Off the News

Offering some Aloha (not to you, Mesa Air)

Someone's bullish on the potential growth of air travel. At least, that's one conclusion to be drawn by the L.A.-based Yucaipa Cos. spending $1.5 million to acquire the name and other intellectual property of Aloha Airlines.

Yucaipa, the majority shareholder in Aloha before it went bust, can view this as an investment to pay off when some entity might want to start a carrier by that name. There's a bonus: The bankruptcy court specifically bans its resale to Mesa Air Group, parent of the competitor (go! Mokulele) largely blamed for Aloha's demise.

There's no love lost between them and now, for sure, there will be no Aloha lost, either.

Bipartisan shave ice

The White House media pool went to wonderful lengths to earn their pay during the Obamas' fortnight in Hawaii. It was topped by the creativity of The Christian Science Monitor's Peter Grier interpreting the president's change in the flavor of shave ice as the sign of "a recipe for bipartisan progress if we've ever heard one."

In previous Hawaii vacations, President Barack Obama ordered the same combination of guava orange, cherry and lemon-lime at Island Snow, Grier noted. Last week, however, the president replaced guava orange with melon. Then, on Monday, the president chose only two flavors: melon and cherry.

"Does this mix reduction presage a desire to rein in government spending?" Grier imagined asking on cable news. "Time will tell. Back to you in 'The Situation Room,' Wolf."