First, Happy Mother's Day. I recall growing up in Honolulu that there was some rivalry between Hawaii and Alaska to become the 49th state. Alaska was a Russian colony from 1744 until the USA bought it in 1867 for $7.2 million. Hawaii was a kingdom until 1893, became a republic in 1894, and through insider links with Congress, was ceded to the USA in 1898.  Much of what happened has continuously till today been contested by the local Hawaiian community for the illegality of it all. In 1893, Queen Lili'uokalani was deposed by a group of American sugar growers and missionaries through a coup d'etat, with the support of the U.S. Marines.  She was last in the long line from the Kamehameha dynasty founded in 1795 by King Kamehameha I. The sugar industry began to form after the arrival of Captain James Cook in 1778.   The first permanent plantation was on Kauai in 1835, in time called Koloa Plantation, where my father grew up. Over the next 30 years, the four major i...

I've always been intrigued by the harp, but it was something that was always too expensive to own anyway.  As the harp is associated with Heaven, thought this was a good day to share what you might and might not have known about this instrument. Harps go back to King David in the Old Testament. Is symbolic of worship in heaven or hope. In many artworks, angels wearing white robes, reclining fluffy clouds with halos, are gently playing golden harps. The more I thought about the above, the more I figured out I didn't know much about the harp.  For example, know any famous person who played the harp.  Some actually can answer this question, and immediately come up with Harpo Marx. Other well-known harpists include Turlough O'Carolan of Ireland, Alphonse Hasselmans of Belgium, Marcel Tournier of of France, Carlos Salzédo of France and Judy Loman of Canada.  Surely, you never heard of them before.  Here is one top ten: #1   King David, who ruled in Israel f...