Absurdity Day Day 325 of 2008 41 days left in this year

HAWAIIAN WORD OF THE DAY — ‘Haumia ea: Air pollution
PIDGIN WORD OF THE DAY — Sit bilong paia: Ash(es)
HAWAIIAN PROVERB OF THE DAY — “Observe with the eyes; listen with the ears; shut the mouth.”
HAOLE SAYING OF THE DAY — “Much smoking kills live men and cures dead swine.” - George D. Prentice

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WEB SURF SPOT OF THE WEEK — Democracy Now!
WEB VIDEO OF THE WEEK — Barack Obama is Irish
NETCAST OF THE WEEK — Left Wing Conspiracy
GOOD DEED SITE OF THE WEEK — Media Matters

HAWAII NEWS ARCHIVES – November 20, 1928

The Oahu newspaper Pacific Commercial Advertiser reports that there seems to be an eruption at Kilauea on the Big Island. This may come as news to Honolulu, but not to Maui, which suffers the worst attack of VOG since Westerners arrived more than a century ago. Of course, no one calls it VOG, as the word had not been invented yet.VOG is an amalgam of Smoke and Fog, as it references volcanoes. Its first use was as SMOG, of course, which appeared in English for the first time in 1905, to describe the haze which hung over London.In the past several years, several meteorologists have claimed that there is no such thing as VOG, that in fact what Maui experiences is car pollution, and they say they have the air chemical analysis to prove it. We can only say that indeed that might be true, but then, what were people complaining about back in 1893: horse exhaust? The painting above depicts the Kilauea Volcano eruption of 1893. It hangs in the Volcano Museum at Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, Big Island of Hawaii.

EVENTS ON THIS DAY – November 20
1637: Peter Minuit, and the first Swedish immigrants to Delaware, set sail from Sweden
1789: New Jersey becomes the first state to ratify the Bill of Rights
1919: The first municipally-owned airport in the U.S. opens in Tucson, Arizona
2000: Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori resigns, ending his 10-year reign
2001: Federal health officials approved sale of the world’s first contraceptive patch, Ortho-Evra.
2003: Singer Michael Jackson was booked on suspicion of child molestation in Santa Barbara, Calif. (He was later acquited.)

BORN ON THIS DAY – November 20
1884: Norman Thomas, socialist
1889: Edwin Hubble, astronomer
1917: Robert Byrd, Democratic Senator (West Virginia)
1938: Dick Smothers, comedian
1942: Joseph R Biden Jr, Democratic Senator, VP
1946: Duane Allman, rocker (McNeil Lehrer Report) (62 years ago)
1947: Joe Walsh, guitarist/rocker
1956: Bo Derek, actress
1975: Joshua Gomez, actor (“Chuck”)
1978: Nadine Velazquez, actress (“My Name is Earl”)
1989: Cody Linley, actor (“Hannah Montana”)

DIED ON THIS DAY – November 20
1910: Leo Tolstoy Russia, author (Anna Karenina), dies at 82
1973: Allan Sherman songwriter (“Camp Granada”), dies
1975: Gen Francisco Franco Spain’s dictator, dies in Madrid at 82
1985: Bill Scott cartoon voice (Mr Peabody, Bullwinkle), dies at 65
2006: Director Robert Altman dies at age 81