by Raphael O’Suna

Bobby Rizzo would work summers at his dad’s photofinishing business.

He was a typical fifteen year old boy: all hormones and unformed brain.

In those days–more than 50 years ago–it was illegal to mail pictures of nude men or women. So when such pictures were processed, the prints were retained by the company and the negatives were mailed back. A note was included.

Since the company had a very large mail order business, lots of naked photos would show up. Especially around Christmas time, when men loved to see women naked in front of a Christmas tree, and during the summer, the naked photos would pile up.

They were called “Duffys.” Bobby never knew why. No one seemed to know. Someone once suggested that there might have been a painter who painted nudes, and whose name was Duffy.

Read the rest…

by Maui Curmudgeon

More than 2,000 years ago, there was a man born of a virgin, a child teacher in the temples, who eventually had 12 disciples and raised a man from the dead. Writers of his time called him, “the Way, the Truth, the Light, the Messiah.” And his name was Horus. No, not that other fellow.

But both preached ideas which had been around for hundreds of years.  And both were killed and though neither was anything like a god, both were thought as one. Yet today you only know Jesus. Why? Really, really good public relations.

This lesson has not been lost on Stevie Jobs, leader of the cult know as Apple, Inc. When you’re not innovating anything new, but packaging something some other guy made up, good PR is essential if you’re going to get gobs of money from “believers.”

Outside the Apple cult, Steve Jobs is not the most popular of men. Take a look at the “I’m not dead yet!” parody here.

And what flummoxes people like me outside the cult is just how willing national media, and so many others, are willing to swallow his baloney. Let’s take a look at his recent interview as reported by CNN.com (all quotes from that story).

Read the rest…

by Maui Curmudgeon

I am not the editor of Maui Almanac, though I also believe that comments and conversation with some of the more than 3,000 daily readers of this blog is a great thing, and one reason why Maui Almanac is so popular and does so well locally.*

After reading the blog and comments I feel compelled to comment myself, and of course, these are my comments not Maui Almanac’s. I hope others will comment on my comments, and so the discussion flows.

My comments will have a basic theme: Politically, on a national and local level, we are FUBAR (an old military term meaning Fucked Up Beyond All Recognition). And anyone who thinks there is an “in-system” solution to that is a serious part of the problem.

Local Politics Needs to Get Real

Locally, while there are many issues affecting each election race in each level and district, one factor influences everything: race. Until we talk about this in Hawaii, we’re not going to solve much.

Read the rest…

Baby Day Day 123 of 2010 242 days left in this year

Friday: State Rep. Joe Souki

May 2nd, 1928: The State of Hawaii estimates that the island of Maui imports about 80% of what it consumes every day, which, in its way, makes Maui a bit of a metaphor for the country. Among the rarest of words seen today is “made in America.”  We import damn near everything. One thing we do raise and use on Maui is locally grown food, whether it’s strawberries or lettuce or steak, or whatever.

In all the talk about global warming and the impending disaster, local produce isn’t given enough media play, and for two reasons. The first is CO2. Everyone’s talking about it these days, cut your carbon foot print, drive cars with good gas mileage, turn off your lights, etc.  To that end, logically, it makes far more sense to buy local strawberries which have been driven down from Kula, rather than mass produced strawberries flown or shipped in air conditioned units from Chili (talk about wasting fossil fuel).

Did I say makes sense? I meant it makes sense for our future, our health and if you are serious about reducing carbon emissions. Because, it doesn’t make sense economically, as local produce is very often more expensive than stuff delivered from 4,000 miles away.  In part, that’s because the distribution system we use today was basically set up decades ago when gas was $3 a barrel. Weird, huh?

The larger reason, however, to use locally grown vegetables at your dinner table is to avoid meat. The big ugly elephant in the room that no one talks about is this: are you serious about cutting CO2? Stop eating meat. It takes ten to 20 times the amount of fossil fuel to produce a pound of meat than it does a pound of vegetables, according to a vegetarian organization called Dawnwatch.

Further, animal agriculture takes up 70% of agricultural land use and 30% of the worlds land use in total. And according to the World Health Organization, animal agriculture accounts for two-thirds of the world’s acid rain, the majority of the world’s fresh water pollution (yep – it’s not industry), and consumes more water in the U.S. than any other single cause (remember, not agriculture, animal agriculture).

If animal agricultural land was instead producing plant food, we could feed 20 billion people on this planet.

So, as much of life offers us, we have a choice. If you don’t believe that CO2 effects the planet, you’re going to do what you’re going to do. If you do believe it, and you want to correct your behavior to save the planet, then stop eating meat. Because, whining about global warming over your Prime Rib dinner, or being proud you drive a Pruis on the way to Makawao Steak House, is just a lot of hot air, and as we know, hot air isn’t good for Mother Earth either. — Maui Curmudgeon

Read the rest…

by Maui Curmudgeon

Yesterday, one of the leaders of the Civil Rights Movement for the past 50 years – Dr. Benjamin Hooks – died. I have a story about Dr. Hooks.

Nearly 30 years ago (where does the time go?) I was a green reporter in New York who was sent out on what was to be an innocuous assignment. I was to listen to Dr. Hooks speak at a fundraiser, and interview him after. My editor, Dan, thought that Dr. Hooks was famous enough that he warranted front page space on the Herald American, and so he reserved space for the 2 am printing. At the same time, it was 1983 and the hot topics were cold, so Dan assumed. Sending a rookie was fine.

Except, of course, I was the rookie.

The Hilton Ballroom was elegant, and packed with more than 500 people, if I remember, and I think I do, because of one startling characteristic – I counted three Blacks in attendance. That’s it. I have no doubt most Blacks couldn’t afford the meal.

The meal – paid for by the newspaper – was astonishing. Steak, lobster, steamed everything, with sauce, and your choice of ten deserts.

Dr. Hooks was dynamic, not only in his delivery, which reminded me of fireworks (lots of quiet murmuring and then emphatic booms!), but in his points, which he made one after another in an ever building crescendo. He ended to a standing ovation.

I had ten minutes to interview him before he had to leave for a plane, and then I scurried back to the pressroom, where I had two hours to write my 1,000 words for my first front page piece.

And that’s when I made my big mistake: I actually wrote what he said, quoted him accurately, and put the important points first. Stupid me.

Read the rest…

Crapple Lovers Get What They Deserve Today

by Maui Curmudgeon

People who like the iPad and people who don’t are arguing about entirely different things. People who don’t like the iPad need something that will actually work, connect to other computers, get work done, be functional in the real world.

People who like the iPad will just watch shit. That’s all. They’re not going to use it to make phone calls, or write documents or give presentations.

Read the rest…

Recently, we ran a story covering some of the issues with flying safely, a real concern for those of us who live or visit Hawaii.

An excellent interview, well worth reading, with Israeli Airplane security expert Isaac Yeffet has just run here:

Among the highlights:

• American airport security is abysmal because it can’t think forward, only backwards. Thus we react to what happens but don’t plan for something to happen.
• Israeli secutiry agents who fail internal tests are fired the first time.
• Every passenger is personally interviewed before departure.
• Full body scanners are nearly useless, and therefore a great waste of money.

The biggest problem, of course, is that this fellow is not leading the TSA, and America is not implementing his, and Israel’s, proven techniques. And like most of the mess that is this country, there’s really not a damn thing thing any of us can do about it.

By Maui Curmudgeon

I think the only people disappointed in the new year will be those who expect things to be different than they were before. A quick scan of the news shows how inevitable the interminable sameness is:

1. In spite of new revelations on terror attacks on airplanes over the holidays, Republican Senator Jim Demint (South Carolina) refuses to let go forward the appointment of Errol Southers as TSA chief. That’s right, Demint won’t have the TSA have leadership at this crucial time. Why? Demint is afraid of unions, specifically afraid that TSA workers might someday unionize. Southers hasn’t promised to stop that, if it occurs. Demint puts US citizens at risk for a hypothetical. I love this double whammy evidence: not only does it show the Republicans for what they are – scum that doesn’t give a shit about anyone but themselves and their petty peeves – but also that Southerners continue the 100-year-long war against the working person.

Read the rest…