Caturday felid trifecta: Cativity scenes, lost cat reunited with staff after 5 years, family dog locates lost cat under floorboards two months after a fire

January 5, 2019 • 9:15 am

Welcome to the Caturday felids, Hawaii edition. (Note: there’s nothing especially Hawaiian about this except it’s being written on Oahu. I do have a photo of a Hawaiian cat at the end, though.)

Although it’s a bit late, here’s some photos from i iz cat showing “25 times cats hilariously crashed Nativity scenes.” (I hate it when they tell us how we’re supposed to react, and I think the “hilariously crashed” phrased is awkward if not wrong. The cats were not themselves hilarious when they crashed the scenes, so why the adverb?)

Nativity scenes have baskets or cradles for the baby Jesus, of course, and if the scene is large enough cats find those baskets good for a nap.

This cat is SQUASHING baby Jesus:

Sometimes they’re there to join in the worship:

And sometimes they’re just curious:

There are 20 other photos at the site.

***********

Here’s a BBC story from the last day of 2018 (click on screenshot):

The cat, Roxy, took off five years ago:

Roxy, seven, escaped during a visit to the vets in Kingswood, South Gloucestershire in 2013.

Owner Vicky Stokes, 35, scoured the streets searching for her and put up posters of the beloved tabby, all to no avail.

A poster from 2013:

But. . . the cat came back!

But after a bedraggled Roxy started hanging around in Amy Ward’s garden recently, she took her in.

Miss Ward said: “She looked really thin and obviously had fleas so we started feeding her and even called out the RSPCA to try and catch her but she freaked out.

“I even tried to put her in a box but she nearly tore me to pieces so we just started feeding her closer and closer to the house.”

Gradually Miss Ward won Roxy’s trust and she started coming inside and was able to give her several flea treatments and then entice her into a box.

She unknowingly took the cat back to the very same vets she had disappeared from and as she was microchipped they were able to trace her owner.

Moral: always microchip your cat. Now I don’t know where Roxy went for five years, nor does anyone else, but it looks as if she was on her own outdoors that whole time.

Ms. Stokes is elated, and there’s only one fly in the ointment:

Roxy is currently enjoying pride of place on her owners’ bed, much to the disgust of her replacement Harley, Mrs Stokes said.

She added: “Things have changed a bit since she was last here so we now have three cats in total and two kids and we live in a different house but hopefully she will settle in in no time.”

Let us hope. And here’s the returned Roxy, looking just as she did five years ago:

***********

Finally, another heartwarming ending, if you’ll excuse the pun, from The Epoch Times, a Chinese-news-oriented paper printed in America:

In March 2017, a family who lost their house in a fire was fortunate that their dog, Chloe, had been rescued by firemen. However, their cat, Ringer, was nowhere to be found, presumably dead in the fire. It may have looked bleak, but that was not the end of their beloved cat.

When this Michigan family saw their house go up in flames, their cat, Ringer, disappeared along with it. “Looking for that cat, we picked up furniture, looked around beds, looked in every nook and cranny for that cat,” said Fire Chief Ronald Wise.

The dog had been rescued by firefighters that gave her oxygen:

When the Marr family revisited the burnt-out shell eight weeks later in South Haven, Michigan, they had the shock of their lives.

Chloe was with them, and she suddenly began digging and sniffing in one spot. They then heard the faint cry of a cat. They managed to lure the cat out from under the floorboards with some food, and were shocked to discover it was their lost cat, Ringer.

Ringer’s owner, Christine Marr, told Fox 17 News: “This cat’s a miracle. This cat has been in this area for two months with no food or water. And Chloe just found him down in this hole. We’re assuming he was eating bugs and spiders and stuff under there.”

It had been hanging around there for two whole months, and had lost half its weight due to malnourishment.

Two months! But I’m sure the cat it must have had a source of water, as I don’t think cats can live nearly that long without water.  At any rate, the cat went to the vets for IV fluids and a bit of care, and the owners are elated. And I’ll admit that, yes, a dog saved the life of a cat:

There’s also a video at the site.

***********

Lagniappe: Here’s the Persian Pi, my BFF in Hawaii. As I said, Pi was a rescue cat who was once used for breeding but was discarded because he didn’t produce the right quality of kitten. He looked pissed off all the time, but is a sweetheart, affectionate and very fluffy. He needs daily brushing but gets it. And his amber eyes are gorgeous.

And my other felid friend: Loki, a big bruiser who’s very friendly and fluffy:

h/t: William, Kevin, Tom

Saturday: Hili dialogue

January 5, 2019 • 7:46 am

by Grania

 

Good morning and welcome to Saturday!

Ninja Cat is coming

 

Today in history:

Notable birthdays today:

Hili had more deep thoughts this morning, pondering very serious questions.

Hili: To eat or not to eat, that is the question.
A: You’ve already eaten your supper.
Hili: But did I eat all of it?
In Polish:
Hili: Zjeść coś, czy nie zjeść, oto jest pytanie.
Ja: Kolację już zjadłaś.
Hili: Ale czy całą?
From the land of Twitter:
Cats doing what cats do best Twitter

https://twitter.com/EmrgencyKittens/status/1081370196923875329

 

https://twitter.com/AwwwwCats/status/1080597124285427712

 

Physics Twitter

An update on Thule

Canid Twitter

https://twitter.com/CUTEFUNNYANIMAL/status/1080233000661590016

 

Snail Twitter

https://twitter.com/AMAZlNGNATURE/status/1080870889862938624

Bees in motion

Being silly Twitter

And finally, an antidote to that stupid meme doing the rounds on social media lately

Hat-tip: Matthew

Hawaii: Day 3, Pearl Harbor

January 4, 2019 • 2:07 pm

The third day of my visit involved a trip to Pearl Harbor west of Honolulu, the site of the Japanese attack on the American fleet on December 7, 1941, the “day date that will live in infamy.” That attack brought the U.S. into the Second World War the next day, when Congress declared war.

We couldn’t get timely tickets to visit the USS Arizona Memorial, a floating pavilion above the sunken wreck of that ship, whose hull still holds the remains of 1,102 of the 1,177 men killed when a Japanese bomb hit the ship’s powder magazine. I may return to see that memorial.

In the meantime, the other sights at Pearl Harbor include the battleship USS Missouri, the ship on which the Japanese surrender was signed in Tokyo Harbor on September 2, 1945.

The Missouri wasn’t commissioned until 1944, but fought in the battles of Iwo Jima and Okinawa, and was bombarding Japan when the Japanese surrendered. It later participated in both the Korean War and the Gulf War (we were told it fired the war’s first Tomahawk missile) before being decommissioned in 1992. It’s now permanently moored in Pearl Harbor as a memorial  It’s fascinating to visit: you can walk throughout nearly all the ship and see the gun turrets, the captain’s sea quarters, the swabbies’ beds, the canteen, and so on. Here are some photos.

During World War II, the ship held 134 officers and 2400 enlisted men: about 1000 more than during the Korean and Gulf Wars. It was a floating city, with a post office, a snack bar, a dental clinic and dental prosthetic lab—everything you’d need on a long voyage, including of course, fuel, fresh water, and ammunition.

The big guns comprised nine 16 inch (406 mm)/50 cal Mark 7 guns, with each barrel called a “rifle.” They could fire several 2,700-pound armor-piercing shells a minute, with a range of 20 miles. It took about 100 men to handle each turret during firing.

Here are the six forward guns, which of course could be swivelled to fire from the side (they had a 300° radius of fire).

Here’s a shell and one of the four powder packages (each weighing 110 pounds) required to fire each shell:

The firepower was fearsome. Here, from Wikipedia, is “a bow view of the battleship USS IOWA (BB-61) firing its Mark 7 16-inch/50-caliber guns off the starboard side during a fire power demonstration.” I guess the sailors had some kind of ear protection, as this would have been LOUD. 

Here’s a cool video showing the firing of one of the Missouri’s big guns. It seems to be largely automated, and you can see them load the four powder packages into the barrel after the shell.

A naval training film on the design and function of these guns:
The bow guns overlook the curved, white Arizona Memorial, so here is a view of the beginning of the war (Pearl Harbor attack) and the end (the Missouri, on whose deck the war ended).

The Missouri’s mess hall:

Every petty officer got his own coffee mug; it was part of the induction ceremony:

Petty officers’ lounge:

The kitchen and mess line, called the “Truman line” after the new President (Truman was also from Missouri). 2500 men to feed three times a day—the cooks had a huge job! And remember, all that food had to be stored aboard along with everything else.

A demonstration menu from in port (I’m not sure what era this is supposed to represent). Sailors ate well, though—we had to keep our fighting boys in good trim!

A Thanksgiving dinner menu (again, I’m not sure from when, but I think it’s WWII). No booze! In fact, I’m not sure, and we weren’t told, whether sailors had any alcohol on board. I doubt it.

The bakery (there had to be one, right?)

There was even a donut bakery! I guess sailors, like cops, need their donuts:

The snack bar where you could get “geedunk”, and here you had to pay. This is how it looked during the Korean War (I’m not sure there was a snack bar during WWII). Those were the days—35 cents for a banana split!

What’s “geedunk,” you say? Here?

The sailors’ bunks, comfortable compared to those on a submarine (see below). Each bunk had a locker where the swabbies would store their clothes:

Post office (I suspect mail came when ships were in port or was transferred from other ships). A letter must have been very welcome!

Machine shop:

The epicenter of the bridge, where the ship was steered and orders given to all points:

Navigation: the ancestor of the GPS:

Phones to everywhere:

The captain’s sea quarters, right next to the bridge. The couch doubles as a bed. The captain presumably had a more comfortable non-sea cabin, though we didn’t see it, but when the ship was in action he was only two steps away from the ship’s nerve center.

The surrender site on deck is marked by a plaque. General Douglas MacArthur was in charge, but representatives of the major warring nations (save Germany) were there.

Here’s a newsreel showing much of the ceremony (and MacArthur’s words); the entire surrender took place over only 25 minutes. If you haven’t watched the surrender ceremony, please do: this video is only 8½ minutes long. MacArthur had quite a charismatic presence and voice.

A plaque on the deck marks the spot where the table sat (it was a hastily-procured mess table covered with a cloth, as the wooden table initially suggested for the ceremony was too small):

The other sight at Pearl Harbor is the WWII submarine USS Bowfin, launched on December 7, 1942 (the first anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attack), and, after many tours in the Pacific, and 17 Japanese ships sunk, it also participated in the Korean War, going out of service in 1953. She’s been at Pearl Harbor since 1971.

The boat:

Forward torpedo tubes (there were ten, six fore and four aft). There was also a deck gun and an antiaircraft cannon. The sub carried 10 officers and 70 enlisted men.

Bunks—right over the torpedos!

More bunks. It was close quarters for 81 men on a narrow sub, and they went out for a month at a time.

The galley, considerably smaller than that on the Missouri (the sub had only 1/30 of the battleship’s population):

And the mess:

Bathrooms:

The old-fashioned fittings and gauges were quite atmospheric, and pretty, too:

The engines. According to Wikipedia, the propulsion consisted of this:

  • 4 × General Motors Model 16-248 V16 diesel engines driving electrical generators
  • 2 × 126-cell Sargo batteries
  • 4 × high-speed General Electricelectric motors with reduction gears
  • two propellers

They don’t make gauges like this any more!

The four aft torpedo tubes.

I can only imagine what it was like to be cooped up on that small sub with 80 other sailors for a month! And, of course, the soldiers and marines on the Pacific islands had it even worse in some ways, with no showers, only cold rations to eat, and sleeping outdoors.

My dad spoke of what it was like to live in wartime America (he served Stateside, as Jews with economics degrees were put in the Finance Corps). At the beginning of the war, he told me, nobody was sure that America wouldn’t be taken over the the Germans and the Japanese, and everybody knew someone with a family member who died.

American military casualties in the war were about 400,000, but that was much smaller than those incurred by the Soviets (about ten million), the Japanese (ca. two million), and the Germans (about 4 million). Great Britain lost about as many soldiers and sailors as did the U.S.

New Muslim congresswomen favor eliminating Israel

January 4, 2019 • 10:01 am

The two new Muslim congresswomen, Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar, are both supporters of the BDS movement, and both made that clear only after they were elected.

BDS’s goal is not just to ostensibly punish Israel into negotiating a two-state solution with Palestine (of course, it’s the Palestinians who have rejected every Israeli peace initiative), but to completely eliminate the state of Israel through allowing the bogus “right-of-return” policy as well as fostering a “one-state” solution that amalgamates Israel and Palestine. Both, of course, would eliminate the state of Israel and lead to a bloody war against the Jews. Ergo the BDS slogan, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”

Tlaib previously voiced her support for a one-state solution and the “right of return” last August in an interview in In These Times:

What about a two-state solution vs. one-state?

One state. It has to be one state. Separate but equal does not work. I’m only 42 years old but my teachers were of that generation that marched with Martin Luther King. This whole idea of a two-state solution, it doesn’t work. Even though we continue the struggle in the United States, we have a better chance to integrate. My grandfather said, ‘I don’t understand, we were doing so good. My neighborhood, Arab-Jew. We picked olives together. Why now do they want to be over me?’ ‘You did nothing wrong,’ I told him.

Where do you stand on Palestinian right of return—support or oppose?

Very supportive. I see what happened to African Americans in our country. I support right of return absolutely. I have family that left [Palestine] in 1967. They left, took their keys with them. They thought they could come back, and they’ve never been back. My uncle would tear up because he couldn’t believe he couldn’t go back. He had to raise his kids in Jordan.

So we have at least one representative that wants Israel to disappear, presumably with a huge loss of life and attacks on Jews. Does Tlaib think that this could happen in any other way? Ilhan Omar, I suspect, believes the same.

If you have any doubt about Tlaib’s views, have a look at this tweet. It came from a BuzzFeed reporter who covers U.S. Muslim life.

This note surely was not put up by Tlaib, as she cannot be that stupid; there is one report that it was stuck up by Mo Amer, a Palestinian-American comedian who was part of the entourage celebrating Omar’s inauguration. But I doubt it was “just a joke”. And look who else attended Omar’s celebration (picture on left).

No more Israel. The Authoritarian Left, of course, idolizes both Tlaib and Omar because they are Muslims. There is great approbation for their increasing the “diversity” of Congress. And of course if some groups have had their opportunity to participate in governing impeded, those blocks should be removed. But before we elect anyone, look at their agenda. Of course, it’s harder to do that when they hide their agenda until they’re in office

Some may say that Tlaib and Omar hid their views about Israel before the election because “that’s what politicians do.” But I call it lying.

Friday: Hili dialogue

January 4, 2019 • 6:30 am

It’s Friday, January 4, 2019, and I’ve been in Hawaii for one week, with two weeks to go. It’s National Spaghetti Day, and World Braille Day, celebrating the birthday of inventor Louis Braille (see below). I just wondered: now that nobody under 40 reads things on paper any more, how do the blind deal with the Internet?

On this day in 1847, Samuel Colt sold his “revolver pistol” to the U.S. government. In the ensuing Civil War, his Connecticut factory provided weapons to both the North and South, and I don’t know how that was legal. Here’s his model 1860 Army revolver:

On January 4, 1853, according to Wikipedia: “After having been kidnapped and sold into slavery in the American South, Solomon Northup regains his freedom; his memoir Twelve Years a Slave later becomes a national bestseller.” Most of you have probably seen the eponymous movie, which won three Oscars, including Best Picture.

On this day in 1903, Topsy, an unwanted circus elephant, was electrocuted in public, with the execution being filmed (the film is still easily found, though I’m not going to post it). This was after cyanide-laced carrots failed to work. She was then hanged for good measure, although she was already dead. I don’t know how people could do this to a trusting and docile animal, but it’s a measure of progress that this could never happen today.

On January 4, 1974, Richard Nixon refused to hand over the White House tapes subpoenaed by the Senate’s Watergate Committee. The Supreme Court later forced the crook to fork over the stuff. And 11 years ago, the 110th U.S. Congress convened, electing Nancy Pelosi as the first woman Speaker of the House. She will resume that position today, and it’s going to be an interesting two years in Congress.

The government, of course, is still shut down over Congress’s refusal to fund Trump’s Big Wall. I have no idea how this will come out, as both sides refuse to give. Any guesses?

Notables born on this day include Isaac Newton (1643; the December 25, 1642 date given by many is from the outdated Julian Calendar), Jacob Grimm (1785), Louis Braille (1809), General Tom Thumb (1836), Augustus John (1878), Max Eastman (1883), James Bond (1900, the suave British agent 007 was named after this ornithologist), and Floyd Patterson (1935).

A few words from Wikipedia about how Ian Fleming appropriated the name of his famous character (I was a huge James Bond fan as a teenager).

Ian Fleming, who was a keen bird watcher living in Jamaica, was familiar with Bond’s book, and chose the name of its author for the hero of Casino Royale in 1953, apparently because he wanted a name that sounded “as ordinary as possible”. Fleming wrote to the real Bond’s wife, “It struck me that this brief, unromantic, Anglo-Saxon and yet very masculine name was just what I needed, and so a second James Bond was born.” He also contacted the real James Bond about using his name in the books, and Bond replied to him, “Fine with it.” At some point during one of Fleming’s visits to Jamaica he met the real Bond and his wife, as shown in a made-for-DVD documentary about Fleming. A short clip was shown with Fleming, Bond and his wife. Also in his novel Dr. No Fleming referenced Bond’s work by basing a large ornithological sanctuary on Dr. No’s island in the Bahamas. In 1964, Fleming gave Bond a first edition copy of You Only Live Twice signed, “To the real James Bond, from the thief of his identity”. In December 2008 the book was put up for auction, eventually fetching $84,000 (£56,000).

In the 2002 Bond film Die Another Day, the fictional Bond, played by Pierce Brosnan, can be seen examining Birds of the West Indies in an early scene that takes place in Havana, Cuba. The author’s name (James Bond) on the front cover is obscured. In the same film, when Bond first meets Jinx (Halle Berry), he introduces himself as an ornithologist. In the 2015 Bond film Spectre, the same book was seen in a promotional on-set photo, which is supposed to be appearing in an alternate take of a scene taking place in Bond’s Chelsea apartment.However, it is nowhere to be found in the finalized film.

James Bond, 1900-1989

Those who died on January 4 include Elizabeth Ann Seton (1821), Cornelius Vanderbilt (1877), Albert Camus (1960; Nobel Laureate), Erwin Schrödinger (1961; Nobel Laureate), T. S. Eliot (1965; Nobel Laureate), Christopher Isherwood (1986), and Les Brown (2001).

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili has an interesting thought.

Hili: Did cats domesticate humans because of books?
A: No, because of grain.
Hili: What? What are you talking about?
A: Mice like grain.
Hili: Well, yes, it could be that, but books were important as well.

In Polish:

Hili: Czy koty udomowiły ludzi z powodu książek?
Ja, Nie, z powodu zboża.
Hili: Co ty opowiadasz?
Ja: Myszy lubią ziarno.
Hili: No tak, mogło tak być, ale książki też są ważne.

Who goes with Fergus?

An Egyptian double-duck bracelet found on Facebook:

An animal joke sent by reader Will, whose daughter found it on Facebook:

 

Tweets from Matthew. The first is Tweet of the Week: Duck curling!

Mishaps of 2018; do watch them!

https://twitter.com/Koksalakn/status/1080086584387620870

This risqué joke is told by comedy writer and “Curb Your Enthusiasm” actor Bob Einstein, who died yesterday at age 76.

This is a classic video, but be sure to see versions where words are put to the cats’ sounds, like this one.

And today’s Trumpian Metatarsals in Mouth Moment:

Tweets from Grania. A new use for Siri!

https://twitter.com/badt_BOI_/status/1080159842168438785

A new bonus from the Ultima Thule mission:

And the real Ultima Thule, a 21-mile-long iceball:

Baby penguins. Translation: “A baby penguin that spreads its wings to protect itself from predators and shows himself big.”

An adorable bout of play between a cat and a fox:

And The Gif of the Year:

https://twitter.com/RadioCleary/status/1080134962203058177

Hawaii, Day 5

January 3, 2019 • 10:00 am

I’ll skip days 3 and 4 for now, as those involved a visit to Pearl Harbor and to the ships on display there, as well as a long ocean trip to snorkel with dolphins and turtles, so there are lots of photos to organize. Today (Wednesday) was a visit to the North Shore, the famous surfing spot of Oahu and one of the most famous in the world.

First, though, it was time to feed the ducks. The rounds: the usual mass of ducks in the canal and the five to ten favorites in the nearby marina.

In the canal a lovely but dangerous bird was on display, a black-crowned night heron (Nycticorax nycticorax). They’re native here, and this one shows its nuptial plumes (males and females both have them). This one, which is named Slaugh, hangs around the canal that itself harbors dozens of ducks, and the species is known to prey on ducklings as well as fish, frogs, and other aquatic beasts. We haven’t seen any ducklings at the canal, and I worry. Here’s the beast trying to catch a fish (it failed):

But we did see ducklings in the marina. Encountering the usual crew of Fergus and his mates, we noticed a female on the marina’s island (yes, like my duck island, but a huge wooded tract) and she had ducklings! After a while she swam toward us and we fed her and her brood. There were ten offspring, and they must have been only two or three days old. I’ve decided they were born on my birthday, and I’ll be feeding them daily during my stay—if they’re around.

Wherever I go there are ducklings! Ten—count them—ten.

Three are yellow and the other seven yellow and brown, like normal mallards. I wonder if there’s some ancestry with domestic mallards here.

Here’s the duck island in the marina (right), which must be about 50 yards or so on a side. The ducks hang around there, and it offers them shelter and safety from predators like feral cats. I think the water is brackish, since it’s contiguous with the sea, and I’m not sure how mallards do in salty water.

The island’s Hawaiian stilts (Himantopus mexicanus knudseni), an imperiled subspecies of the black-necked stilt. They eat aquatic invertebrates, but I’ve found that they’re not averse to waterfowl starter chow. (I don’t feed them, but they clean up any spillage.) These ones are sleeping, standing on one leg with their eyes closed and bills tucked in.

And my good friend Fergus, who is almost certainly a mallard/muscovy hybrid, or “mullard.”

After feeding time, we drove north from near Honolulu to a point between Haleiwa (Surf Central) and Pupukea.

First a visit to Waimea Bay, a legendary spot that has up to 50-foot waves. It was tame when we visited, so I haven’t seen the famous monster swells. Plenty of people were sunning themselves, and doing acrobatic mating displays:

Human mating displays on the North Shore apparently involve complete rotations of the body in the air:

Waimea Bay on January 2: pretty tame (my video):

Here’s what Waimea Bay looks like when the big waves come in and the surfers come out. Gnarly!

And then there’s the famous Banzai Pipeline Break, a bit further on in Pupukea, a beach where the waves are a bit smaller but there are jagged reefs below, making it one of the most dangerous surf spots in the world. Many surfers have died here, as they have on many North Shore beaches.

This is drone footage of the Pipeline. After watching a bunch of surfing videos, I’m convinced that it requires both an inordinate amount of skill and an inordinate amount of courage—at least in places like these.

Almost across the street from Waimea Bay is the Waimea Valley, harboring a botanical garden, a much-visited waterfall, and one of the most endangered bird populations in the world. We spent several hours there. It’s very scenic and has been the site of some movie scenes, including “Lost” “Rise of the Planet of the Apes,” and “Hunger Games: Catching Fire”.  It was a prosperous farming and fishing community in pre-European Polynesia, and is considered a sacred site.

And the site is one of the few places in Hawaii to see the Hawaiian moorhen (or Hawaiian gallinule), a highly endangered subspecies (Gallinula galeata sandvicensis) of the common gallinule. Only about 1000 individuals remain, but a breeding and reintroduction program is meeting with success. The adults at the park entrance had plenty of chicks:

This one was pulling a worm out of the bank which it then fed to a chick. The birds make a weird barking call, but I didn’t record that.

Some beautiful flowers in the park, a place that I highly recommend for a visit. Please identify them for me!

A bromeliad (pineapple is an artificially selected plant in this group):

An orchid:

Taro, grown on this site by ancient Polynesians:

A Hawaiian demonstrating the traditional way of weaving mats, bracelets, and other items:

The waterfall at the end of the trail. You can swim in the pool, but have to use a lifejacket, and I wasn’t in the mood to immerse myself:

The walk worked up a big hunger, and I knew the destination: Kono’s Restaurant in Haleiwa, famous for its kalua pig (pulled pork, cooked underground).  I seem to be eating a lot of it these days because it’s GOOD! We had it with a scoop of rice and a salad: there must have been more than a pound of the toothsome and smoky pork shreds.

It’s an informal place (almost every restaurant in Hawaii is), and the fare is on a big blackboard:

I had the pork plate lunch, but was so hungry that I finished half of it before I thought about taking a picture. So, no photo.

It was then off to the nearby Dole Plantation (“Hawaii’s Complete Pineapple Experience”), a big touristy operation organized around the Dole Pineapple farms, having expanded from a fruit stand opened in 1950. Now it’s a huge moneymaking operation with overpriced pineapple gee-gaws, a pineapple maze, train rides, and pineapple-cutting demonstrations. We were there for one reason only: to get a Dole Whip: pineapple-flavored soft-serve of high repute.

As Bon Appetit notes, Dole Whip is found throughout the U.S. at various Disneyland venues, but I wanted to try it on its home ground. It’s not fancy: the magazine says “the dairy-free dessert is made from a pineapple-flavored dry mix (dried pineapple juice and the key to all silky smooth soft serve: stabilizers) that’s combined with water and pumped out of a soft-serve machine.” I had it in a waffle cone with a fresh pineapple spear. The large serving hit the spot in the hot weather.

Across the street, on the real farm, forklifts were hefting crates of fresh-picked pineapples onto a big rack:

I’ve now had fresh pineapple on Oahu several times, and it’s a gazillion times better than the underripe fruit you get on the mainland. The stuff here tastes of sugar and sunshine.

Finally, on the drive back we passed this famous Army base, and if you don’t know why it’s famous, you’re not a movie buff:

 

Spot the peacock!

January 3, 2019 • 8:30 am

This is for beginners and those new to this site. At the Waimea Valley yesterday, I was walking beneath the trees and heard a scream from above. A male peacock had flown up into the branches.

Can you spot him? This is rated “dead easy,” but I’d never seen a peacock in a tree before:

This is so easy that I won’t give a reveal, but do notice that despite his gaudy colors, the male is pretty cryptic up there.