Props and Slops: January 12-18

IN MEMORIAM

• Pio, Cardinal Laghi, first Papal Nuncio to the United States, the Vatican equivalent of an ambassador (January 11, found out January 12)
• Mike Sakamoto, former Fishing Tales host, angler, and artist (January 13).  Even David Shapiro had fond memories of him.  A memorial service will be held on Jan. 25 in Hilo.
• Ricardo Montalban, actor, known to most as Mr. Roarke on the original Fantasy Island, but to me as the titular Khan from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.  (January 14)

Now, here are the top and bottom performers as I saw them this week:

HAWAII

• Props:  Hawaiian Airlines for still being America’s most on-time airline.
• Slops:  All those people complaining about the decision by officials to close many government offices yesterday.  Howard Dicus has some great reasons why officials were right, and I agree with him. How fast we are to complain when things actually work out for the better. Would they have preferred that Hawaii be pummeled by near-hurricane force winds? Geez!

GEEK/TECH/BLOG

• Props:  KGMB9 (or should I say @KGMB9?) for a great write-up on Twitter:  what it is and why you should use it.
  • Honorable Mention:  Hawaii for becoming the first state to make the DTV transition.  With a few exceptions, like PBS Hawaii, it seems to have gone off without much of a hitch.
• Slops:  Nuevasync, a service that allows for over-the-air synchronization of Google Calendar, for doing such a great job updating their program changes that allow users to color-code their calendars, and then not making it available to long-time users like me. This is really only minor as I expect full functionality soon. Never mind, it works fine now.  Thanks, Nuevasync!

POLITICS/GOVERNMENT

• Props:  David Shapiro for making quite possibly the best non-legalese case for the Ceded Lands moratorium bill.
  • Honorable Mention: Griffin Bell, whom I wrote about last week, for a clean-cut legacy that was brought to the forefront this week.
• Slops:  President George W. Bush (hey, it’s the last time before he leaves office) for saying, “We also reviewed our record, and this administration has had a good, solid record. I’m very proud of it.”  While it is definitely good and solid, it is far from one to be proud of.  Just check this out or what CNN has to say.  The Star-Bulletin put it succinctly, “History will be severe in judging Bush presidency.”  I, for one, believe history will view the last eight years as some of the darkest days for the United States. Of course, we are less than two days away from ushering in a new era of leadership that instills pride and optimism, not just in the U.S., but on the world stage.

That’s it for this week.  Be sure to visit next week for another edition of Props and Slops, my favorite feature on Capsun’s Corner.

Mahalo!

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