First, some   not so good news about our two stranded astronauts on the International Space Station , and worse for Boeing.  NASA decided not to use the Boeing Starliner, and instead, send it home unmanned, to make room for the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft to bring Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore home.  But this cannot occur until February.  Thus, an 8-day mission will end up taking 8 months, if all goes well. Somewhere Over the Rainbow / What a Wonderful World ,  by Israel Ka'ano'i Kamakawiwo'ole.  You might have heard it before, for this medley has now been #1 on the World Digital Songs chart, the longest top hit on any of the Billboard charts.  That melodic background comes from a ukulele. Maybe it's because I'm from Hawaii, but I've always been fond of ukulele music.  If I could re-do my life, I would learn how to play one and bring a ukulele off to college.  I do own one now, but it once belonged to my wife, who passed away 15 years ago...

I am what I am today in part due to the heroes of Go For Broke, a term Nisei soldiers used during World War II, describing their fighting attitude.  Here was a group dedicated to proving themselves as citizens of their country after their family and friends got tossed into concentration camps.  Well, they were called internment camps.  If not for this "opportunity"-- 33,000 Japanese Americans served and 800 died --life in Hawaii could well still be infused with a plantation mentality.   The 100th/442nd Infantry Regiment became the  most decorated unit  in U.S. military history.  As much as I revered them, I got to admit that my military service was less than exemplary.  After I graduated from college, I became vulnerable to the draft.  So I joined the Army Reserves, and after infantry training for six months, returned to Naalehu on the Big Island of Hawaii and was placed in the same 442 unit that was so famous.  This town was suffic...