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From Hawaii Magazine
Did you know back in the ’70s, Diamond Head on Oahu was the outdoor venue for a big music festival that was Hawaii’s equivalent to Woodstock? (Or depending on your age, to Coachella.)
Remembered broadly as the Diamond Head Crater Festivals, sometimes called the Sunshine Festival, these concerts brought out heavyweights of the era like Carlos Santana, America, Styx, Journey, War and Tower of Power, alongside Hawaii talent like Cecilio & Kapono and the Mackey Feary Band.
Throughout the years they became synonymous as local New Year’s Eve/Day and Fourth of July events, attracting more than 75,000 people, dancing and chilling out under the hot Hawaiian sun to some of the most influential music of the period.
The start of 2017 brings back memories of Hill Street Blues and actor Michael Conrad. Hill Street Blues was a police drama that ran from 1981 through 1987. Conrad was known for his portrayal of veteran cop Sgt. Phil Esterhaus. He won two Emmy Awards for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series in Hill Street Blues in 1981 and 1982. Conrad died from cancer in November 1983.
Sergeant Esterhaus ended the introductory roll call to each week’s show with a word of advice – “Let’s be careful out there”.
From the Wikipedia website
In the United States, New Year’s Eve is celebrated with formal parties, family-oriented activities, and other large public events.
One of the most prominent celebrations in the country is the “ball drop” held in New York City‘s Times Square. Inspired by the time balls that were formally used as a time signal, at 11:59 p.m. ET, an 11,875-pound (5,386 kg), 12-foot (3.7 m) diameter Waterford crystal ball located on the roof of One Times Square is lowered down a pole that is 70 feet high, reaching the roof of the building 60 seconds later to signal the start of the New Year. The Ball Drop has been held since 1907, and in recent years has averaged around a million spectators annually. The popularity of the spectacle also inspired similar “drop” events outside of New York City, which often use objects that represent a region’s culture, geography, or history—such as Atlanta‘s “Peach Drop“, representing Georgia‘s identity as the “Peach State”. Alongside the festivities in Times Square, New York’s Central Park hosts a “Midnight Run” event organized by the New York Road Runners, which culminates in a fireworks show and a race around the park that begins at midnight.
Radio and television broadcasts from festivities in New York helped to ingrain aspects of them in American pop culture; beginning on the radio in 1928, and on CBS television from 1956 to 1976 with ball drop coverage, Guy Lombardo and his band, The Royal Canadians, presented an annual New Year’s Eve broadcast from the ballroom of New York’s Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. The broadcasts were best known for the Royal Canadians’ signature performance of “Auld Lang Syne” at midnight, which made the standard synonymous with New Year’s in the United States. Following Lombardo’s death in 1977, ABC‘s competing program New Year’s Rockin’ Eve succeeded the Royal Canadians as the dominant New Year’s Eve special on U.S. television. Its creator and host Dick Clark intended the program to be a modern and youthful alternative to Lombardo’s big band music. Including ABC’s special coverage of the year 2000, Clark would host New Year’s Eve coverage on ABC for 33 straight years. After suffering a stroke, Clark ceded hosting duties in 2005 to talk show host Regis Philbin, and retired as full-time host in 2006 in favor of Ryan Seacrest due to a speech impediment caused by the stroke. Clark continued to make appearances from a studio on the program annually until his death in 2012.
Notable celebrations occur in other U.S. cities as well. On the Las Vegas Strip, the streets are closed to vehicle traffic on the evening of New Year’s Eve, and a large fireworks show is held at midnight which spans across multiple resort buildings. Major theme parks may also hold New Year’s celebrations; Disney theme parks, such as Walt Disney World Resort in Florida and Disneyland in Anaheim, California, are traditionally the busiest during the days up to and including New Year’s Eve. Los Angeles, a city long without a major public New Year celebration, held an inaugural gathering in Downtown‘s newly completed Grand Park to celebrate the beginning of 2014. The event included food trucks, art installations, and light shows, culminating with a projection mapping show on the side of Los Angeles City Hall near midnight. The inaugural event drew over 25,000 spectators and participants. In 2015, Chicago held Chi-Town Rising, the city’s first ever outdoor New Year’s Eve festival on the Magnificent Mile. The event was hosted by Mario Lopez with musical guests American Authors and Chicago. Nearly 100,000 people attended the inaugural event.
As 2016 ends, Retiree News would like to thank all of you for your continuing support of this website.
There were 1100+ posts that received over 140,000 hits. Much of these hits were from the United States, but we did have hits from 96 countries worldwide. Special thanks to the 630 of you who registered to follow Retiree News by email notifications.
We increased the number of daily posts, incorporated more photographs and graphics. Thanks to those of you who emailed photographs for posting, especially the older ones.
We are constantly looking for old photographs (with names and other important information) we could use. Contributors receive full credit in posts.
We began imbedded videos in our posts. In the last decade, there have been an increasing use of videos to document history. There will be more videos in 2017.
Retiree News’ 4th anniversary is in late January. We are closing in on 400,000 hits. We look to 2017 as another great year.
From the Defense One website
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The F-15C Eagle weighs about 16 tons, but with nearly 47,000 pounds of thrust pushing it down the runway it feels more like 16 ounces.
In a just seconds, the plane passes 100 miles per hour, then twice that. It hops off the ground but the pilot, Maj. Jay “Fat” Talbert keeps it level, fifty feet up, and pours on more speed. “Here come the G’s,” Talbert warns his passenger in the back seat. Then he pulls back the stick.
Twin afterburners glow and a thunderous roar covers the peaceful New England landscape as the jet goes vertical. The altimeter spins like a stopwatch — and freezes at 6,000 as Talbert rolls the plane onto its left side and levels out. Then he turns right, heading toward the training area where he will show how this plane, built in 1985 to a 1970s design, can still best foreign-made jets in air-to-air combat.
The question now is whether Air Force leaders want to spend tens of billions of dollars to refurbish the C- and D-model F-15s and upgrade their electronics, or to put the money toward newer aircraft.
From the Wired Magazine website
Digital devices and software programs are complicated. Behind the pointing and clicking on screen are thousands of processes and routines that make everything work. So when malicious software—malware—invades a system, even seemingly small changes to the system can have unpredictable impacts.
That’s why it’s so concerning that the Justice Department is planning a vast expansion of government hacking. Under a new set of rules, the FBI would have the authority to secretly use malware to hack into thousands or hundreds of thousands of computers that belong to innocent third parties and even crime victims. The unintended consequences could be staggering.
Representative Paul Cook is a Republican from California and a retired Marine Corps colonel. He serves on veterans affairs, armed services and foreign affairs committees in the U.S. House of Representatives.
This year, I introduced legislation to provide special protection for Purple Heart medals awarded to service members wounded or killed while serving in the Armed Forces. This legislation would end the buying and selling of Purple Hearts, a practice that transforms these symbols of our brave service members’ sacrifices into collectible commodities.
This legislation isn’t just about good public policy. I’m compelled to act by the personal stories attached to some of these medals.
From the Department of Veterans Affairs website
The Department of Veterans Affairs has opened a new site for its . With the new location in Atlanta, the service now has more than 500 call responders and nearly 80 social service assistants. The VA program has fielded more than 2.6 million calls in its nine-year history and intervened with emergency services more than 67,000 times.
Commissaries will for the first time try to make a profit by selling to military shoppers as part of a new business model being rolled out to save the global chain of 238 stores, which has seen falling sales for four years straight and is facing increasing pressure to slash its budget.
Commissary-brand pasta sauce or breakfast cereal? It could be a reality for military shoppers next year.
New products with commissary labels along with new pricing on staples such as bananas, milk and soda are set to begin hitting store shelves in May. About 1,000 new items will be rolled out by the end of 2017.
The changes will mean new choices and some deals for shoppers. But they also signal a profound transformation of commissaries behind the scenes — a shift that groups representing troops and manufacturers worry could fail and imperil the on-base supermarkets.
From the Kiplinger Magazine website
One of the biggest mistakes retirees make when calculating their living expenses is forgetting how big a bite state and federal taxes can take out of savings. And how you tap your accounts can make a big difference in what you ultimately pay to Uncle Sam.
Conventional wisdom has long held that you should tap taxable accounts first, followed by tax-deferred retirement accounts and then your Roth. This strategy makes sense for many retirees, but be careful if you have a lot of money in a traditional IRA or 401(k). When you turn 70 1/2, you’ll have to take required minimum distributions (RMDs) from the accounts. If the accounts grow too large, mandatory withdrawals could push you into a higher tax bracket. To avoid this problem, you may want to take withdrawals from tax-deferred accounts earlier.
Fushio Tomatani, 89, of Honolulu, a retired electrician at Dole Cannery, passed away on November 6, 2016 at home.
He was raised in Kaka’ako and graduated from McKinley High School. He served in the Army and the National Guard.
He is survived by his wife, Kakuko; son, Malcolm Tomatani; daughter, Ann (Brian) Hirata; grandsons, Landon and Brennan; and sister, Eleanor (Larry) Archambeault of Napa, California.
Private services held. Arrangements provided by Hosoi Garden Mortuary
From the Zagat website
It was an incredible year for dining across the U.S. in 2016. With chefs from NY, Chicago and SF moving to smaller markets like Denver, Charlotte, Seattle and Charleston (among others), culinary innovation is booming in cities big and small. But which food town had the biggest growth spurt this year?
For one final look back, we’ve asked editors around the country to make a case for the city they believe had the biggest year in food by assessing the number of exciting new openings, award recognition and national media attention. Then we let some of the top food media brass weigh in on which locales were most exciting.
Don’t see your pick on the list? Let us know in the comments.
