Saturday, June 30, 2012

White Bird of Paradise

A  L  O  H  A !

White Bird by Jefferson Airplane on Grooveshark

" Nobody outside of a
 baby carriage
 or a
 judge's chamber
believes in an
unprejudiced
 point of view. "

Lillian Hellman

















“ May brooks and trees
and singing hills
 join in the chorus too,
and every gentle wind
that blows
 send happiness
 to you.”

 Irish Blessings










  Several of these beauties
flourish on my street.
"The Bird of Paradise tree"
or "White Bird of Paradise

Strelitzia nicolai  (that's a link)

 has banana-like foliage
 and with room
 may grow to 25 feet
in height.

A native of
 subtropical South Africa. 
 her flowers grow
 to a full 12 inches long. 


The first time one sees
 Strelitzia,
she is a bit of a visual shock,
after having become accustomed
 to the smaller, more common
Bird of Paradise, 
with her
familiar orange 
'birds.'

  










Strelitzia nicolai

 Image taken from: 'Water-colour Drawings of Plants from South Africa, Canaries, Azores, West Indies and Two Views of Niagra' by Francis Masson (1770-1798). 
Held in the Botany Library at the Natural History Museum, London.
Courtesy SCIENCEPHOTOLIBRARY
























  

  Never be haughty to the humble
 or humble to the haughty.  "

Jefferson Davis









 >  <  }  }  ( ° >


Thank  YOU
for walking along
today.

Make my day - leave YOUr comment! 
                            Warmly, cloudia

Friday, June 29, 2012

Daily Life Scene- With Ships



 A  L  O  H  A !

" Children
 should be led
 into the right paths, 
not by severity, 
but by 
persuasion. "

Terence











 " It is easy to give advice
 from a port of safety.  "

Friedrich Schiller







“ In the love of narrow souls
 I make many short voyages
 but in vain 

 - I find no sea room - 

but in great souls
 I sail before the wind
without a watch, 

and never reach the shore.”

 Henry David Thoreau











" The past
 is an old armchair
 in the attic, 
the present 
an ominous
 ticking
 sound,
 and the future 
is
 anybody's guess. "

James Thurber


{[=]}


The phone rings. 
 It is my blog invisible husband - 
we usually have inconsequential convos 
throughout the day.

THIS is one of those calls:

BlogInvisibleHusband : Hey, I just pulled off a
 coup d'état !
 
Me: Did you use a tissue?

BIH:  Tissue?

ME: Well, when you deal with a
 cootie. . .

We laugh

BIH: There's a guy here with a Yo Yo;
 Now he's making it sleep!

(Off the phone) Hey! 
 Let me show you 'Baby in the cradle!'
(Back to me) 
I GOTTA GO!

As you can tell:
we're PERFECT
for each other-


Thank YOU
for being a Perfect Pal-
                
                           Warmly, cloudia

Thursday, June 28, 2012

VOLANT :

 Moving Lightly; Nimble. 

A  L  O  H  A !


" Myths 
which are believed in
 tend
 to become
 true. "

George Orwell

 

















"  Good writing 
is like a 
windowpane. "

George Orwell





















 " Representation of the world,
 like the world itself, 
is the work of men; 
they describe it
 from their own point of view, 
which they confuse 
with the 
absolute truth.  "

Simone de Beauvoir






























 " Nothing
 other people do
 is because
 of you.
 It is because 
of themselves. "

Don Miguel Ruiz













 " The way we negotiate 
anxiety 
plays no small part
 in shaping
 our lives 
and character. "

Gordon Marino

















 " As I get older,
 I get smaller.
 I see other parts 
of the world
 I didn't see before. 
Other points of view. 
I see outside myself
 more.  "

Neil Young












" All objects lose 
by too familiar 
a view.  "

John Dryden


















" Nothing's beautiful 
from every 
point of view.  "

Horace



     >  <  }  }  ( ° >

It was late,
the house was quiet.
Looking into a cooking pot
[ yes, it is a stainless steel pot ]
I saw the rainbow,
worlds in worlds,
and wondered
if
my camera could
show You
what I glimpsed.

Yes,
it is a pot.


Thank YOU
for looking in.

Even the briefest "hello" 
in comments
is another Gift !

                          Warmly, cloudia



Wednesday, June 27, 2012

What do YOU Value

A L O H A !


Kaimuki Hula by The Brothers Cazimero on Grooveshark

" Do not try to push your way
 through to the front ranks
 of your profession;
 do not run
 after distinctions
 and rewards;
 but do your utmost 
to find an entry 
into the world of 
beauty.  "

Sydney Smith 










" The sunflower
 is a mystery, 
just as every single
 thing 
in the universe
 is."  

Robert Farrer Capon

















" - Out of a smoke
 rose gold:
One star shines 
over the sunset. "
  
 Carl Sandburg
 Smoke Rose Gold



=^.^=

Your kind visit 
adds an irreplaceable element
 to my day:   YOU!

Thank  You
Your Comment is MOST Welcome

           Warmly,  cloudia



Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Island Cruising

A  L  O  H  A !

Hula Blues by The Brothers Cazimero on Grooveshark

 Honolulu light beautifies a wall, or a face



" Laughter is the sun 
that drives winter 
from the human face.  "

Victor Hugo


"Turn your face to the sun
and the shadows fall behind you." 
  
Maori Proverb
















 Waikiki Summer


" There shall be eternal
 Summer,
 in the 
grateful heart. "

Celia Thaxter














 Island Cruising - Let's Go Holo Holo

" -locals will say
 ' I'm just going holoholo '
 to indicate no real planned destination;
 or, to say they are in transit 
to a specific place. "



" May the road rise
 to meet you,
May the wind be always 
at your back.
May the sun shine warm 
upon your face, "

Irish Blessing


















JR Macaulay, 1917



 > < } } (°>



Thank YOU

                           Warmly, cloudia



Below:
Uncle Harry discusses the deeper meanings 
of the word HoloHolo- 1 minute

Monday, June 25, 2012

Title IV, Women's Sports, Patsy Mink

A L O H A
 Play Ball !
  I Am Woman by Helen Reddy on Grooveshark
 "You can discover
 more about a person 
in an hour of play
 than in a year 
of conversation." 

Plato 













" Champions
 keep playing
 until they get it
 right." 

 Billie Jean King


















 "Somewhere 
behind the athlete you've become 
and the hours of practice 
and the coaches who have pushed you
 is a little girl
 who fell in love with the game
 and never looked back... 
 play for her. " 

 Mia Hamm
 (born on March 17, 1972)









 
Congresswoman Patsy T. Mink (left),
 Mme. Nguyen Thi Binh, Foreign Minister 
of South Vietnam (center), 
and Congresswoman Bella Abzug (right) 
meeting outside of Paris, France, 
April 21, 1972.
 Library of Congress, 
Patsy T. Mink Papers, Manuscript Division.


Patsy Matsu Takemoto was born
 1927, Dec. 6  at Paia
 on the island of Maui

She attended Maui High School
 and in her Junior year, Patsy won her first
 of many elections
 to become student body president.  

Unremarkable today, but Patsy was, 
according to Wikipedia
 "the only female who had ever showed ambition
 for student office in the school's history, 
something that was unheard of at the time. . ."  

Not to mention that 
 ". . .   the month before the election,
 Honolulu was attacked by Japan. 
As a consequence, most of the student body
 was uncomfortable with anything 
that was Japanese-oriented. "  

Nevertheless, she won a tight election, 
graduating in 1944 
as class valedictorian.

" Miss Takemoto moved to Honolulu 
where she attended
 the University of Hawaii at Mānoa.
 My Alma Mater.
 She later transferred
 to the University of Nebraska 
where she once again faced discrimination.
The university had a long-standing
 racial segregation 
policy whereby students of color
 were forced to live in different dormitories 
from the white students. This annoyed Mink,
 and she organized and created a coalition . . . 
her coalition successfully lobbied 
 to end the university's segregation policies. "

 Patsy moved back to Honolulu
 to prepare for medical school. 
She received bachelor's degrees in zoology
 and chemistry from  UH.
 However in 1948, 
none of the twenty medical schools
 to which she applied would accept women. 

A disappointed Takemoto decided 
the best way to force medical schools
 to accept women would be through 
the judicial process. 

She set her sights on law school 
and was admitted to the
 University of Chicago Law School,
 which educated women from its inception in 1902.
 (She was not the only woman in the class.)
Miss Takemoto obtained her juris doctor degree
 in 1951.  And one thing more; 
it was at law school that Miss Takemoto
 met hydrologist John Mink (1924–2005), 
who was to become her husband
 and lifelong partner.

 Patsy Mink served in our Hawaii legislature,
 (Territorial as well as after Statehood)
as well as the US Congress, 
and died here at home in Honolulu 
on  Sept. 28 2002.
(Then-)Representative, 
current Hawaii Governor,
 Neil Abercrombie, said of her:
  ‘She never thought for a moment 
of not working with people 
who didn’t agree with her 
 ideologically.


40 years ago this week,
 on JUNE 23, 1972, 
 a portion of the Educational Amendments 
enacted by our US Congress included
Title IX, 
just 37 words written by Patsy Mink, 
stating that:

 " No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance- "

Congress named the Title IX Amendment
 of the Higher Education Act
 the "Patsy T. Mink
 Equal Opportunity in Education Act".

Since that time,
 participation in school sports 
has INCREASED for girls 90%,
 as you might expect,
 but participation among boys
 has increased too.

When I was in elementary school, 
sports were a boy thing.  
Girls watched,
 or played other games.  
A girl who did play sports
was called a "Tom Boy." 
 [The tribulations of  "Sissy Boys"
 will be discussed at a later time]

When I see Carissa Moore surf, 
WNBA athletes shoot 3 pointers, 
or happy young girls 
REALLY competing 
at sports they love. . . 
when I see young women
 who are police officers, or in military service
and who are not the EXCEPTIONS
 in build & temperament 
that the pioneers of my day 
HAD to be
 to break into those fields, 
 I think of Patsy Takemoto 
all those years ago, 
way out in the country
 on Maui.

Gratitude
 to all the women
and men
 who opened doors!  

Now that we have all
 played in the sunshine,
 and won championships
 and gold medals, 
we will never send our daughters 
back inside again.

Isn't that GREAT!

 Thanks for looking in-
Chime in with a comment

                    Warmly, cloudia