Aloha, Waikiki

We walked along Waikiki, the beach I stopped going to when I was twelve. Even back in the Sixties I avoided it because it was too crowded and too touristy. But what did a kid really know about commercialism?

Just look at Waikiki now...highrise towers spreading inland for blocks, expensive shops that make Kalakaua Avenue look like Rodeo Drive, traffic jams at ten p.m...everything the kamaainas hate.

I'll miss it.

They Can't Take That Away From Me

I was sad to hear of Nora Ephron's death on Tuesday. I'm a guy with low-brow movie tastes, but I liked the "Nora Ephron film"--yes, her movies were as distinctive as Martin Scorsese's or John Ford's.

Her stories tapped into the universal quest for happiness but were never heavily philosophical. We laughed at the stumblings of her characters because of our rueful self identification with them.

Nora Ephron's feminism wasn't preachy, which greatly aided her popularity:

A rare author and screenwriter whose works appealed to highbrow readers and mainstream moviegoers, Ephron wrote fiction that was distinguished by characters who seemed simultaneously normal and extraordinary. Like many people, they wrestled with commitment, principles and fame, but often exhibited keen, comic insights about their predicaments.

Her protagonists, who included the chef Julia Child and the whistle-blower Karen Silkwood, were often women and typically were just as capable as the men around them, if not more so.

In one of Nora Ephron's most popular movies, Sleepless in Seattle, the soundtrack of Golden Oldies is integral to the atmosphere of romantic yearning. She used artistic tradition to evoke an audience response that  helped her make great art herself. R.I.P.

On my six-day Hawaiian vacation I found myself sitting in the pew of the church where we got married over 30 years ago, listening to amateur artists sing Gershwin. Nora Ephron would have approved.

Drift

Today one of my best friends from high school turned 60. I haven't spoken to him much over the years. There was no falling out---life happened, and we drifted apart.

I called to wish him well. We still have a lot in common--we both have a child who has graduated from college and another who's still going to school. We worry about our aging parents, all of whom, thank goodness, are still with us. We work part-time and are increasingly engaged in charitable pursuits.

Barely perceptibly we are going into that good night. Perhaps our paths will converge more often. Whether we drift away or toward each other is a choice, better made sooner than later.

Afternoon Tea



Sniffing was encouraged

Our first stay at the 111-year-old Moana Hotel would not be complete without afternoon tea. It's so very proper and civilized....and in keeping with the spirit of the Moana's first owner, Englishman Walter Chamberlain Peacock.

Afternoon tea isn't rushed. It should be savored with companions who are willing to silence their cellphones and who don't mind practicing the dying art of conversation.

Tea at the Moana is not conducive to haste. First the waiter served the soup of the day---it was pumpkin bisque---and asked us for our tea selection.

Pumpkin bisque

The tea was served loose in individual pots filled with boiling water; leaves were screened by strainers that are designed to fit over the cups. The waiter brought out plates of finger sandwiches, followed by a tower of desserts. Though we hadn't eaten lunch none of us could finish it all. Our guests were not too proud to ask for a take-out container. The leavings made an excellent snack the next day, they said.


Finger sandwiches

Afternoon tea at the Moana seems indulgent, but at $34 per person it's not outrageously so.

For a couple of hours, sitting in the shade of the veranda a few feet from the historic banyan, the white sands, and the breaking waves, one can imagine oneself to be a turn of the century gentleman, partaking of a little reminder of the England he left behind.



Leave low-carb diets at the door.

 

The Moana Hotel

The back of the Moana Hotel, as seen from the veranda.

This week, after dozens of trips to the Islands when we have lived off the hospitality of relatives, we're finally footing the bill for lodging.

We're staying at the venerable Moana (now the Moana Surfrider), which along with the Royal Hawaiian, is one of Hawaii's oldest hotels.  The Moana opened for business in 1901 and has been renovated several times by different owners. It has a colorful history--the most (in)famous incident was the unsolved murder of Stanford University co-founder Jane Stanford by strychnine poisoning in 1905.

Some of the original panel walls, staircases, and columns remain, and guests are encouraged to explore the hotel and view its displays of historical artifacts.

The air of fin de siecle Hawaii vanished when we entered the air-conditioned room, complete with flatscreen TV and wi-fi. We may admire how Hawaii used to be, but let's not go crazy about it.

Lieu de Naissance

Lilikoi tart from JJ Bistro

This week our family celebrates three birthdays. Four decades ago the proximity of the dates seemed but a happy coincidence of the calendar. Now, through the lens of time we have become more appreciative of the presence of loved ones in our lives.

Besides, it's a good excuse to return to my (and their) place of birth to honor the moment. Let the parties begin!

Marukame Udon



Each tempura cost $1.50. The total bill was $25.

Waikiki was busy on Sunday night. Tourists crowded Kalakaua Avenue in their new aloha shirts, shorts, and slippers.  The exhortations to eat less and exercise more may finally be taking hold; the typical pedestrian seemed to be in better shape than, say, five years ago.

Having just arrived, we wanted dinner to be light, quick, cheap, and good (humor, for those familiar with the project triangle).

We walked through the International Market Place and joined the line to Marukame Udon, which has an average Yelp rating of 4.5 out of 5 stars.  Though the line extended almost to the end of the block, we were inside placing our order within half an hour.

At Marukame Udon one takes a tray, cafeteria style, and points to one's noodle selection, which the server fills in less than a minute. The tempura section followed, and I gave in to the temptation to load up on the varied assortment--how could I not, when each piece was only $1.50? (It was okay that I over-ordered, because I had something to snack on at four in the morning---hey, that would be 7 a.m. in California.)

Pluses: very fresh noodles and other ingredients, fluffy non-greasy tempura, low prices, adequate seating to accommodate the crowd. Minuses: long lines, cash only, no restaurant parking. I can already tell--we'll hit this place again before the week is up.

I Said I Wanted to Buy a Lanai For My House

Bloomberg photo via WSJ.

Maybe his lawyer didn't hear the end of the instruction.

This week it became public that Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison will buy 98% of the Island of Lanai from Castle & Cooke. (This is another example of life imitating art: one of the purported bidders for the 25,000 undeveloped acres on Kauai in The Descendants was a Silicon Valley billionaire.)

At this point no one is revealing what Mr. Ellison intends to do with his purchase. He has a history of buying and kickstarting underperforming companies (Peoplesoft, Sun, Siebel) into valuable assets of the Oracle group.

3,500 people on a sleepy island shouldn't provide an obstacle to Mr. Ellison's ambitions...whatever they are.

The Descendants

In preparation for my first trip to Hawaii in nearly a year I popped a copy of The Descendants into the DVD player.

George Clooney plays Matt King, the descendant of missionaries and the executor of a trust that makes him and all his distant cousins very land- but not cash-rich. The events on Oahu and Kauai take place in the span of a few weeks, when multiple family and business crises beset the protagonist.

The Clooney character makes flawed but perfectly understandable decisions: we are often laughing with him, at him, and his dually comic and tragic circumstances. The other characters are richly drawn in a few strokes, but none of them are as bad, stupid, or selfish as they initially appear. I enjoyed the movie very much.

One quibble: panoramic sweeps of high-rise Honolulu notwithstanding, the slice of Hawaii depicted in 2011 looks like the Hawaii of 1951. By that I mean Matt King does business with and socializes only with Caucasians. True, he is a member of the haole upper crust, but the “Big Five” companies that were founded by missionary children no longer control the Islands. In the Hawaii of the 21st century Asians, Hawaiians, and other Pacific Islanders, as well as out-of-State investors, are also represented in the councils of power. The poshest country clubs are rainbow, not chalky white.

James Michener ended his 1956 epic, Hawaii, with the rise to prominence of the Golden Man. In the Descendants the Golden Man does not yet exist.

A second, minor quibble: Matt King and his wife are having marital problems, and early in the movie we discover that his wife is the one who has been having an affair. An amicable land baron with movie-star good looks is the wronged spouse? Get real.

Not Much to Talk About



Since the 2011 shareholder meeting GOOG is up about 10%, better than NASDAQ but a far cry from AAPL

Google CEO Larry Page has lost his voice:

Page, who is already well known for his reluctance to speak publicly, skipped today’s annual stockholder meeting. [Chairman Eric] Schmidt was left to explain his absence.

Schmidt said Page would likely miss his next two expected engagements while he is resting his voice: Google I/O — the company’s big three-day developer conference in San Francisco next week — and the company’s quarterly earnings call next month.

It's a tough job managing any company, but keeping the pedal to the metal on several rapidly growing businesses like Google does requires very special leadership. It wouldn't be surprising if the stress and required people-interactions are proving too much for even an introverted genius.

It's already been determined that Larry Page will be incommunicado for another month. With memories of Steve Jobs' health problems---and Apple's silence surrounding them--still fresh, let's hope that the problem is really just his voice.

A look back: I didn't attend this year, but last year's Google shareholder's meeting was tasty and filling.

Pier 29 Fire

The smoke from Pier 29 blew east over the Bay. Traffic backed up for miles on the Embarcadero. Over 100 firefighters finally put out the blaze.

I got up from the speaker phone to gaze at the action. (The call was about prepping for another call tomorrow. Meetings about meetings....so it goes in the corporate world.)

The fire appeared formidable with the flames clearly visible, but by 5 o'clock it was over.  By the time I left the office at 6:30 traffic was back to normal.

[Update - 6/21: "The four-alarm blaze that tore through a warehouse on San Francisco's Pier 29 caused more than $2 million in damage, but the underlying pier survived the blaze unharmed, fire officials said Thursday."]

Looking Over the Dover

The quacking gets my attention in the morning. The dover eye me warily.

I, er, duck behind the car so as not to scare them off.  I wish the iPhone 4 had higher resolution for this snapshot.  The two-year contract has already expired; hurry up with the iPhone 5, Tim, lest you lose a customer to Android (yeah, right).

The ducks don't care about pixels. They're waiting for me to toss them a piece of my breakfast muffin, but the City says not to feed them.

The ducks lose interest. They turn their tails, quack, then waddle away. Yes, go to the neighbors and be-fowl their yard.  Wildlife is beautiful, but only at a distance.

A Manly Weekend

In honor of Father's Day I tackled a few items in the overflowing job jar. They're not necessarily manly tasks but not exactly girly ones either.

Flushing the tankless heater.

The first order of business was to flush the tankless water heater. The installer said that it should be regularly cleaned, and the last "free" service call under the extended warranty occurred in spring of 2011.

I ordered a $60 pump from Amazon and picked up a pair of washing machine hoses from Home Depot for $14.50. I filled a bucket with a solution of vinegar and water, turned off the intake cold water and outgoing hot water valves to the heater, hooked up the hoses, put the pump in the bucket, and let the pump run for half an hour. After rinsing out the strainer and recirculating the vinegar for half an hour, the hot water pressure throughout the house is noticeably stronger.

Next I made a dent in the clutter by taking an old coffee table and office chair to St. Vincent de Paul. The items were in good condition, and the donations desk was happy to accept the furniture along with boxes of books, clothes, and toys.

After 15 years the sprinkler timer had gone kaput---the yellowing grass was the clue. After two weeks of hand-watering the lawn back to respectability, I tired of communing with nature and bought a $30 Orbit timer from Home Depot.  Despite its low price, the new unit was a dramatic improvement over the old: electronic instead of mechanical controls, an LCD screen, easy push-in wire receptacles (instead of having to crimp connectors, then screw them to the timer), and standard AC power (instead of a bulky transformer). Yes, I should have replaced the old timer long ago, but this way I really came to appreciate the technological advancement in garden sprinkling.

That's how manly men roll.

Every Dad Has His Day

Dad first started using a computer about 15 years ago.  He found it much easier to keep track of his small business with Quicken; the gathering of year-end information for the tax accountant became a snap.  Over the years he graduated to checking stock prices, buying airplane tickets, listening to music, and keeping a record of his daily walks.

Last year marked the beginning of his productivity cascade. He bought an iPhone and, like most people, initially used it for basic phone calling and web surfing. Six months later he got an iPad. He learned how to use the gmail calendar on his laptop and sync his appointments with the iPad and iPhone. His contact list shows up on all his devices, and he no longer has to thumb through index cards or pull out a map.

At the end of last year he installed a security system and is able to access multiple cameras on his iPad or laptop. He can even play back each camera's near-term history, a capability which proved useful on one or two occasions.

I'm very proud of how he continues to learn and grow. At the age of 86, he can still teach me a few things.  Happy Father's Day, Dad, we'll see you soon.

Realizing the Republican DREAM

Some Republicans are up in arms over President Obama's executive order on immigration:

Hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants who came to the United States as children will be allowed to remain in the country without fear of deportation and able to work, under an executive action the Obama administration announced on Friday.

There are policy differences even within the Republican Party about illegal immigration, and the President's move is seen as a brilliant stroke both to divide the opposition and capture the allegiance of the fastest growing segment of the American population.

If Republicans can take a deep breath, they will see that President Obama has given a potential Republican President the greatest of gifts. The President has chosen unilaterally not to enforce certain laws that he disagrees with, and Democrats are enthusiastically in support of this approach.

Following President Obama's precedent, a Republican President may choose:

1) Not to require environmental impact statements or enforce the Endangered Species Act;

2) To waive numerous reporting requirements that burden businesses;

3) To stop measuring various organizations' progress toward diversity goals;

4) Not to collect the Alternative Minimum Tax.

Frankly, the possibilities are endless, and President Romney will have President Obama to thank.

[Update - 6/17: Another commentator has the same idea.

If President Obama’s frustration over a “do nothing” Congress prompts him to respond with a “do nothing” government, then I’m all for it.  Imagine the good that could be done if a Republican president used Obama’s precedent:   By not filling tens of thousands of authorized positions, he could shrink the size of government.  By refusing to enforce some environmental regulations, he could remove barriers to economic growth and greater employment.  By canceling unnecessary weapon systems, he could remove the influence of earmarks from the defense budget. 

Instead of complaining about Obama’s decision, conservatives should applaud anything which increases government inaction.  Meanwhile Democrats who applaud the President’s decision for the short-term advantage it might give them, should be very wary of handing a precedential hammer to a future Republican president who could use it to smash big government.]