Merry Christmas.  But first, from the  Honolulu Star-Advertiser : A Hawaiian Volcano Observatory geologist on Monday checks a webcam on the rim of Kilauea caldera. Kilauea began erupting again early Monday, with lava fountains up to nearly 300 feet. The eruption paused in the afternoon but lava resumed flowing onto the crater floor today . Every so often, the news of the day, or a film, or something just happens that reminds me of me.  Such is the case of a new series on Netflix,  A Man on the Inside .   Rotten Tomatoes,  95 reviewers and 92 audiences.   Read this article , which describes the production. Ted Danson plays an old, retired, engineering professor in the San Francisco Bay Area, whose wife has passed away.   Sort of like me. Of course you remember him.  Sam Malone on  Cheers , 275 episodes, where he won two Emmys and two Golden Globes.  And 53 episodes of  The Good Place , a comedy about a Heaven-esqu...

This Christmas we're doing nothing.  Sort of a continuation of our recent Japan trip when we mostly did nothing.  Mind you, nothing is great.  I live in Honolulu and this is the view from my computer as I start this posting. The temperature outside is 76 F, and there is a zero chance of rain if I wanted to go out on Christmas Eve.  The temperature for the rest of the week will reach a low in the very high 60's, and highs around 78 F. But since I'm doing nothing this weekend, I'm showing Christmas photos from the past.   A year ago we were in Singapore. In 2021  the Christmas tree on my 15 Craigside floor had a rainbow backdrop. From 2020 , Medellin River in Columbia and Garden by the Bay, Singapore. In 2017  I was on VIA Rail from Vancouver to Toronto.  Saw a lot of snow. In 2016 , went to a Christmas show. In 2015 I had a  staycation at the Waikiki Sheraton , followed by an  annual Christmas dinner  at Betsy and Harvey's....

 How much do you really know about Santa Claus?   To begin , historians identify Bishop Nicholas of Myra, who was born around the year 260 in what is today southwestern Turkey, as the first Santa Claus.  He was known to be a miracle maker, and was known as the patron saint of schoolchildren. But it took until the end of the 11th century for his relics to be transferred to Italy for the cult to begin. The Feast of Saint Nicholas (this painting by Jan Steen in the 17th century) was welcomed in the Netherlands, which spread the tradition. Around this time, Dutch Calvinists fleeing religious persecution set sail for what became Nieuw Amsterdam, later named New York.  But Sinterklaas was introduced to the New World.  He was also called De Goedheiligman (The Good Holy Man), so who knows where this would have gone if it had prevailed. His Dutch name was Americanized to Santa Claus, as a symbol of resistance against the British around the time of the 1776 Revolutio...