As I compose this posting, Lala early this morning was still a tropical storm heading westward for the eye making landfall over the southern portion of the Big Island of Hawaii. However, all signs point towards a strengthening into a hurricane.   A Category 1 means sustained winds of from 74-95 MPH . If this projected path is maintained, Kona will be seriously impacted, but Hilo might not. My first job after graduating from college was at the Hutchinson Sugar Company in Naalehu, the southernmost city in the USA.  This part of Kau County could well be very severely damaged by this hurricane. The media have mostly indicated that official historical records don't show a hurricane has ever made landfall over the Big Island.  However, Google AI indicates: On August 9, 1871 , a powerful Category 3 hurricane struck the islands of Hawaiʻi (the Big Island) and Maui , causing severe, tornado-like destruction and widespread property damage from Hilo to Lahaina. [ 1 , 2 , ...

I was this week walking to the dining room at 15 Craigside, when one of the residents walked up to me and said something to the effect:   Crichton and Patterson stole your idea about an eruption on the Big Island .  So the next day I went to my computer and found that  Eruption , by Crichton and Patterson, was #1 on the  New York Times  fiction book list. How did their book come together? Michael Crichton  was a Harvard-trained doctor who went straight into writing, creating  Jurassic Park  and other adventures. His first book under his name was  The Andromeda Strain .  All told, his books sold over 200 million copies, with a dozen adapted into films. He is the only writer to have a number one book, movie and TV show in the same year. Born in 1942 and passed away in 2008 at the age of 66.   His wife Sherri found parts of an unfinished novel centered around a huge volcanic eruption in Hawaii, and thought this should be comp...