Roseanne Barr, Big Island farmer

A reality TV show about a macadamia nut farmer? It sounds like a really bad idea — unless the farmer is comedian Roseanne Barr, and the farm is on the Big Island.

Her new show, "Roseanne’s Nuts," debuted on Lifetime last night to generally favorable reviews. It might even give a little boost to the Hawaii mac nut industry, which has struggled lately with dry weather, vog and voracious feral pigs.

Indeed, one such pig was hunted down and captured on the show, but Barr couldn’t bring herself to kill it. Perhaps that’s the difference between a reality show and reality.

State’s technology needs an upgrade

One of the bills the governor vetoed would have required electronic voter registration on the Office of Elections website. The cost of making that work was estimated at $2.5 million, and the state has no money, says the gov.

Nobody can dispute the no-money argument and, as nice as it would be to do Web registration, that’s probably the least of the state’s information technology problems. Don’t forget, this state has just hired Sanjeev "Sonny" Bhagowalia as chief information officer, who faces an uphill battle bringing Hawaii into the end of the last century, let alone this one.

Example: There are still forms filed by some state offices that must be submitted via typewriter.

Good luck on the job, Mr. Bhagowalia.