Time to prepare for the flu

Those stories circulating about the toll of the latest influenza season are pretty frightening, or at least they should be having that effect. Flu is a disease often seen as fairly commonplace, until you’re laid up with it.

This year it’s tragic. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that the tally of deaths in the current flu season has tipped into epidemic territory, athough they’re hopeful that dreadful count may have peaked. Still, that’s no reason for Hawaii residents drop their guard. The disease sometimes takes longer to strike here. It’s best to be safe and get a flu shot. And remember to wash hands routinely to lessen the spread of sick germs.

From Graceland to Honolulu, Elvis rules

Hawaii has a lot of things going for it that make it a tourist capital of the world, and one of them is the late, great Elvis Presley. The wildly famous singer and movie star spent a lot of time here in the late 1950s through the early 1970s, putting on several concerts and filming three movies — the most famous being 1961’s "Blue Hawaii." Thirty-five years after his death, Elvis continues to put Hawaii in the limelight, drawing here nearly 700 fans on a special tour package of events related to the 40th anniversary screening of the concert documentary, "Elvis: Aloha from Hawaii," which shows today at the Blaisdell Arena.

Meanwhile, an exhibit at Elvis’ former residence, Graceland Mansion, in Memphis, Tenn., now the world’s foremost Elvis shrine, also is playing up the King’s time in Hawaii, with an exhibit that opened last week titled, "Elvis’ Hawaii: Concerts, Movies and More!"

Tourism officials here must be thrilled.