Movement on the Manhattan Bridge

No, Shayna's not a supermodel. That was an April Fool's joke.

Shayna met her first novellist last Saturday. I transported her to NYU for a panel discussion entitled "Representation Blues: An Artist's Accountibility or Poetic License?" as part of the Asian/Pacific/American Studies Program and Institute's 5th Annual Asians In America Conference entitled "Is Charlie Chan Really Dead? - Representations and Beyond". There she met Lois-Ann Yamanaka, renowned "Pidgin" author from Hawai'i. The discussion was over her head, but she enjoyed riding on the subway, going to her first book store (Posman Books), and visiting Washington Square Park. She even challenged Daddy to a diaper changing contest on the way home, seeing if he could change an explosively messy diaper on a moving subway car before he would have to get off the train and transfer to another one, or risk a surprise visit to Coney Island. He succeeded and she proved the old theorem If a baby cries loudly on a subway car, and there are people around to hear it, they are happy to see you get off the train.

Grandma Diane responded:

Wow! This NY girl is ahead of Grandma Diane in her NYC experiences! Wish I
could check with Pop-Pop on this one, but don't think I rode the subway
before I was one year old...maybe the SI Ferry, though....

Leave after my CW class today for HNL and two days of meetings...the 35th
Community College Anniversary bash is at the Waikiki Sheraton tomorrow
night; they even brought back John Prihoda, one of Leeward's provosts from
the seventies...should be lots of deja vu....

I am writing this from HOME and it is great having my email and the net
here...BTW, if Nancy Higa hasn't told you, she LOVES getting the emails
from you.

Love, Mom

P.S. Poppa John called me at work yesterday to describe birth of calf in
upper pasture as he stood in entryway, watching. "Big Red" is first of
cows to deliver; we're expecting five more spring babies.

Nancy Higa responded:

Hi Kids:

Your E-mails have wonderfully hilarious subjects. Your words, Bill, painted
a very vivid picture of you and Shayna on the subway. In addition, exposing
Shayna to book stores and our local writers is an impressive first step in
her literary education. But I have to say, you're a brave daddy.

Sounds like all is going well for the four of you. I got my taxes done
finally. However, with each passing year, I am more and more paranoid with
the whole operation. I've got to be better organized on a month-to month
basis and then, maybe, it won't take a week out of my
life.

I talked to your mother last Sunday on her return from Florida. She is
looking forward to Shayna's baby naming gathering and seeing all of you in
June.

I'm going to a reception this afternoon for LCC's first Dean of Instruction,
John Prihoda. He left us to open Windward CC and then moved to Iowa to head
the community college system there. The CC's are celebrating their 35th
anniversary of joining the university system.

Love to all, Nancy

Jolee's Latest Acquisition (Spring 1999)

Gee, I leave town for a few days, and Jolee apparently was very busy.

I was getting her dressed for school and Goblin (the cat) was at the front door, trying to get out. "Look Jolee, Goblin wants to go outside too."

Jolee let him know who is queen of the world: "NO Goblin! My outside!"

Jolee Cohen, Mistress of Illusion (Spring 1999)

Melanie and Shayna were sitting on Jolee's bed this morning, when Jolee performed an astounding feat of prestidigitation. She covered Shayna's head with an ordinary red cotton sheet, uttered the magic word, "Peekaboo!" and when she pulled back the sheet it was mysteriously covered with spit-up!

Astounding!

When Kleenex Attacks (Spring 1999)

The other day, Jolee was walking in the living room, not really paying attention, when she suddenly found her foot inside a box of Kleenex. Apparently, she stepped directly into a box that had fallen from the coffee table onto the floor.

This distressed her a great deal, as she stood there shaking her foot, trying to extricate it from the ravenous box. "No, tissues, NO!" she cried, "No Tissues! Not now! Leave Jolee alone!"

The box of Kleenex would not let go. She turned to Melanie for help: "Mama, Help! Jolee stuck tissues!"

Shayna was occupying Melanie's attention, so she was unable to help. But Jolee finally managed to free herself from the killer Kleenex. Whereupon Jolee proceeded to scold the box of tissues some more until she was satisfied that it would not do it again.