Little aloha for Cyber Monday

So Cyber Monday is over, and apparently shoppers nationwide were burning up the Internet wires, buying presents online. An encouraging flood of consumers swept through the brick-and-mortar retail centers, too, on Black Friday and Small Business Saturday.

The fondest hopes of businesses, of course, is that these events are a sign of shopoholism that will continue through the holidays.

One of the biggest lures for the online customer base: free shipping offers. Unfortunately for those of us in Hawaii, there’s not much aloha shown to the Aloha State on this score. Many retailers are happy to extend free shipping to the contiguous 48 states, but often exclude both Hawaii and Alaska.

This hasn’t stopped isle residents from pursuing deals, any way they can get them. We’ve grown accustomed to it.

Learning from the real descendants

Real descendants of Hawaii’s missionary period may identify with aspects of the movie receiving national attention because its creators did their homework and wove it into the story.

"The Descendants" producer Jim Burke and director Alexander Payne came to Hawaii nine months before shooting began and learned about family trusts from Kaui Hart Hemmings, author of the base novel, historian and author Gavan Daws and University of Hawaii law professor Randall W. Roth, reports The Wall Street Journal.

Roth told them that perhaps a half-dozen trusts in Hawaii are similar to the trust for which fictional Matt King, played by George Clooney, holds the key vote on what to do with land on Kauai.