A NEW MYSTERY IN MY LIFE, SOLVED....MAYBE

I've had two grand mysteries in my life:

• razor blades that shave forever
• soap at the bottom the bed to prevents leg cramps

Over these soap bags are a mattress cover, then a bed sheet.  I have cured my leg cramp  problem.

In my SIMPLE SOLUTIONS for Humanity, I elevated these mysteries to miracle status, comparing them to Jesus Walking on Water and Moses and his Israelites Crossing the Red Sea.  Last year I re-visited the soap miracle and reinforced my modern mysteries/miracles.  Last month Snopes--the web site that validates or debunks urban legends, rumors and the like--re-looked at this soap urban legend and continued to be mystified, saying it makes no sense, but it does seem to work for some.

About razors, for the past decade I have used about four razor blades.  One of my razors broke when I dropped it, so I bought a new Schick.  On my travels I cracked a plastic one, so replaced it with another anonymous plastic-type, and have now continuously used this for several years.  I say "around," for I had to experiment around to find three good ones.  Most of the travel versions which hotels provide free are junk.  Every so often you stumble across one that works well.  I have one waiting to replace the usable razor if it ever becomes necessary.

To repeat my SIMPLE SOLUTION book contention of a decade ago, there is also the INFINITY RAZOR, now on sale for $5.79, which, according to their ad, lasts forever.  I'm a PhD chemical engineer, so I appreciate that metals corrode, and the sharp edge is blunted when abraded.  Thus, what has happened totally befuddles me.

So to my latest grand mystery.  A week ago I notice these BB-sized black things on my lanai table:

They're dry, crumble to the touch and seem to have no odor.  But, frankly, I never tried to smell them.  Common sense told me that they either came from that calamansi tree or the bush of mint:

But nothing in those plants indicated that they could be the source.  There was nothing from the ceiling, so the only options were:

• a neighbor who sneaks in and drops them off as a joke
• ants laid them there to spite me
• cockroaches
• aliens

I wiped up those black BBs for several days, and even made a major internet search for clues.  I found a photo of mint seeds:

None looks anywhere close to those BBs.  I  found a video of a green parrot eating leaves in San Francisco.  These Telegraph Hill parrots look like the ones I see flying around Nuuanu.  They screech a lot and fly in flocks.  The ones here are scientifically known as Psittacara erythrogenys, or red-masked parakeet, known in aviculture as the cherry-headed conure. They are native to Ecuador and Peru.  They talk.

I couldn't find what their poop looked like, although located a photo from various parakeets:

Yes, looked similar.  So maybe those green parrots were the cause.

Anyway, as I went out for Thanksgiving dinner, I ordered take-out from 15 Craigside of their feast, and the next morning for a late brunch fried the turkey slices in butter, garlic and the gravy for a sandwich, truffles essence added to the mashed potatoes and chopped cranberry:

That is a 9-year old Collector's Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon from Stanford.  As I was eating, I noticed that the leaves on my calamansi looked like the video of those dining San Francisco green parrots:

I can't sit here 24-hours/day, so I covered the tree:

This morning I noticed only one BB poop.  So those parrots came, and importantly, chose not to eat my mint, basil, shisho and Hawaiian peppers.  So problem solved, but when can I remove the plastic cover?

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BLACK FRIDAY, AGAIN

Black Friday first became prominent on 24 September 1869 when the U.S. stock market crashed.  Eight years ago I had a posting with this title, and it was about the 26 December 2008 Honolulu blackout, commemorating a truly Black Friday, the day of the 2004 Indonesian earthquake and Tsunami.  More recently, the United Kingdom suffered a Black Friday, the day after it voted to exit the European Union on June 23.  The country, it turns out, has also now embraced the American Black Friday, which has to do with extreme shopping.

Today is the latest and most popular Black Friday, when you at all costs avoid driving to any shopping mall.  You can add almost as black Thursday to your stay away list, for most stores now open on Thanksgiving evening.  The irony is that shoppers think that prices are the lowest on these two days.  Turns out prices actually drop after Black Friday.  But, you say, they'll run out of the really good deals like Star Wars toys if you wait.  Good point.  Worth a sacrifice to avoid the crowd.  

However, most major chains allow you to purchase these doorbusters on their website from Thursday night, many with free shipping if you buy enough.

Also:

• Toys are cheaper two weeks before Christmas.

• Mostly, off brand TVs and the like are on sale on Black Friday.  More popular brands drop in prices closer to Christmas, depending on inventory...and might keep dropping until right before Super Bowl, which this year occurs on February 5.
• Christmas decorations prices drop after Black Friday.

• Winter coats, hats and boots are cheapest on December 23.
• Gift cards are marked down only from mid-December.
• Watches and jewelry tend to go on sale the final weekend of the Christmas weekend.
• Workout equipment?  Wait until after January 1.
• Want something really cheap for yourself?  Shop after Christmas.

Depends on who you believe, Black Friday, as named, began either in 1938, 1951 or 1961.  However, it took until the middle 80's for the term to become widespread.  Another reason for BLACK is that this is the day retailers hopefully go from red to black in terms of profit for the year.  Over the past decade there have been seven deaths and nearly 100 injuries on this day from shopping.  

With the one exception of 18 December 2004, since 2003 this has been the busiest shopping day of the year.  The first holiday parades begin today, and Honolulu has three, with the biggest being the Waikiki Holiday Parade beginning at 7PM.

Ho, hum, but the Dow Jones Industrial Average again broke its all-time record, up 69 to 19,152.

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WHAT ARE YOU THANKFUL FOR?

WHAT ARE YOU THANKFUL FOR is the theme of the 15 Craigside Photo Club this month.  Here are some of my earlier postings on Thanksgiving:

• 2009     The First Thanksgiving
• 2010     Thanksgiving in Las Vegas
• 2011     My Second Thanksgiving Turkey (right)
• 2013     Turkey #1

Our club is rather elite, with a second photo of Irene, who started this effort, and Scott, our mentor:

Here are some of the photos I'm contemplating sending-in to be shared with the photo group.  First, an oldie of more than a third of century ago when Pearl and I were working for the U.S. Senate in DC:

On recent trips to Japan I took two shots representing peace:  Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park, a calm scream remonstrating the horror of nuclear warfare, and a symbol of thanks, Mount Fuji:

A few years ago I was on a mission to drop Pearl's ashes at various sites around the world.  At the Matsumoto Castle I tossed into the moat a gelcap of her ashes, and a gold koi ate it.  On my latest trip to the Castle the first view I had was of that gold koi:

I also found my way to Jindaiji, a botanical park with a sad history for me and had lunch with a statue that looks exactly like Pearl when I met her in 1962:

But life goes on and here are two gastronomically  thankful experiences:  champagne and Shanghai Soup Dumplings:

Of course, how can I forget Purgatory, where I live, also known as 15 Craigside:

Read two postings providing purgatorial details (1 and 2).

Finally, I am especially thankful for friends and family.  Here, my Thanksgiving dinner tonight with Betsy and Harvey:

There were others, too, of course, but I'll maintain their privacy.  I should mention that Harvey was the point guard for the original University of Hawaii FABULOUS FIVE, from left to right below, Al Manliguis, Fred Furukawa, Willie Lee, Tommy Yasuhara and Harvey Lee:

They all became very successful citizens, and I am invited to regular gatherings at Betsy/Harvey's place.  Willie recently passed away, else he would have also joined us for dinner.

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I should mention that Hurricane Otto at 110 MPH crashed into the border between Nicaragua and Costa Rica, and is now in the Pacific Ocean:

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SOME SIMPLE THANKFUL PLEASURES

Around this time each year turkeys go on sale for ridiculously low prices.  At Foodland in Honolulu you can pick up a 12-15.99 pound bird for FREE, with something called a My Rewards coupon (given to you when you accumulate 250 points--which must be $250 dollars).  I'm now a Thanksgiving expert, for The Huffington Post published my article on HOW TO ROAST A TURKEY.  I was tempted to pick up a frozen turkey this year and donate it to some organization, as 15 Craigside has an annual Thanksgiving feast, featuring real turkey, which I won't be able to enjoy again because I have been invited out to a friend's home.

Foodland has a local history, for Sully Sullivan, who came to Hawaii from Ireland, opened his first market at Market City in 1948.  It is the largest locally owned supermarket chain in the state with 33 on four islands.  The other local big one is Times Supermarkets.

Foodland Farms, their flagship operation at the rebuilt end of Ala Moana Shopping Center, just opened in August.  It's large and especially features take-out food, with an R. Field (their Beretania market just sent me an e-mail today asking me to pick up my 54 bottles of Stanford wines) Wine Bar serving high end appetizers and wine, a European-style rotisserie, upgraded bakery, major poke (marinated Hawaiian chunks of raw fish) station and HI (symbol for Hawaii) Steaks.  Here are a few views beginning with the Shirokiya Japan Village Walk across the parking lot:

I bought a 12 pack of Mickey's for $10.99.  I have leaned towards this particular beer because, first, you can shield it at, say, Magic Island when I have my bento with Diamond Head, and the bottle does not cover the straw, which should convince any person of authority, for it is illegal to drink alcohol beverages at Hawaii public parks.  I mean, who drinks beer with a straw.  Second, I almost never can finish the whole bottle anyway,  so I cap it for future use.  Today is my golf day so I had a large and simple breakfast of ham/eggs, grilled onions, rice, pickled ginger, my home-made tsukemono, Mickey's and ounce of hot sake:

As I drank only a third of that beer, with one ounce of sake, these drinks cost way  less than a dollar.  Okay, those were a few local simple thankful pleasures.

Nationally, the stock market has been breaking records since Donald Trump's victory.  How long can this go on before people realize what will happen next?  But this is a simple thankful pleasure because both the China and Japan markets are a shadow of their past.  The Japan Nikkei, for example, was up to 38,957 in 1990, and today was 18,163.  But it's worse than that, for the real value of 1990 dollars today is between 64,000 and 118,000, depending on your parameter of comparison.  The Shanghai stock exchange in 2007 was up to 6,124, and closed today at 3255.  The Dow will today again break it's all-time record of 19,024.

Globally, one of the items in the right column shows that the price of oil today remains below $50/barrel.  Click on the 5y icon and you can see that for the past two years now petroleum has been at half what it was (more than $100/barrel for several years).  Why is this a simple thankful pleasure?  Our economy is booming mostly because of this cut-rate price of energy.  It will jump someday, of course, and then will follow, as occurred in the early 80's and again in 2008, a painful recession.

Tomorrow I will report on my 15 Craigside Photography Club assignment for this month:  WHAT ARE YOU THANKFUL FOR?  We meet on Sunday, December 4, and our mentor, Scott, from the Honolulu Museum of Art, shows our photos and comments on them.  Earlier this month when I was on my Fall Food and Foliage Fantasy, the Club invited the equivalent Arcadia club to our gathering.  I donated the champagne.

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