The Royal Hawaiian Band came to entertain us at 15 Craigside.    Clarke Bright  is the Bandmaster, as he has been since 2011.  I know him because when he was a student at the University of Hawaii, he worked for the Hawaii Natural Energy Institute, which I directed.  His father is the legendary  Ronald Bright  ( photo to the left ), who appeared in a range of entertainment venues throughout Hawaii, and seemed to have been in charge of a lot of them. The Royal Hawaiian Band is the oldest and only full-time municipal band in the USA.  Formed in 1836 when these islands were ruled by King Kamehameha III.  It started as a military band, but attained global prominence under the leadership of Prussian Heinrich "Henri" Berger, loaned by the Imperial German Army to the Kingdom of Hawaii in 1872.  He would later be honored as the "Father of Hawaiian Music."  Berger collaborated with King Kalakaua in creating  Hawaii Ponói,  the official state song.   Click on that link  to wat

Today, I'll just borrow from traditional sources.  From the  New York Times : Russia’s Victory Day, celebrating the Soviet triumph over Nazi Germany, is May 9. Western officials   worry Vladimir Putin may exploit it to intensify attacks .   (May 9 is this coming Monday.) Trying to tame inflation, the Fed approved its   biggest interest rate increase since 2000 . Tucker, Thiel, Trump: How J.D. Vance   won Ohio’s Republican Senate primary . About Vance's victory, many think, aha, Trump is still very influential, and will make a huge difference in the upcoming November mid-term elections.   Nope, what will happen is that a small percentage of Republicans will be so negatively effected by this Trump-effect that they will skip voting, and a small percentage of Independents will vote for the Democratic opponent.   This differential will in several elections only favor the Democrat.   I suspect Democrats will end up after the 2022 general election with greater than their  current majo

       From  Worldometer  (new  COVID-19 deaths yesterday):     DAY    USA    WORLD      Brazil      India      South Africa June     9     1093     4732         1185        246       82 July    22      1205     7128         1293      1120     572 Aug    12      1504     6556        1242        835     130 Sept     9      1208      6222       1136       1168       82 Oct     21      1225      6849         571        703       85 Nov    25       2304    12025        620        518      118 Dec     30       3880    14748       1224       299      465 Jan      14         4142     15512       1151        189      712 Feb      3       4005    14265       1209       107      398 Mar     2        1989     9490        1726       110      194 April   6         906     11787         4211       631       37 May    4         853     13667         3025     3786     59   June   1         287    10637         2346      3205      95  July   7          251      8440        1595        817       411 Aug