Men Dance!

Aloha!

Welcome to

H A W A I I

"Dare to Hula, Leave your shame at home!"

Hawaiian Saying

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Waikiki Princess

Aloha and Welcome

to

Olde Waikiki

Ainahau Stream

Hawaii State Archives

“It is the childlike mind that finds the kingdom.”
Charles Fillmore

Statue of Princess Kaiulani & beloved pet.

Copyright © Kathleen Walling Fry

"Being a princess isn't all it's cracked up to be."

Princess Diana

Princess Kaiulani

"You may be a princess or the richest woman in the world, but you cannot be more than a lady."

Jennie Churchill

The Princess, age 11

“The ''kingdom of Heaven'' is a condition of the heart -not something that comes ''upon the earth'' or ''after death.”
Friedrich Nietzsche

Feeding her peacocks 1898

“A good mind possesses a kingdom”
Seneca

In 1881, Hawaii's King David Kalakaua was the first head of state to meet with Emperor Meiji after the "opening" of Japan. While in Japan, King Kalakaua proposed the betrothal of his 5 year old niece, Princess Victoria Kawekiu Lunaliko Kalaninuiahilapalapa Kaiulani Cleghorn, to an imperial prince.

The Princess was the Hapa-Haole (half caucasian) daughter of Kalakaua's sister Princess Miriam Likelike, and Scottish businessman/horticulturist Archibald Scott Cleghorn, sometime governor of Oahu.

Our legendary royal beauty grew up on 10 choice Waikiki acres that were a baptismal gift from her aunt, Princess Ruth (granddaughter of Kamehameha the Great).

Kaiulani's father built his family a two story home there, planting bountiful gardens of flowers and plants from all over the world, set among lily ponds. In fact, Cleghorn planted the first Banyan tree in Hawaii there.

Kaiulani's mother named the estate "Ainahau" after the stream that watered it.

Today this part of Waikiki displays street signs reading: Ainahau, Cleghorn, and Kaiulani in their honor.

Shortly after her mother passed away (1889) an unhappy 13 year old Princess was sent to England to be educated at the Great Harrowden Hall School for Girls in Northamptonshire. For someday she was expected to become queen of the Kingdom of Hawaii!

Alas, that would never be.

When the student Princess heard news that her aunt, Queen Lydia Liliuokalani, was deposed (1893) she immediately traveled from England to New York City, Boston, and Washington DC to try and save her homeland from annexation by the United States. Despite speeches, negotiations, and even a meeting with President Grover Cleveland, her efforts were in vain.

On July 4, 1894 the Republic of Hawaii was declared to a shocked Honolulu, and our Hawaii became a U.S. Territory with formal annexation by the United States in 1898 .

But the Kingdom of Hawaii continues to live in Hawaiian hearts. Even patriotic local US citizens feel a deep loyalty to this kingdom of hearts, and a heart of love for "our" royalty.

Ainahau was torn down in 1955 to make room for the Princess Kaiulani Hotel and other real estate parcels.

And the princess who would never become queen?

She returned to her beloved Ainahau estate in 1897.

But sadly our beloved citizen-princess Kaiulani died there on March 6, 1899, at the young age of 23. She never married her prince.

They say her beloved peacocks all called out at the moment of her death.

And some even claim to hear them still. . .

on dark Waikiki nights. . . LISTEN!

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Clever Bananas

A L O H A!

Welcome

click on photos to enlarge!

Banana Leaf

"Intellectual property has the shelf life of a banana."

Bill Gates

YO, Vinny!
They're EVERYWHERE!

"You don't want your credibility banana to turn brown, but you do want to speak out about what you believe in."
Bradley Whitford

"You have to have a certain persona to be a star, you know, and I don't have that. I'm a banana."

Harvey Korman

"By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest."

Confucius

Clever Bananas, the portable fruit!

I've tried everything to keep them fresh

when all the time they were ready to go:

simply separate them

and they know that it is time to be portable,

they keep fresh and go along.

Such a companionable fruit!

The bunch of five

like a vegetal hand

reaching out

across the species barrier

as if to shake hands

(That's what they're called:

a "Hand of Bananas"

at least that's what I call them.)

Yo, Yellow!

Time to come along on a little

walk-about.

Apple bananas, growing in da yard,

sweet and custard-y

not store-bought and hard!

So here's to a noble curved companion

No! not THAT one!

the lowly banana

whose "tree" is really a giant grass.

Tomorrow's post:

"I've got a loverly bunch a coconuts!"

A L O H A!

Summer-Addled Cloudia

Company Coming!

Aloha!

Come in!

click on photos to enlarge

"First rate men and women will not and cannot work under conditions fixed by those who are afraid of ideas."
Henry Steele Commanger

"Fire the MBA's and hire a poet!"
P.J. O'Rourke on saving the US auto industry

Princess Kaiulani & Peacock



"There are joys that long to be ours. God sends ten thousand truths, which come about us like birds seeking inlet; but we are shut up to them, and so they bring us nothing, but sit and sing awhile upon the roof, then fly away."
Henry Ward Beecher

In 1881, Hawaii's King David Kalakaua was the first head of state to meet with Emperor Meiji after the opening of Japan.

Kalakaua requested, and Meiji later signed, an agreement (1885) allowing the immigration of Japanese workers to Hawai‘i.

Those issei (first generation) immigrants and their descendants have contributed much to the multicultural society that is Hawai‘i.

During his visit, Kalakaua also proposed betrothing his 5 year old niece Princess Kaiulani (statue above) to Japanese Prince Komatsu Akihito. Though ultimately this came to nothing.

Next week, another Akihito will be visiting us here in Hawaii. Japanese Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko will be here to observe the 50th anniversary of the local Crown Prince Akihito Scholarship Foundation.

"The Crown Prince Akihito Scholarship is awarded to 1) graduate students in Japan for study at the University of Hawaii at Manoa (My alma mater ;-) ; and 2) American graduate students at the University of Hawaii at Manoa for study in Japan who are pursuing a subject area leading to better understanding between Japan and the United States."

From the website; http://www.jashawaii.org/cpas.asp

The royal couple is also slated to lay a wreathe at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific at Punchbowl. In doing so they will honor many WWII veterans including the grandfather with whom President Barack Obama lived.

The president of Taiwan was here a few days ago. . .

Rumor has it that our president will be visiting in December. . .

We'd better clean up!

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bonus pic !

Full Circle Crackers

Aloha Friends!

Come on in...

to

W A I K I K I

click on photos to enlarge!

Flights & Ranks of Cherubs Flying Above

"How can we argue with resilience and good humour , criticise without condemning, stick up for ourselves without betraying the inner vulnerability that perceived the slight in the first place?"

Susie Boyt

All Together at End of Day

"Without Haste, Without Fear. We Will Conquer The World."

Signboard outside of China's National Space Launch Center

Black & Blue

"Ever since happiness heard your name, it has been running through the streets trying to find you."

Hafiz

New England's whalers and missionaries were among the first foreigners to influence Hawaii.

There has always been a special relationship between Hawaii and New England that is way beyond the scope of this brief post.

Well Miss Hawaii USA, Aureana Tseu is dancing Hula and sharing lei

in grocery stores throughout the region

to introduce Diamond Bakery's

Saloon Pilot Crackers

to 165 Hannaford supermarkets.

Get out and see her, won't you?

(Carol, Sandy ;-)

The dry crackers

(based, they say, on recipes that sailors relied on back in the days of sail)

will be a perfect complement to

traditional New England Chowders!

Old Trenton Crackers (OTC)

LOOK OUT!

;-)

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Beach Stroll Sunday

Notice: Blogger is not updating this blog in blogger dashboards & readers!!!!!

PLEASE check back daily

OK?

;-)

Aloha!

It's

Sunday Morning in

W A I K I K I

Click on this maginificent TED TRIMMER photo to enlarge! (c)

"Truth is stranger than fiction."

Lord Byron

Early morning strolls reveal treasures like these colorful, wet,

beach stones. Trimmer (c)

High South Shore Surf "harvests" coral heads onto the beach





Anyone, any situation, is bearable once you accept it as it is;

And the road to hell is paved with false dichotomies. . .


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Go For Broke

Aloha!

Welcome to Waikiki

on July 4th!

Click on photos to enlarge! The wild blue yonder

"There are, in every age, new errors to be rectified and new prejudices to be opposed."
Samuel Johnson

Jean

"The important thing is this: To be able at any moment to sacrifice what we are for what we could become."

Charles DuBois

William H. Holloman III

"If you don't like change, you're going to like irrelevance even less."

General Eric Shinseki

Today, in honor of July 4th, I re-publish this post about real heroes. Thank you for visiting. Your visits & comments make my day!

*Happy Birthday USA*

Cloudia

You friends who often visit "Da Spiral" know that we like to salute unheralded heroes of everyday life. Heck, I've seen real courage in many of your blogs. But every so often there are Heroes, capitol "H" who strap it on and fly into the teeth of mortal combat, or who put their very lives on the line to say "No" to denigration, unfairness, and abuse. Sometimes extraordinary people are even called upon to face two Goliaths at once.

Today's post is dedicated to two very special groups of such human beings. Please come meet them!

Last September 30th, a few such surviving heroes were honored at Honolulu's Punchbowl National Cemetery of the Pacific by Kauai boy General Eric Shinseki. (The general has since been appointed to lead our nation's veterans affairs by the new president.)

The elderly men that he honored on that day, largely Hawaii born and bred, had served in the famed 442nd & 100th segregated combat units of WWII. They had been the “Go for Broke” Japanese-American soldiers who fought in the toughest European battles of that war, and usually against superior numbers. History remembered, and history written, both tell how they were openly considered expendable because of their race. This was certainly not a surprise to them in their uphill fight for dignity. They all had family in US internment camps, even as German-Americans and Italian-Americans remained in their own homes. Nevertheless these aging men, in their youth answered the call to arms on behalf of the nation that detained their parents.

They are military legend for having saved 230 Texans (the famous “lost” regiment”) at the cost of 400 of their own, among numerous other documented acts of extreme heroism. These men won more decorations, more purple hearts, more medals of honor, than any unit of comparable size in the history of the US Army.

Every day in Honolulu we pass by these neighbors on our streets and in the aisles at Longs Drugs, only too aware that there are ever fewer and fewer of them. In my opinion they are among the greatest of the greatest generation, and what these men did will never be forgotten. . . As President Truman said of them at war's end: "You fought two enemies, the nazis and prejudice. And you have won."

So who could walk alongside such people?

Perhaps it would be the man I had the privilege to meet the other evening. He is William H. Holloman III, one of the justly famed Tuskegee Airmen. But he told me simply to call him "Bill." I was beyond thrilled to sit a spell with Bill and his lovely wife Jean to talk story. It's not every day that one gets to meet such a larger than life figure usually read about in books or admired in documentaries

At a time when "scientists" had told the US Congress that African-Americans had less intelligence and flying aptitude "than monkeys" these young men rose to the challenge of excellence while carrying social and cultural burdens we can scarcely credit today a mere 60 - 70 years later. Through dignity, courage, and sheer ability, they proved denigration a damned lie.

They flew like eagles! And like the Japanese-American combat veterans of Hawaii they came home to build lives of full citizenship earned in blood. Mr. Holloman, whose father might have served the railroad as a Pullman porter - but never an engineer, retired after many years of service as an airline pilot and aviation consultant.

"The Germans shot my black ass down! But they knew all about us, and they treated us with proper military respect. Then I came home and had to ride in the back of the bus." one of these vets has said.

Unfortunately the photo above caught Mr. Holloman with his eyes closed, depriving you of his most strikingly handsome light eyes! But one doesn't ask a legend to stand a second time. And I who religiously avoid publishing photos of myself am proudly shown with him!

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