Maureenhannon, you absolutely took my breath away for a minute there, when you said you read my first post to your kids over eggs and toast.  See, I had no idea Anyone would ever read it !  Let alone read it to your kids !  

Right now, it makes me grin from ear to ear:  it's one  beautiful tiny little one-step  example of the power of viral marketing, Word of mouth and word of mouse.  It's the Web !

When I got to my beloved computer today, I was  steeling myself with thoughts like....hey c'mon Diane, it's been less than 12 hours...don't expect anyone had time or even bothered to read your blog post... let alone comment on it... let alone  give a warm and welcoming comment...let alone...Wait!  She what!  She read it to her kids at breakfast !

So, as I promised in the comments section, I'll write lots more Big Island posts, and some of them  will be precisely for your kids.  Hi kids !

First, you gotta get the puny pun there. Hi kids. HI is the postal shorthand for the state of Hawaii.  Most people here don't make half the good joke out of it that we could . It's a potential niche.

But someone did catch the idea of FBI in huge letters on the back of t-shirts, and I hear they are making bundles of cash with it.   Have you figured it out???FBI is From Big Island.  

sells to visitors who take the t-shirt home advertising obliquely where they were on vacation, sells to our local kids who want to show off  they are truly  From Here... and sells to all teenagers who think the joke is absolutely hysterical and by all means worth paying ten bucks  to claim you are FBI.

Segue from  locally-based jokes, into  a bit of necessary words and phrases. .

Pau. (pronounced like the English word Pow.)  This is a great, versatile word in  the Hawaiian language. When I am pau, I may be just done with an article I  wrote and quite happy about it all, I may be really wiped out after a long, hard day, I may be done with my meal .  It's all pau.  

In fact, saying I'm " all pau"  or "it's all pau" adds emphasis, as does the facial expression, the deep sigh---it all gives context and nuance. That's the great way with these versatile words.

A favorite is pau hana.  Hana in English is work.  So, if you are pau hana, you are done with work, at least for now.  And to celebrate Friday evening and the beginning of the weekend, it's pau hana means it is time to celebrate Friday evening by a party on the beach.  One of the big major beer distributors in the islands, has Pau Hana! written in huge joyful letters on the sides of its big delivery  trucks.

Okay, a short post for today.  It's pau hana for me,. I' m going for a swim.

Aloha you

Diane, reefswimmer