The Fairmont Orchid and a Few Good Fish

   Last week we went snorkeling at the Fairmont Orchid with our friends Peter and Marla Krottje.  The Fairmont is at the north end of the Mauna Lani development and up until recently had been sufficiently exclusive to repel the likes of your ever so humble correspondent.  This was accomplished primarily by

The Lagoon at the Fairmont Orchid

charging a hefty fee for parking with no other parking option anywhere nearby.  Plus, although the hotel is nice enough, it is not the nearby Mauna Lani nor the Mauna Kea Beach Hotel.  So why bother?

   However, Peter recently went snorkeling at the Fairmont Orchid and thought it was worth a try.  You can find his impressions, as I did, in his blog, Onebreathkohala.  He and Marla have gone lots of interesting places and he takes wonderful pictures, so I'm sure you will enjoy his blog.  But I implore you, my perfidious public, please don't stop reading this blog!

   In preparation for our excursion, Sandra and I had stopped at the Fairmont the previous Saturday on our way back from Waimea, where we had dined sumptuously at the Saturday market.  Full of crepes, we

parked in the now free lot and walked through the hotel and across the enormous and blazing hot lawn to the beach.  What we saw was a pretty little lagoon with lots of chaises lined up in the sand.  And there was an amazing number of people snorkeling, at least forty in the relatively small area in or just outside the lagoon.  I assumed that they were looking at a stunning array of tropical reef fish.

   So last week we met up with Peter and Marla bright and early and took the relatively long walk through the hotel, across the spacious lawn and down to the beach.  Everyone was friendly and gave us no trouble when we set up on a few of their chaises.  It was an easy sand entry into clear calm water.  If I had read

Black Durgon, Fairmont Orchid,  Excited Coloration

Peter's blog more carefully I would have been prepared for what came next.  The majority of the coral here is long gone.  There are some fish hanging around what remains and a few more fish outside the lagoon around the rocks that I assume were once covered with coral.

    About two months ago Sandra and I were at 49 Black Sand Beach where I encountered a gentleman enjoying his post-sorkeling ablution.  That fellow enthusiast remarked that the fish at 49 BSB were superior to those at the Fairmont.   While I like 49 BSB, this was not really high praise.  Now, as we swam out with Peter and Marla, I understood what he meant.  The area where we saw all the people snorkeling a week earlier had little coral and not too many fish. Perhaps that multitude was in the water simply to escape the heat.  Which is actually a pretty good reason to get in the water. 

    However, we were far from done.  We swam straight out about 150 yards to a red navigation buoy.  In the process the bottom gradually dropped off to about 15 feet with trenches between the coral reaching perhaps 25 feet.  Out there we saw more fish, probably a good list of around 30 or 40 species.  Nothing to write home about, but most of the usual suspects were accounted for.  There were some black durgons in

Like the noise a cow makes. 

excitement phase and a surprising number of ringtail wrasses.  My favorite was a trio of mu. 

   We all swam about fifty yards to the south.  It became more shallow and in most places there was no evidence of coral, hardly even any remnant dust.  We did not swim to the north of the buoy.

 The water was in the mid eighties and we snorkeled for over an hour and a half.  If there had been something spectacular there, I think we would have seen it.  Having said that, there is no substitute for getting in the ocean and hoping that something special swims by.  If you are in the business of adapting a poor swimmer to the ocean, the pretty lagoon in front of the Fairmont affords an easy entry and a shallow, sandy bottom.  Chaise lounges, a pleasant beach side shower and elegant restrooms not too far away complete the amenities.

    On our way back to the cars, we were directed to an asphalt trail that lead us to the south east corner of the parking lot.  This path is shaded and goes right past the restrooms, probably superior to winding through the hotel.

    Following the swim, we repaired to the lovely beach side picnic area at the ocean end of the parking lot that serves as the trailhead for the petroglyghs.  Marla brought treasures from her last mainland trip to Trader Joe's: hearts of palm and garbanzos marinated in soyu and a tin of dolmathes .  We brought cauliflower and ranch dressing from Target.  It pays to pick your friends carefully!

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      While the four of us dined sumptuously beachside we discussed other places we might like to go snorkeling.  We made arrangements to meet Peter and Marla in a couple weeks to look for the leaf scorpionfish at Kahalu'u.  Hurricanes Lester and  Madeline willing, we will see them at K Bay in less than a week. Among other places, the four of us rhapsodized about Ho'okena.  Peter especially was talking about flame angelfish and the chance to see them at snorkeling depth.  It sounded like he had this experience fairly

Sleek Unicornfish with Scarring,  Ho'okena 2016

recently. Although we always look carefully, and I would guess we get to Ho'okena more frequently than our dining companions, Sandra and I had not seen the flame in almost two years.  Thus, it was hardly a surprise when,  a couple days later, we decided to head down to Ho'okena.

    We had checked the surf forecast on the internet before we left home and, as predicted, it was an easy entry.  One must be cautious, though.  As at other locations, there  seems to be less sand covering the shoreline rocks.

     About fifty yards offshore  we saw the fish you see pictured here.  We noted the fusiform body and the bright blue tail.  It was a sleek unicorn tang.  I'm sure you can see the markings on the side.  Perhaps he had escaped from a net and was grabbing some recuperative time inshore.  In any event, when I dove for a better look, he hid under a large rock. Such behavior from a champion swimmer was unexpected and virtually confirmed that he was under the weather... in addition to being under the rock.

Flame Angelfish, Centropyge loriculus 2016

   I believe that this is only my third or fourth encounter with this species.  It was nice to see him and get him on the list for Ho'okena, but I wish it were under better circumstances. 

    Shortly after our encounter with the sleek unicorn, we saw a green jobfish patrolling in mid water.  This is not a common fish for me...this fellow was the first on the list for 2016.  This large snapper is a great torpedo of a fish.  He is intermediate between the more common smalltooth jobfish and the less common (at least inshore) but often encountered in the fish market opakapaka.  The Hawaiian name for this beast is uku and I believe that you see it for sale on the side of the road from time to time.   I'm not sure how those vendor-fishermen take this species.  It doesn't run in schools and I don't think a diver could sneak up on one, so perhaps they catch them angling.

   The remainder of the swim was fairly uneventful.   Near the end of the old pier I saw a fourline wrasse deep and on the way in we enjoyed a beautiful pair of gilded triggers.  None of these would cooperate for a picture.
 

Flame Angelfish, Ho'okena 2016  15 feet

    Closer in, about 100 yards out from the south end of the beach we passed over a large aggregation of coral and down below there were several flame angels.  After listening to our friend talk about the flame angel I had looked in the Ultimate Guide and found that this species interbreeds with Potter's angel.  Here before me was at least one of the fish that John Hoover calls a hybrid, much like the flame, it is a light orange with less distinct black bars.

    Since swimming with Bob Hillis,  I have been free diving deeper   On this day I made it all the way down to the coral where these fish were living.  I estimate this at fifteen feet, which is three feet deeper than my previous deep dive estimate.  My physical prowess aside ( like Charlie and Alan Harper, I am a manly man), this is extraordinarily shallow for the flame angel.  I recall diving down with my son James a few years ago

when we saw this species and estimated that they were 25 feet deep.  Or to put it another way, neither pere nor fil got especially close to their coral home on that occasion. Not surprisingly, though my pictures aren't great, they are the best of this handsome species to date. 

   On my second dive, I spied a pair of Potter's living on the other end of this coral head.  I believe that at least one was itching for a bit of miscegenation.  George Wallace is surely doing flip flops in his grave.

You deal with Judith.  I'll go look for the flame angelfish.

   The coral garden at Ho'okena is a shadow of what I remember from my first visit 35 years ago.  At that time there was a forest of antler coral 20 yards offshore. I doubt that on that day I swam out more than 40 yards.   I'm truly grateful that enough coral remains to provide a home for angelfish, but I can't help but wonder what delights we might have found if we had been better fish watchers back in the day.   
      
                        


                      >)))) ; >            >)))) ; >            >)))))) ; >            >)))))) ; >

    Before I let you go I must report on my penultimate ante tempestate excursion.  Two days ago I went down to the pier for an afternoon swim.  The water was choppy but amazingly clear.  I swam out and back and under the floating line into no man's land by the pier, all with out seeing bupkis.   I decided to make one

Barred filefish Juvenile, Kailua Kona Pier, 2016

more run over the rocks near the sand and was rewarded with an immature barred filefish, the melanotic fellow with the small white spots.  This is a very spooky fish, not putting up with much hanky panky in the photo department. 

Barred Filefish, Cantherines dumerlii, Spotted Juvenile

   While I was spending too many minutes diving down and trying to get a picture, I noticed a woman not too far away doing the same thing.  She must be fishwatching!  When I finally got my hot, I swam over and asked if she would like to see an unusual fish.  She had never seen this spotted immature, but before coming with me she had to show me a flounder (which she dove down and prodded) and a transitional yellow tail coris.  No surprises, one rock looking a hell of a lot like the next, I was unable to find that spotted devil again.  Merde!

   By the time I quit looking for the errant filefish, my sometimes colleague had esplit, as we say in Espanish.  I did get a picture of the yellowtail coris, which looks very similar to the one I created for the  paper mache fish exhibit at the library.  I will let you be the judge, but I think my fish is more realistic than hers. 

    If you live in Hawaii, you have about six more hours to get ready for Madeline.  If you don't, you have about the same amount of time to utter a prayer on our behalf. 

Dominus vobiscum,
jeff

The Mystery lady'sYellowtail Coris Juv. Kailua Kona Pier

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Th..th...th..that's all folks!

A Sad Day on the PAR Or Food For Thought

   Early last week I took a swim out on Paul Allen's Reef.  It was an average sort of day until I passed over the first out cropping beyond the entrance to Paul's private lagoon.  On the other side of the submerged lava there was a green sea turtle.  He was just poking along about ten feet below the surface.  As do most of us

who enjoy the wildlife in Hawaiian waters, I delight when I see one of our turtles.  I have a feeling that the native Hawaiians treasured them, as well.  The honu is widely depicted in petroglyphs and other Polynesian art.  So intrinsic is the turtle to our combined culture, that if one knows only a dozen words in Hawaiian, it is likely that honu will be one of them.

    As I approached this turtle, I realized that something was wrong.  He had a drastically mutilated left anterior flipper.  Us humans are full of hubris and as such when something is awry we wonder, "How did we (humans) cause this?"  I immediately wondered if the honu had been clipped by the propeller of  a power boat.  Or did it somehow damage his limb getting caught in a net.

     It took me a couple minutes, but I soon concluded that I must be looking at a shark bite.  For some time I have known that tiger sharks eat sea turtles.  A simple google search  retrieved an article from the Japanese Journal of Herpetology, 1987 by  W. N. Witzell.  Here is a link to the article:

  http://www.sefsc.noaa.gov/turtles/PR_Witzell_1987_JapJHerp.pdf

    Dr. Witzell looked at data from 25 studies from around the world, Capetown to  California, in which Tiger sharks were captured and their stomach contents examined.   Of over 400 sharks examined, about 70% had food in their stomach and 21% of those had large sea turtle remains in their stomachs.  His review took in all comers, not just sharks living in areas where large turtles were common.  He concludes that this is a really big number.

   The article goes on to tell us that tiger sharks are unique among sharks in having the correct type of teeth,  heavy kinetic jaw, etc. to chew through a large turtle shell.  In fact, tiger sharks are the only species that take large sea turtles as prey.

    I especially liked this bit, "Tiger sharks have developed a feeding behavior that enables them to successfully prey on large turtles by using a combination of stealth and speed, a strong sawing bite and the ability to easily regurgitate indigestible pieces of material....(tiger) sharks cruise...in a slow, sinuous movement

Tiger Shark

that seems deceptively sluggish, and would not draw immediate attention to their presence.. However, when attacking prey, the tiger shark is one of the most vigorous and strong swimming of the carcharhiniid sharks, this speed burst enabling them to quickly disable their prey..."

   When I first came to the big Island of Hawai'i, I went to Kahalu'u and was so pleased when I saw my first green sea turtle.  Those were the days when the obnoxious among us would sneak up on a turtle and grab its shell for a thrilling ride.  Suffice it to say, we have come a long way in turtle protection.  That year (1981) I accepted the local myth that there had never been a shark attack on the leeward side of the Big Island.  NOAA fisheries tells us that over the last 25 years, green sea turtle population in Hawaii has increased 53%,  despite declines in much of the rest of the world.  And yes, Virginia, according to Hawaii.gov the incidence of shark attacks in the Rainbow State has increased dramatically since 1980.  From about one a year, it peaked in 2012 at 13 attacks, with

When the Indianapolis Went Down We Was Like a Bunch of Sea Turtles

two of them fatal.  

   For a few years I have been aware of much of this and I am more than a little concerned that a snorkeler, from the right perspective, may look a hell of a lot like a green sea turtle.  Suffice it to say, Dr. Witzell has done little to reassure me.  More and more when I am swimming in the open, especially when I am by myself,  I find myself turning around to see who might be following me.  Even if I saw him coming, would I be able to withstand a vigorous attack by a determined 10 foot tiger shark?   Should I call it a day,  paint myself day-glo pink and put a treble hook where the sun don't shine?  Now that is what I call food for thought.

jeff

Snorkel Bob Cares (if you get attacked by a shark!)

   

A Day with Reverend Sunny and Other Delights

    This week Sandra and I were given a new challenge...by God, no less.  Since her arrival a few weeks ago, our new pastor, the Reverend Doctor Sunny Ahn, had yet to be in the water.  Swimming pool, ocean or baptismal.  (Or even to the beach, for crying out loud.)   And she was straight forward in saying that the

Kim, Sunny and Sandra in the Inner Harbour.

ocean made her nervous.  Hence on Friday, Sandra and I, and Kim, another of Sunny's flock, brought our shepherd down to the Inner Harbour for an introduction to the ocean.

    As we made our way to the beach in front of the King Kam, I pointed out the myriad outrigger canoes waiting patiently on the sand.  I noted that this was our state sport and that, as sure as Michael rowed the boat ashore, there must be members of her congregation that paddled.

   As they dipped their ladylike toes, both Kim and Sunny thought the water of the Inner Harbour was cold.  Sunny was nervous, so I guess it was understandable.  However, even in this coolest of spots, in mid-August the water must be around 84.  "Come back in January", I said, "and we will show you cold water."  Once in, everyone agreed that the temperature was just fine.

   At 3 to 1, Sunny had a very high teacher to student ratio.  It took her about ten minutes to shed her apprehension.  After that she was getting her face in the water, putting on a mask and paddling around with a noodle.  It was a beautiful morning, sunny (as you might expect) with blue skies and even the water in front of the King Kamehameha Hotel was clear.  Sunny saw a few fish and even swam (sort of) without the

noodle for a short distance.  Everyone agreed that the day was a success and Sunny was thinking about a new ministry that involved preaching to a congregation in the water.  Heaven knows, the fish and the coral need all the divine intervention they can get!

                            




               
                         >)))) ; >            >)))) ; >            >)))))) ; >            >)))))) ; >

    Well, neither the redoubtable SKG or your humble correspondent got in much of a swim with the Reverend Doctor Ahn, so the following day we returned to the pier ready to enjoy the marine life.   We knew it was going to be a good day when right where we were donning our swimming apparel, some kind

"Free Bike for someone to Enjoy.  Ride On!! 

soul had left a free bike.  In addition, someone had left seven purple leis floating in the water. 

    With all these positive omens, we hit the water.  Like the day before it was just cool enough to be refreshing and pretty clear.  Out by the 4th swim buoy we happened upon a man and lady angling.  I'm OK with angling, mostly because it has to be the least effective way to kill fish.  Dynamite, poison, nets, spears, angling.  Does that sound about right? 

    The bait ball was patrolling in their vicinity. As I watched the school of scad, I counted no fewer than 19 ulua in pursuit.  Back on the surface I asked the angler in the kayak if he was fishing for the scad or the ulua and he said both.  So then I asked if he ever caught an ulua from the kayak.  He had and we decided that it was pretty exciting to catch a fish strong

Let's Go Fishin'

enough to pull the vessel you are fishing from.  Think a Nantucket sleigh ride on a smaller scale.  I suppose that Santiago with his marlin was  more dramatic, but I think catching a three foot trevally in a kayak would be quite a thrill.  Maybe even dangerous.  Perhaps the piscators in the audience can weigh in on this.

    As we left our fisher-people I spotted a fine scale triggerfish.  This fellow raced away so there are no good pictures to be had, but it is a moderately uncommon fish, so I thought I would mention it.  Although this large gray triggerfish usually races away from the would be photographer, that is not always the case.  In the last few years there have been a couple instances where two or three finescale triggerfish set up house keeping inside the swim buoys at the pier and were remarkably approachable.  I'm offering you a picture from 2013 that shows this sea going ghost at his most photogenic.

Finescale Triggerfish  Kailua Kona Pier  Oct 2013

   The day was brought to a conclusion with a colony of bright orange sponge growing right under the swim line about four feet from the pier.  This brilliant optical orange creature has to be the colorful thing on our

reef.  According to John Hoover,  it exudes a pigmented mucus that irritates the skin.  Thus it can afford that flamboyant color.

     As we swam ashore, we noticed that the leis had washed away.  And up by the cubbies, someone had taken the free bike.  Aloha.

jeff      

The Brightest Color in the Hawaiian Sea

   

Back in the Saddle With General Haig

   This week the redoubtable SKG and your humble correspondent returned to the leeward coast of the Big Island from the Pacific Northwest.   Our trip was largely dedicated to meeting, greeting and making silly

Northern Goshawk courtesy of Markum Varesuva

noises with our grandson Colsen.  The last time we saw him, he was only a few weeks old and mostly doing the vital things that babies do.  He is now an animated lad of ten months.  His father was identifying fish almost from the moment he could enunciate 'chille's tang, so we have high hopes for Colsen in the fish watching department. 

    We also visited our friends north of Seattle.  while with my brother on Camano Island,  I was lucky enough to see a goshawk.  This uncommon bird flew right over me as I was standing in my brother's driveway, awaiting his imminent arrival.  The goshawk was only thirty feet above and I got an excellent look at the banding pattern on the tail and the fine, slate gray barring on the breast.  A couple hours later Chuck and I perused Birds of North America over a glass of  cab franc.  There is no doubt that this was my best look ever at a goshawk.  And the wine was pretty good, too!

    I hit the water on our second day back.  After a morning of gardening and unpacking,  I headed down to Kahalu'u for an afternoon swim.  The water was cloudy and Indonesia caliber warm.  At times I found myself sweating into my mask.  Never the less, it was great to be back and I was lucky to find a few notables for

your perusal.   Early on I saw a young zebra moray and shortly after that a small undulated, which I see only rarely at K Bay.  Out by Surfer's rock, I spotted a minuscule cleaner wrasse working on a yellow tang.  If you look carefully you can see the tiny blue and black cleaner doing a job around the eye of the larger fish.

    On the shore side of the rock I found a head of living cauliflower coral that was home to a bevy of hermits residing in tops shells.  While diving down for a possible picture of the crabs, I noticed  a pair of small shrimp who seemed interested in my activity.  They actually ascended to the edge of the coral to get a better look at me!  Of course, their curiosity provided the opportunity for this nice portrait of a shrimp as a young crustacean.  Perhaps you can use the accompanying diagram that apparently suffices for all shrimp and deduce what some of these elegantly displayed structures might be.  Thinking that, like me, you might enjoy eating decapods,  I am not forcing

 upon you some of the more graphic representations from the internet that attempt to display just what is inside a shrimp.  Let us leave it that,
when sauteed in olive oil and garlic, they can be quite delicious!  Serve with a chilled, crisp white wine.

   On the way in, I passed by this handsome golden jack with the black beret.  "Ooh la la!" I greeted him through my snorkel.  Naturally I was hoping for that ocean going species the Golden Trevally.  Sadly that gilded species has alternating thick and thin bars, so this is probably a barred jack with upwardly mobile pretensions.

    On shore as I was preparing to leave, I happened to strike up a conversation with a boy who had been conversing with his family in an inscrutable Asian tongue.  After exchanging shy smiles, I asked him if he was from Japan. This was based largely on his chic mother and her exotic choice in couture.  As it turned out, he was from China, from Beijing, and he understood English pretty well.  In spite of this, he did not understand smog or bad air...I was going to make a comparison with the volcano, but we never got there.
  
    We were soon joined by his dad who was in his late thirties and probably the tallest Chinese gentleman I have had the pleasure to have met.  Let's put him at 6' 3".  We shook hands and I introduced myself.  He laughed, saying that his son's name (the lad with whom I was speaking) was also Jeff.  As near as I can tell, : jié fū is a Chinese name which may sound much like " Jeff".  I am rendering this in the pinyin pronunciation system which is used to romanize Standard Chinese.   In Chinese characters the name would look like this:   杰夫.  Or at least so we are told.  I smiled at the boy

Barred Jack Avec Beret

and said, "Us Jeffs have to stick together." while sort of shaking hands with myself and smiling.  Talk about the friendly laowai (old foreigner.) 
 
 Dad and I chatted for a few minutes.  He had been diving in Bali, but he thought Kahalu'u was just the place for his kids to snorkel...so many good fishes.  Curiously, he said he had been to Hanuma Bay recently and he thought the fish here were as good as at that famous snorkeling location, where, similar to Kahalu'u, there are too many tourists.  I'm going to have to ask around about this, for I have always thought that Hanuma Bay was way better than Kahalu'u.  On the other hand, Kahalu'u was dramatically better thirty years ago.  A school of scribbled filefish was in residence along with large schools of the larger surgeonfish.  Et cetera, et cetera.  Perhaps they have degraded in parallel.  Soon their taxi came and it was time for the tall guy and his elegant wife (who gave me a nice smile) and their two Chinese offspring to head back to the cruise ship.  Zài jiàn, my new freinds

A Rapscallion of Raccoons

    The following day I coaxed my sweetie into the water, specifically those azure ripples at the Kailua pier.  Luckily the water was pretty clear and about five degrees cooler than Kahalu'u.

    On the way out we spent a fair amount of time diving around the fourth swim buoy in hopes of seeing the immature hogfish.  Alas, he was not there.  Out in front of the palace, though, we encountered a large aggregation of raccoon butterflyfish.  Also in that area was a larger ulua.  What he lacked in enormous size, he made up for with beautiful coloration.

    As we made the turn we happened upon this pair of Sea cucumbers, one black and the other a handsome shade of orange.   According to the wizard of  Volcano Villages (aka John Hoover)  there are two orange colored sea urchins, the plump and the paradoxical.  According to the wiz, both occur below snorkeling depth.  We have a page in to the emerald City to get a reading on this potentially earth shattering encounter.  While you are waiting breathlessly for the exciting answer, ignore the man behind the screen.

Beautiful Bluefin Trevally,  Kailua Kona Pier  2016

     At this point, Sandra had had enough and headed for the beach.  On her way in, Sandra saw the immature hogfish, hell bent for election.  She didn't have a chance to call out Jeff or  jié fū before the fish was long gone.  Her field notes have the fish essentially unchanged in color, golden on top and liver colored flank, but twice as big as he was four weeks ago.  She states that he is now perhaps 5 inches in length as opposed to less than three inches.  Additionally, he is now more normal trout shaped as opposed to the distinctive angular shape of the extreme juvenile.  

   While Sandra was admiring, briefly, the hogfish, I swam obliviously down the line of swim buoys, still hoping for a look.   Not finding the hogfish, I snuck under the swim buoys and swam along the pier.  I was hoping for another cushion star, but on this day they was a single small Linkia starfish.  This is not to minimize the linkia.  For my money any starfish sighting in Hawaii is interesting.

Plump, Paradoxical, or Pernicious? 

    On the adjacent coral a bit of movement brought me to a single rather large Haig's hermit crab.  This handsome purple fellow was wearing an interesting shell, possibly a small well worn triton.  He was about three feet down and permitted me to dive for three pictures before scuttling over the edge.  I've got to ask, "How do you like this picture?" 

    Not only is it one of the best hermit crab pictures I have taken, by virtue of being purple, Haig's is one of my favorite hermits.  I'm naming this intrepid fellow Jake, after the young man from the shadow of Folsom prison who in the coming season will lead we few, we happy few, we faithful band of brothers.   On St. Crispin's Day.  Which this year seems to fall on October 8th.  

    I was going to do a little piece on Alexander Haig, who as Secretary of State under Reagan made a run at chief executiveship following the assassination attempt back in 1981, famously declaring, "I'm in control here."  However, we are way too close to the beginning of the college football season to waste this omen on a megalomaniac general.

Haig's Hermit Crab, Ca.haigae     "This time I know our side is going to win."

   Is this the year Chris Petersen puts it all together and beats the Ducks?  With Jake as their mascot, how can the Huskies lose?  

jeff

OK, Grampa.  Let's Go fishwatching!  and while we're at it, can we kill a few ducks?