Who was that masked man?

OK, so he wasn’t wearing a mask, but Vice President Joe Biden sure blitzed through Honolulu with the speed and presence befitting the Lone Ranger. He left Hawaii Thursday afternoon after remarks to Kaneohe Marines; he had made a visit to the USS Arizona Memorial upon arriving Wednesday.

Biden spent about an hour after his speech at the Kaneohe base chatting and taking photos with the troops and their families. Quite an impression — a good one, no doubt, to more than balance the impression left on motorists who got caught during afternoon rush-hour traffic by the veep’s motorcade.

Sharing not always a good idea

Sometimes the best policy really is to just keep people off your property.

That’s the conclusion Grove Farm on Kauai reluctantly arrived at after numerous fatalities and injuries of people swimming and diving at its Kipu Falls — without the company’s permission. Fearing liability suits, the company tried to give the land to Kauai County to use as a park, but the county had the same fear and rejected the offer.

So now Grove Farm is erecting a tall fence around its side of the falls land; the other side is owned by Rice Ranch, but access to the falls from that direction is more difficult. People who like to visit the falls won’t like the new fence, but others will.

"This is the right thing to do," said Dr. Monty Downs, an emergency physician at Kauai’s Wilcox Hospital who has had to deal with the some of the injuries and fatalities at the falls.

Does someone have a better idea as to how this could be handled? Meanwhile, Kipu Falls, kapu.