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Monday, May 21, 2012         

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One of the things I love about marine biology is discovering how little I know. Really. After spending the last 30 years seeking out, swimming with and reading and writing books about marine animals, I am still learning things that blow me out of the water.

Do you love gardenias? May is the month when they bloom most profusely here in our Hawaii gardens.


"K'nova" • "Hapa Haole Hit Parade"

Someone forgot to tell the University of Hawaii baseball team this home finale didn't mean anything.

It's always been tricky getting flowers in May because of the triple whammy of May Day celebrations, Mother's Day and graduation. This year seems to be the worst ever.

Q: I've heard that rather than going to court, mediation is the better way to resolve disputes. If that's true, why don't more people use it? What happens to most cases that are litigated?

Thirty years ago Tom Apple saw red. Waves upon waves of red-clad fans on Saturdays during football season at the University of Nebraska, where he was an assistant and, later, associate chemistry professor.

The air was nasty and cosmic catastrophe loomed as we "flASHback" on the week's news that amused and confused:

As I sat with colleagues at a celebratory dinner this week, we had a good laugh as we reminisced about the early days of our careers and the road still ahead.

Let me know if this sounds familiar: You're driving on Kapiolani Boulevard in the left lane.

Jarrett Arakawa doesn't lull just opposing batters to sleep. I momentarily lost focus in the middle of his subtle masterpiece Thursday at Les Murakami Stadium and forgot he's just a sophomore.

Hawaii restaurateur Peter Kim will open his first five-star dining venue in the former Aaron's Atop the Ala Moana Hotel.

If you're looking for interesting stories of Hawaii companies outside of Hono­lulu, Hilo is a good place to start.

Expecting what its chairman, Richard Kahle Jr., forecast as a solid economy in the coming years, the state Council on Revenues gave state officials a green light in putting together a healthy two-year state budget.

JIMMY THOMAS, one of my Roosevelt class of '49 football teammates, sent me a letter after reading in my May 4 column that PBS Hawaii was to film a pledge program at ‘Iolani Palace.

If you are the University of Hawaii, here's wishing Boise State and its conference-hopping president go ahead and put in that Big West Conference membership application any day now.

A couple of weeks after a sand-replenishment project in Waikiki was completed to the cheers of tan fans, tourists, hoteliers and shore-based businesses came a federal assessment that 70 percent of beaches on three of Hawaii’s major islands are slowly but surely eroding.

Bob Coolen is a true believer in the concept of too much information.

The Legislature's last-minute passage of Senate Bill 2785, creating the regulatory framework for an undersea electric cable between the islands, illustrated a capricious process that denies citizens a fair shake on bills that fundamentally affect their lives.

Two local businesses are about to get exposure before some of the most important eyeballs ever.

It doesn't seem to make sense to ship a beef calf to the mainland, then bring the meat back to Hawaii. But right now, that's the sensible thing for isle ranchers to do.

With graduation season just around the corner, we've come up with the cookies for a tasty gift basket your graduate can enjoy.

Servers preface a meal at Kickin' Kajun by informing newbies, "This is going to be the messiest but one of the best meals you'll ever have."

Though lettuce is central to the recipe I share here, I won't be telling you how much I like it. Lettuce has no praises for me to sing. If I want something refreshing, I'll drink water, and if I want vegetables, I'll roast them.

If you have a tofu aversion — for example, if I were to tell you the pie you just ate was made with tofu and you said “ack!” — grow up already.

As a teenager growing up in Seattle, Sheryl Nelson looked forward to volunteering at her local hospital.

Like a lot of people, Glenn Goya watched, entranced by the compelling drama being played out on his television Friday night.

The social media revolution has taken Hawaii — and the rest of the world — by storm. As we all know, it's not just the kids who spend hours communicating with their friends.

Over the past several decades, several nutrients have gone through popularity phases. Vitamins C and E had their heydays. The current “rock star nutrient” is vitamin D.

Leave the "I can't" attitude at the door if you're planning to check out a BodyPump class at Mana Fitness Studio.

I have on my desk several new items of interest for marine animal fans. One is made of paper, and the others swim among the colorful reefs of my iPad.

The University of Hawaii's new chancellor is leaving the job of top administrator at another state's flagship public university to come here.

The oil was dark and old-looking, but the spicy chicken Colin Nishida cooked quickly was light and crispy, not greasy, moist on the inside and delicious throughout.

I'm puzzled why olena (Curcuma longa) is not more widely cultivated in our Hawaii gardens. Olena has beautiful leaves, an ethereal flower and underground stems (rhizomes) that deliver exceptional culinary and health benefits.

The University of Hawaii baseball and softball teams had their pairs of aces cracked this week. It remains to be seen if it will cost them in their hopes for long postseason runs.

Even with a latte in hand, Karl Herlinger looks like a villain or, at the very least, someone capable of extreme road rage. His eyes are set close together, his brow quick to furrow. The television actor from Kailua can wither with a glance.

Eddie and Myrna Kamae, dedicated documentarians of Hawaiian culture, will share their "The Sons of Hawai‘i: A Sound, a Band, a Legend" film at a "Dinner and a Movie" event 7 p.m. May 25 at the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C.

Pamela Young has turned her recent trip to Korea into a video travelogue, airing as part of KITV's newscasts at 5 and 10 p.m. The series started April 28 and will go for four weeks with a special telecast June 14 at 7:30 p.m. on KITV.

Sunday mornings for more than 20 years, the late Betty Smyser interviewed notable island guests, politicians and national celebrities on her "Conversation" talk show. This month we look back at Smyser and her talk show — the longest-running show of its kind in local television.

'Wahi Mahalo' » Kamakakehau Fernandez was first noticed outside his home island of Maui when he represented King Kekaulike High School in Ty Okumura's statewide Star Quest talent contest in 2002. • 'Gold' by Gnarwhal.

While on an all-day hike deep in Molokai's Halawa Valley five years ago, the popular Hawaiian folk singer and musician known simply as Lono ran across a friend, Lawrence Aki, who was guiding a group of visitors on the trail.


First off, a website that starts a petition to wag a scolding finger at a former governor, admonishing him to "be nice," is by its own definition of the term, not very nice.

The University of Hawaii lost a baseball game Friday in 12 innings at Sacramento State, 7-6, but closer to home you'd have to say its future has rarely looked so good.

The circus left town, but the mouse was in the house as we plant tongue in cheek and "flASHback" on the week's news that amused and confused:

My teenage son recalls as we train for our second tri­ath­lon the words of Joe Lile­ikis, our swim coach.

WOW! When it comes to action, both high-tech and ordinary knock 'em down, drag 'em out battles, "The Avengers" takes the cake.

It's supposed to be pure. The fastest breaks the tape. And the winning time can become timeless; measured against history as well as peers. But it's not always that simple in track and field, as the Hawaii high school state meet 100-meter records attest.

"Is it just me, or are all the crazy drivers on the road today?" Is it just me, or do I hear that every day? We all probably do. It's been a good while since I raved about my traffic pet peeves and allowed readers to do so, too.



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