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Red Apple Day Day 336 of 2008 30 days left in this year

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HAWAIIAN WORD OF THE DAY — Kokoleka: Chocolate
PIDGIN WORD OF THE DAY —Hapai: Pregnant
HAWAIIAN PROVERB OF THE DAY — E ho’a’o no i pau kuhihewa - “Try to end the panic.”
HAOLE SAYING OF THE DAY — “To die is nothing; but it is terrible not to live.” - Victor Hugo

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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

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On this first day of the last month of what has seemed to be a very long year, let’s take a look at a little of what the world is doing and how it translates to Maui:

1. Gas prices are $1.87 in New York. We’re hovering around $3.05. Basically, this is price-gouging a captive market, which used to be illegal.

2. Luxury car sales are dying - in October, Lexus sales fell by 30%, BMW by 25%, Mercedes Benz by more than 40%, Porsche by 50% and Bentley by 62%. On Maui, Lexus sold a total of three cars last month. And have you noticed how slowly that Mercedes Benz dealership is building in Kahului? It doesn’t take two years to build a dealership, unless you’re concerned…

3. Three conversions in Hawaii have been stopped, one in Kaanapali. These are the conversions of hotels into timeshares. Hotel owners, tired of actually employing people and having the awful hassle of managing cooking, cleaning, service and management staffs, have fired everyone, closed hotels and begun to convert them to timeshares. That way, people buy a condo for a week, and pay for service themselves. Presto, quick, greedy sales, and no nasty “contributing to the community” in the form of employment, etc. Except of course,  no one is buying timeshares now, so the construction has stopped, and those people are out of a job too.

4. DHL, the delivery company, is backing out of America. The German-based company has found the delivery racket in America to be ruthless, and unbelievably cut-throat. (FEDEX, UPS and USPS all have efficiency ratings above 95%.) DHL does have a presence here in Hawaii; I wonder where those people will go now?

5. Republicans are morons. In Britain, John Stuart Mill called the Conservative Party the Stupid Party. It seems little has changed. In the national election, Barack Obama won all educated categories, those with college, those with post-graduate, those with advanced business degrees. John McCain won uneducated voters in Appalachia and the South. Here’s one take on the current state of America, from the conservative British publication, The Economist:

“Many conservatives - particularly lower-income ones - are consumed with elemental fury about everything from immigration to liberal do-gooders. They take their opinions from talk-radio show hosts like Rush Limbaugh and the deeply unsubtle Sean Hannity. And they regard Sarah Palin’s apparent ignorance not as a problem but as a badge of honor…Richard Weaver, one of the founders of modern conservatism, once wrote a book entitled, ‘Ideas Have Consequences.” Too many Republicans are still refusing to acknowledge that idiocy has consequences, too.”

On Maui, idiocy along party lines has not trickled down much. I mean, Mayor Charmaine Tavares is a Republican, and an idiot, sure. (When asked for her vision of the best job for her, it was - not to be mayor - but to open a bowling alley, voters disagreed and made her mayor). But generally, it’s harder to pin party politics on local politicians. Anyone who has witnessed the County Council at work realizes that stupidity here is broad-based. Both Democratic- and Republican-leaning politicians seem equally dumb, and corruptible, if the recent vote on Makena is any indication. This makes it harder for the casual observer to understand the local political scene. (Or, maybe it makes it easier, since, with the definite exception of Jo Ann Johnson, the rest of the lot are a bunch of weasels.)

1640 Portugal regains independence after 60 years of Spanish rule
1641 Massachusetts becomes 1st colony to give statutory recognition to slavery
1653 An athlete from Croydon is reported to have run 20 miles from St Albans to London in less than 90 minutes
1824 House of Representatives begins to end election deadlock between John Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson, William Harris Crawford & Henry Clay - Adams eventually declared president
1831 Erie Canal closes for entire month due to cold weather
1868 John D Rockefeller begins anti oil war
1878 1st White House telephone installed
1887 Sherlock Holmes 1st appears in print: “A Study In Scarlet”
1891 James Naismith creates the game of basketball
1896 1st certified public accountants receive certificates (New York)
1903 “The Great Train Robbery”, the 1st Western film, released
1906 Cinema Omnia Pathe, world’s 1st cinema, opens (Paris)
1909 1st Israeli kibbutz founded, Deganya Alef
1913 1st drive-up gasoline station opens (Pittsburgh)
1917 Boys Town founded by Father Edward Flanagan, west of Omaha NE
1918 Danish parliament passed an act to grant Iceland independence
1919 Lady Nancy Astor sworn-in as 1st female member of British Parliament
1922 1st skywriting over US-”Hello USA”-by Captain Turner, RAF
1929 Game of BINGO invented by Edwin S Lowe
1930 NHL drops 20 minute slashing-about-the-head penalty
1930 Ruth Nichols becomes 1st woman pilot to cross the continent
1939 SS-Führer Himmler begins deportation of Polish Jews
1941 Japanese emperor Hirohito signs declaration of war
1941 Last day of first-class cricket in Australia for 4 years
1942 Gasoline rationed in US
1943 FDR, Churchill & Stalin agree to Operation Overlord (D-Day)
1944 Béla Bartòk’s Concerto for orchestra, premieres
1944 Mail routing resumes in free South Netherlands
1944 Prokofjev’s 8th Piano sonata, premieres
1955 Rosa Parks (black) arrested for refusing to move to the back of the bus
1956 “Candide” opens at Martin Beck Theater NYC for 73 performances
1956 Frank Robinson (National League) & Luis Aparicio (American League) voted Rookie of the Year
1956 Indonesian Vice-President Mohammed Hatta, resigns
1957 Sam Cooke and Buddy Holly and Crickets debut on Ed Sullivan Show
1958 Our Lady of Angels School burns, killing 92 students & 3 nuns (Chicago)
1958 “Flower Drum Song” opens at St James Theater NYC for 602 performances
1959 12 nations sign a treaty for scientific peaceful use of Antarctica
1964 Martin Luther King speaks to J Edgar Hoover about his slander campaign
1965 Airlift of refugees from Cuba to US began
1965 South Africa government says children of white fathers are white
1966 Georg Kiesinger elected West German chancellor
1966 Radio time signal WWV moves from Greenbelt MD to Boulder CO
1967 Queen Elizabeth inaugurates 98-inch (249-cm) Isaac Newton telescope
1967 Wilt Chamberlain set NBA record of 22 free throws misses
1967 Pacific Northwest Sports awarded is one of 2 American League expansion franchise teams(Seattle)
1968 Pirate Radio Modern (259) (England) begins transmitting
1968 Burt Bacharach/Hal David’s musical “Promises Promises” opens at Shubert Theater NYC for 1281 performances
1973 Australia grants self-government to Papua New Guinea
1973 Jack Nicklaus becomes 1st golfer to earn $2 million in a year
1978 President Carter more than doubles national park system size
1978 Test Cricket debut of Rodney Hogg, vs England at the Gabba
1978 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1982 Michael Jackson releases “Thriller”
1983 Rita Lavelle, former head of EPA, convicted of perjury
1989 East Germany drops the communist monopoly from its constitution
1989 Mark Langston signs record $3.2 million per year California Angels contract
1989 USSR President Mikhail S Gorbachev meets Pope John Paul II at the Vatican
1990 British & French workers meet in English Channel’s tunnel (Chunnel)
1990 Iraq accepts Bush’s offer for talks
1994 PTL leader Jim Bakker released from jail
1994 Rober Schumanns 2nd Symphony premieres in London
1996 Colin Montgomerie of Scotland wins Million Dollar Challenge, the richest first prize in golf - $1 million
1996 85th Davis Cup: France beats Sweden in Malmo (3-2)
1996 Lance Klusener takes 8-64 in debut Test Cricket to trounce India
1997 GS Warrior guard Latrell Sprewell, attacks his coach P J Carlesimo
1997 Howard Stern Radio Show premieres in Davenport IA on KORB 93.5 FM
1997 Westinghouse formally changes its name to CBS

1935   Woody Allen [Allen Stuart Konigsberg] Brooklyn (Zelig Annie Hall)
1935 Lou Rawls Chicago IL, vocalist (Dean Martin’s Golddigers, Natural Man)
1936 Lou Rawls Chicago IL, singer (Dean Martin’s Gold-diggers, Natural Man)
1945 Bette Midler Aiea HI, singer (Wind Beneath My Wings, Do You Want to Dance?)/actress (Beaches, First Wives Club)
1970 Kirk Rueter Centralia IL, pitcher (Montréal Expos)
1970 Takahiro Ikenoue WLAF LB (Rhein Fire)
1975 Sandra Maidana Miss Universe-Uruguay (1996)
1976 Konerak Sinthasomphone Milwaukee WI, Jeffrey Dahmer’s victim
1988 Zoe Kravitz daughter of Lisa Bonet & Lenny Kravitz

1901 George Lohmann cricketer (in South Africa 18 Tests, 112 wickets), dies
1916 Charles E Vicomte de Foucauld French explorer, dies at 58
1925 Vicente Arregui Garay composer, dies at 54
1934 Sergei M Kirov Josef Stalin’s collaborator, assassinated in Leningrad
1935 Bernard Schmidt inventor (Schmidt camera), dies
1939 Max Fiedler composer, dies at 79
1941 Horace Chapman cricketer (2 Tests for South Africa, 39 runs, 1 wicket), dies
1945 Harvey Bartlett Gaul composer, dies at 64
1947 Aleister Edward S Crowley British occultist, dies at 72
1947 Hardy mathematician, dies
1950 Ernest John Moeran British composer, dies at 55
1951 Felix Petyrek composer, dies at 59
1952 Victor E Orlando Italian premier (1917-19), dies at 92
1960 Ion Vasilescu composer, dies at 57
1968 Hugo Haas actor/director (Bait, Pick Up), dies of asthma at 66
1970 Frank Smailes cricketer (England pace bowler Test vs India 1946), dies
1971 Arthur B Springarn US NAACP chairman (1940-65), dies at 93
1972 Antonio Segni Italian PM/President (1955-57, 59-60, 62-64), dies at 81
1973 David Ben-Gurion founding father of Israel, dies in Tel Aviv at 87
1974 Lajos Zilahy Hungarian/US author (Angry Angel), dies at 83
1974 Stephen Gill Spottswood US bishop/chairman (NAACP), dies at 77
1975 Nick Kenny US columnist/songwriter (Nick Kenny Show), dies at 80
1977 Paul Hardy Belgian designer (Italian Country, dies at 69
1980 Sam Levene actor (Purple Heart, Designing Women), dies at 75
1982 Dorothy James composer, dies on 81st birthday
1983 Mirsky mathematician, dies
1985 Philip Larkin English poet
1986 Horace Heidt orchestra leader (Swift Show Wagon), dies at 85
1986 [Irving] Lee Dorsey [Kid Chocolate] US boxer/singer, dies at 59
1986 Robert L “Bobby” Layne football player (Detroit Lions), dies at 59
1987 Donn Fulton Eisele Colonel USAF/astronaut, dies of a heart attack at 57
1987 James Arthur Baldwin writer (Another Country), dies at 63
1989 Alvin Ailey US choreographer (Blues Suite, Revelations), dies at 58
1990 Jan H de Groot Dutch co-founder (Vrij Nederland), dies
1991 Byron Webster actor (That Man Bolt), dies of AIDS at 58
1991 George Joseph Stigler US economist (Nobel 1982), dies at 80
1994 Hugh Chilvers cricketer (151 wickets leg-spin for New South Wales 1928-37), dies
1994 Lionel Stander actor (Max-Hart to Hart), dies at 86
1996 Barbak Karmal politician, dies at 67
1996 Irving Gordon songwriter, dies at 81
1997 Denis Gerald Barrington artist, dies at 67
1997 Stephane Grappelli French jazz violinist, dies at 89