actor 
  • 1950: Mitchell Laurance, actor
  • 1955: Dale Bosworth, TV host 
  • 1955: Jay Osmond,  singer
  • 1959: Andrew Farriss, rocker 
  • 1962: Jon Bon Jovi,  singer/songwriter
  • 1968: Daniel Craig, actor
  • 1979: Chris Martin, rock singer
  •  1985: Reggie Bush, football player
  •  1985: Robert Ile, actor

Three Sisters of Doom

March 2, 2008 Raphael O'Suna No Comments

I think that the greatest disappointment in life comes when one realizes that one’s mind cannot materialize certain desires, no matter how hard one tries. People come to this realization at different ages. But it always stings and sours. Of course, some people expect God to fulfill their every wish, rather than mental magic, but the disillusionment is the same for each group.

This inability to obtain what one wants, seems to suggest to one, that one is not as important as one thought. This is a kind of second slap across the face. One now feels less powerful and less worthy. This leads to a third realization: one is also not too intelligent to have believed in the power of oneself to begin with. Cemeteries and hospitals are daily reminders that there are forces working in our world over which we have no control.

People sometimes react violently and anti-socially–childishly–when they are confronted with actuality. Others become depressed or melancholic. Still others lose themselves in mundane activities, in order not to think of such things again.

Everyone deals with subordination in his own way. Just as we deal differently with grief.

Not being able to make our reality by thought, also makes us aware of great uncertainty, vulnerability and chance. These Three Sisters of Doom are not the types of companions with whom one would wish to traverse the path of life.

One could further this discussion of “one thing leads to another,” but you get the idea. Man is a lobster put into a pot of water, which is only later brought to a boil.

– Raphael O’Suna,   Haiku