Stephanie says

One sleepy Kahaluu evening Jim had turned in for an early night while I studied in the living room.  A loud explosion startled me and when I looked up from my book I saw a red-orange glow lighting up the night.  Mil’s house was ablaze.  Engulfed. The intense heat of the fire blew out the window glass. I dialed 911 while yelling for Jim.  He ran into the living room and immediately sized up the situation.  Saying, “Mil,” he was out the door and running down the common driveway.  Augie ran out to meet him and they both ran into the burning house and found Mil incapacitated in the living room, some of her clothes smoldering.  They carried her outside to safety.  Neighbors sprayed water on the houses closest to the fire with scrounged garden hoses until the fire department arrived.  Thankfully the trade winds weren’t blowing. The parameds quickly sent Mil to a burn unit, much of her body was seriously ...

  Perusing cookbooks over the years I’ve gleaned all manner of cooking tips and food information. I’m happy to share with you, dear reader, a payoff from this flawed database.  I was online searching baked good recipes when I stumbled across a Swedish Saffron Cake which got me to thinking about the sheer number of Nordic recipes using saffron that I’ve encountered.  Why was saffron so commonly used in cooking there? How did they get it?  I had in my mind that saffron was regarded as a luxury item, like Swiss chocolates and caviar.  From Wikipedia:  Saffron is a spice derived from the flower of Crocus sativus commonly known at saffron crocus. I’d never heard that.  I phoned Melissa to share the remarkable information that saffron threads are crocus stigma.  She said, “Everybody knows that.”  Huh? Not me.  Inner gardener kicks in:  Wonder if I can grow it?” And the answer to that question? ...

  We frequented a health-food restaurant in Kailua owned and operated by a born-again christian group.   We fondly dubbed it “Bible Bread” because they baked all the very delicious bread and also because we were so witty.   Anyway, the staff seemed to be all cute girls so Michael was in his element.  One particular time, this is an example of sibling solidarity, we’re in there and at the counter was a particular girl Michael liked to chat up. He was flirting big time when she looks over at me, with an ‘and who’s this?" look.  Michael says “Tell her you're my sister.”  So I just looked right at her with a bland gaze and say, “I’m his sister."  Unconvincingly it seems.  She cut the conversation short.  Michael was not amused.  I certainly was.   I really crack myself up.

One of my profs invited students to attend a lecture on China from someone who’d just been there.  This was a big deal as trade had been re-established with China after a 25-year hiatus and Americans were now allowed travel.  Nixon went to China in 1976 on his elder statesman redemption tour and although he couldn’t dodge the taint of Watergate, he did reestablish trade with China.  Two things I remember about the lecturer’s trip:   1.     They’d noticed there were no flies buzzing around the farm animals at any of the farms they’d visited.    Remarking on that they were told that the flies were all eliminated.    By hand.    2.     Exceedingly few elementary age kids wore glasses at the schools they’d visited.    They learned eye exercises were added to school daily exercise routines some years back and it resulted in 20/20 vision for the majority. I was seated next to a woman,...

  Jim visited brother Dan in Palau mid 70s and came back with some wild stories of these gloriously beautiful tropical islands.  The ones that stuck with me are pretty much food related, go figure.  There was an open-air movie theatre in Peleliu filled with wooden benches for seating.  Rats were bold enough to scavenge food whenever, so movie viewers kept their feet up on the forward bench.   Hamburgers were served with a cabbage leaf for greenery, there being no iceberg lettuce on the island.  He met our friend Virginia there, she was maybe 13.  That girl took down fruit bats with a sling shot, a treat for her grandmother. They are a large bat species with a two-foot wingspan. She’d spot a roosting fruit bat hanging upside down from a tree branch, pop a small rock into the slingshot, eyeball the angle and let loose.  She had incredible aim.  She’d  nonchalantly balance in a squat to  husk a coconut wit...

  .. . Mike McGovern also worked in the office.  His partner Shoji had a noodle factory, (‘In a Shanghai Noodle Factory’ playing in my head,) in town and they lived way up in a downtown high rise.  Mike’s family owned a vacation house out Chinamans Hat Island way, north of Kahaluu. It was snugged in among papaya and mango trees, mountain apple and star fruit with a path leading to the shore where coconut palms flourished.  We went to a party there along with Uncle Lynn who happened to be in the islands.  Mike and Shoji put out a wonderful meal in the shade of the trees to likely 15 guests.  After, everybody ambled to the beach toward a dilapidated boat dock that was knee deep submerged in the incoming tide.  Lynn was strolling along the water’s edge when he spotted a coconut laying in the sand.  He picked it up and cracked it open and took a deep drink of coconut water.  Which was rotten.  Of course it ...

  Lower Stark, a few blocks west of Laurelhurst Park I’d run Sasha at that park. I was so callous with that dog’s safety in traffic, it makes me shudder now.  So, the apartment.  It was an old building even then, standing tall above the street. My apartment was one of two on the ground floor, the entry five steps up to a covered porch where I’d sit in the sun and do the Sunday Crossword.  It was a dump but with rent of $90 a month for a one bed, one bath, (complete with a claw footed bathtub,) well?  Nothing that a lot of art pieces and fabric hangings wouldn’t improve.   I lived there with my dog.  Me and the dog all alone at night was scary.  I made the mistake of reading “Helter Skelter” about the Manson murders. They broke into a house one night, killed the old sleeping dog then murdered two people.  That didn’t do much for my peaceful sleep.  I wedged a chair under the doorknob. Every night....