Destination: Hawaii
Mind the Vog
by Pam Mandel | 02.02.09 | 10:32 AM ET
It’s the byproduct of an active volcano. Vog, it’s called, volcano plus smog. It might make for some pretty sunrises or sunsets, but vog also produces acid rain and can aggravate respiratory conditions. The Department of Health just launched a website to monitor vog conditions and United States Geological Survey (USGS) has a fact sheet up about the dangers of vog:
SO2 is a poisonous gas that irritates skin and the tissues and mucous membranes of the eyes, nose, and throat. During even moderate physical activity, SO2 penetrates deeply into the airway and can produce respiratory distress in some individuals. In the absence of strong winds, SO2 emitted by Kilauea can accumulate in the air and reach levels that exceed Federal health standards. Since 1986, this has occurred more than 85 times within Hawai`i Volcanoes National Park, which includes much of Kilauea.
Kiluea Volcano is a stunner, but she’s also the culprit, emitting sulfur dioxide into the air whenever she erupts. Hawai`i Volcanoes National Park keeps their site up to date with not just where to see the lava, but which parts of the park are closed due to vog. Live lava is a big draw, but don’t be disappointed if the volcano isn’t active for you—your lungs may be thankful for the volcano’s rest.
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Yahoo! BuzzHow to Get Your Uke On in Hawaii
by Pam Mandel | 01.29.09 | 9:22 AM ET
Photo by Pam Mandel Pam Mandel introduces you to your new four-stringed friend. Just don't call it a "you-koo-lele."
Hawaii, Vegas Style?
by Pam Mandel | 01.28.09 | 4:17 PM ET
With Hawaii’s tourism-driven economy taking such a big hit this season, all kinds of ideas are being thrown around to raise money for the island state. Legalized gambling is again on the table—only Hawaii and Utah do not have legalized gambling in the United States.
Charles Memminger—writing in the Star Bulletin —has another proposal: Export Hawaii to the mainland. Vegas, to be exact, and build a Hawaii-themed casino.
Plastic Pineapple Passion
by Pam Mandel | 01.27.09 | 10:57 AM ET
There are all kinds of things wrong with it. First, there’s the magnetically attractive plastic container. It’s shaped like a pineapple, of course, with a coin slot in the lid as though you’re actually going to use it as a change bank. Be honest, that’s not going to happen, it’s just going to end up on the tchotchke shelf at some thrift store. Next, there’s the fact that the soft serve is shockingly free of dairy products. Finally, what’s in there that you could possibly need? It’s a cocktail of sugar, empty carbs and, well, OK, pineapple juice is sure to have some nutritional value that’s not totally negated by the soft serve.
I couldn’t help it. When I saw visitors walking about the grounds of the Dole Plantation carrying their very own pineapple floats in their very own pineapple-shaped containers, I devolved into a badly behaved child. “I WANT ONE OF THOSE NOW!” Luckily, my husband felt the same way—and those childhood lessons about sharing kicked in, too. We were able to limit ourselves to one and let me tell you, it was more than enough.
And it was delicious. If you find me totally checked out, not paying attention at all, it’s possible that pictured in the bubble over my head, is one of those pineapple floats from the plantation store. I could go for one about now.
Barack Obama and the White House Shaka
by Pam Mandel | 01.21.09 | 3:12 PM ET
REUTERS/Larry Downing Maybe you caught it. Our new president, Barack Hussein Obama—and his little daughter, Sasha—threw the “shaka” at the Punahou School Marching Band during the inauguration parade. If you’ve driven in Hawaii, you’ve seen the shaka more than once—when you let the guy merge in front of you or stopped to let someone cross the street to the beach. Wikipedia has the most consistent origin story for the greeting which means, depending on context: it’s cool, hang loose, right on ...
One theory according to the Honolulu Star-Bulletin, prevailing local lore credited the gesture to Kalili Hamana of Laie, who lost the three middle fingers of his right hand while working at the Kahuku Sugar Mill. Hamana was then shifted to guarding the sugar train, and his all-clear wave of thumb and pinkie is said to have evolved over the years into the “shaka.”
I can’t help but wonder what other signs of island culture the 44th president is going to bring to Capitol Hill.
Wandering Through ‘Hawaii: Holoholo Wale’
by Pam Mandel | 01.15.09 | 4:33 PM ET
Photo by Pam Mandel. Confession. I was not all that interested in Hawaii at first. Too touristy, a cliche, whatever. Maybe it was the Elvis movies or the Brady Bunch in Hawaii episodes or the glitzy ad campaigns that showed swimming pools that looked like mini-golf courses. A significant birthday brought me there, my mom’s dash-zero year meant a family gathering, a holiday home, a minivan.
At the time, I was living a divided life between two places, a small town in Austria and Seattle, Washington. In order to get to Hawaii for this January birthday, my mate and I boarded a flight in wintery Vienna. Two days later—after a one-night stop in my Seattle apartment to repack—we stepped out of the plane on to the tarmac at the Kona airport and I fell in love.
Hawaii: Holoholo Wale
by Pam Mandel | 01.15.09 | 4:07 PM ET
Photo by Pam Mandel. Pam Mandel captures the spirit of her new Hawaii: Holoholo Wale blog with a selection of her favorite photos from the Islands
See the full photo slideshow »
Honolulu Overheard
by Pico Iyer | 01.05.09 | 8:21 AM ET
iStockPhoto Pico Iyer takes in the Hawaiian city through its sounds
As Eco-Tourism Grows, Struggle for Cultural Identity Remains
by Joanna Kakissis | 12.30.08 | 1:08 PM ET
In places heavy with history and natural beauty, eco-tourism often comes deeply infused with nostalgia. Consider the 300-year-old Aspros Potamos cottages in eastern Crete, where goatherds once spent wintry nights as their flocks grazed along the mountain gorge. An Athenian journalist rescued the cottages from dilapidation in 1985 and turned them into simple, solar-powered lodges for those who want to commune with nature and a disappearing culture.
This time of year, you may find young Greeks on winter holiday there, gathered around a communal campfire and singing their grandparents’ favorite folk songs. It’s as much an appreciation of Crete’s fragile natural beauty as an exercise in identity.
R.I.P. Richard Marks
by Michael Yessis | 12.17.08 | 9:38 AM ET
Marks suffered from leprosy, aka Hansen’s Disease. Like thousands of others with the disease, he was banished to the Kalaupapa leprosy colony on the Hawaiian Island of Molokai. Marks helped overturn the quarantine, and he remained on the island, operating a tour company and educating travelers about the disease. He also “achieved his goal of establishing Kalaupapa National Historical Park in 1980 with the help of late Hawai’i congresswoman Patsy Mink,” according to the obituary in the Honolulu Advertiser. He was 79.
Will Barack Obama Bring Buzz to the Hawaiian Plate Lunch?
by Joanna Kakissis | 11.13.08 | 1:31 AM ET
It could happen. The President-elect, born and raised in Hawaii, grew up loving the cheap, carbo-rich traditional Hawaiian lunch of white rice, macaroni salad and some kind of pan-Asian protein—kalua pork is a favorite.
Is Maui the Next Haven for Foodie Tourists?
by Joanna Kakissis | 11.10.08 | 10:00 AM ET
Wouldn’t you love to eat a feast of hand-harvested vegetables and fruit, served with fish and tofu, amid the kaleidoscopic colors of Hawaii? Maui farmers and restaurateurs have partnered to power a locally sourced cuisine that intrigued E magazine’s Lori Shinn.
Hawaii Tourism Hit by ‘Perfect Storm’
by Michael Yessis | 10.09.08 | 4:03 PM ET
The economic downturn has hit Hawaii hard, but that’s not all. Hawaii tourism chief Rex Johnson resigned yesterday after “exchanging racist and sexist jokes by e-mail on his state computer,” according to the Honolulu Advertiser.
Related on World Hum:
* Hawaii: Too ‘Foreign’ and ‘Exotic’ for a Presidential Vacation?
FAA Suspended Go!‘s ‘Sleeping Pilots’
by Michael Yessis | 09.24.08 | 4:22 PM ET
And with this news, we put to rest our coverage of the incident that led Anderson Cooper to admit his fear of exclamation points.
Update, 10:24 a.m. ET: They’re back.
Related on World Hum:
* ‘Sleeping Pilots’ Air Traffic Control Tapes Aired
* Go! Airlines Fires ‘Sleeping Pilots’
Hawaii: Too ‘Foreign’ and ‘Exotic’ for a Presidential Vacation?
by Michael Yessis | 08.12.08 | 3:01 PM ET
Barack Obama’s Hawaiian vacation has stirred up some laughable comments, but none as laughable as this: On the pundit circuit, Cokie Roberts has floated the idea that Obama’s trip to Hawaii sends the wrong idea about the candidate and his campaign, implying that his vacation spot—his birthplace, the home of his grandmother and, of course, a U.S. state—puts him out of the American mainstream. “It has the look of him going off to some foreign, exotic place,” Roberts says. “He should be in Myrtle Beach if he’s going to take a vacation at this time.”