It’d be awful here if it wasn’t so nice

Hawaii keeps taking it on the chin in various national rankings, despite the fact that for some reason people seem to really like living here.

Most recently, MoneyRates.com, a personal finance website, said Hawaii — for the third year a row — is the worst state in the nation to make a living. Getting most of the blame were high taxes and living expenses.

Meanwhile, TomTom, which makes vehicle navigation devices, rated Honolulu as having the third worst traffic congestion among 59 major market areas in "North America" — behind Los Angeles and Vancouver.

What bad news will we get next — that we rank first in terms of bad news?

Roger Ebert had much aloha for Hawaii

Roger Ebert, the late film critic who is being honored at the Hawaii International Film Festival, loved HIFF when it was barely known. And that really gave the event some credibility, said former Star-Advertiser staffer Burl Burlingame, who penned movie reviews when this paper was known as the Honolulu Star-Bulletin.

Ebert, who died Thursday, last attended years ago, before he underwent his disfiguring cancer surgery. In the end he could speak only by using a computer text-to-speech program. That was a hardship for someone who loved talking about everything, said Burlingame, who befriended Ebert in the festival’s early days.

"He loved the warmth of our film festival," he said. "Most festivals are about commerce. Ours is about art."