And now, some real news

KIHEI, MAUI – Pleased to report that the saga of Michael Jackson didn't bypass the Hawaiian Islands last week.
Spurred on by the breathless and sensationalistic coverage of Nancy Grace and the usual suspects on the other cable networks, we weren't left with a moment to breathe until we could hear about a mystery syringe, who was in the house at the time Mr. Jackson took ill, speculation about whether the entertainer self-inflicted the cardiac arrest and CNN stooping to the level where it had to show pictures of Jackson's last rehearsals. (This was late at night, long after the day's meals had been devoured).
We heard something about an earthquake in Greece but no details, not even in the local papers. We read a long story about the passing of Karl Malden, one of the great actors of our day. But by comparison, those items rated nothing more than a belch when stacked up against Mr. Jackson.
If the media actually think the world lives for all things Jackson, then please take time to pity a future generation of educated people.

Freedom in all forms

KIHEI, MAUI – We celebrated our nation's birthday Saturday, our freedom from British rule earned 233 years ago.
At a place called Little Mikena (about 15 miles south of here), people celebrated freedom from their clothing Saturday at a public nude beach. The split was about 60/40 in favor of those whose torsos were suitable for nude swimming, snorkeling sans clothes and, yes, sunbathing. (Insert your own joke here). Most of the 40% who should have worn anything haven't quite made it out of the '60s yet.

Back in the saddle

Vacation was truly wonderful ... a week in Hawaii can't be anything but, right?
It was eight days of body surfing, seeing fish, eating fish, eating too much in general, drinking too much salt water.
And doing it with the family.
Which made it the best part of all. Those with aging parents know the routine. At best, the opportunities to round up five people, mesh their varied schedules and schlep them someplace for a few days are very scarce. And the time to spend together as a family is getting scarce, too.
But to see the smiles on mom and dad's faces during the past few weeks -- as the credit card commercial says, "Priceless."

Mahalo

Jack and Jeff on same path

Interesting to see that two offspring of rather famous athletes opted not to continue playing their respective sports in college.
Jack Elway won't be playing football, and Michael Jordan's son, Jeff, said "no" to playing basketball.
Perhaps someone in their families made sports a bit too serious?

Say what?

One of these days, we'll get away from the madness that Sunday Night Baseball has become. But this one is priceless.
Joe Morgan, who apparently never learned to shut up, tried to extend his best wishes to some couple who supposedly had a new child in the house.
It took him three tries to figure out which couple actually HAD the child.
That's just flat embarrassing. But because it's ESPN, where accuracy takes a back seat to celebrity, my guess is nothing will happen.
Morgan may have been a very good baseball player. But as is so often the case, that doesn't make for a good announcer, especially for mistakes like this.

Idiocy

Could someone with a degree in human stupidity explain why fans of championship sports teams think they need to celebrate by rolling over cars, trashing other peoples' property and basically behaving like a bunch of primates in the zoo at feeding time?