High School of the Week- Kalani High School (Hawa'ii)

We temporarily leave the continental United States as we select Kalani High School in Honolulu, Hawa'ii as our 'High School of the Week,' (an additional entry will be posted on Friday for another school).

The Falcon is the school mascot, hence the reason why we posted an image of a falcon though in hind sight maybe we should have gone with '70s cartoon dog Dyno-Mutt's sidekick The Blue Falcon, and red and white are the team colors.

Mitchell Otani has apparently replaced Gerlad Teramae, who was mentioned as the school principal on Wikipedia, as the new principal of the school from what we gahtered on the school's web site.

Kalani HS also happens to have a slam poetry club and a robotics club.

Lenn Sakata who was a member of the 1983 Baltimore Orioles team which won the World Series is an alumnus of Kalani HS.

We tried to find out what they were offering for their school lunch today. I was so hoping not only to find it, but to see if they were offering something with pineapple. But, such is the life of a blogger........

Dead or Alive (8 of 12)- Pat Boone

Today, we focus on country/gospel singer Pat Boone whom I saw in person about ten years ago at the Shenandoah Apple Blossom Festival in Winchester, Va. Like Tony Bennett and Andy Williams, Boone is one of those singers who comes to mind this time of year and if you go to Boone's web site (http://www.patboone.com), you can hear a rendition of "Christmas in LA."

But, we are asking the question is Boone alive or dead?

He was born on June 1, 1934, and he reached the height of his fame as a young man in the 1950s. He would sell more record than just about any artist of his time with notable exceptions like Elvis Presley and The Beatles.

Boone was also an actor and because of his religious/conservative view of the world, he would refuse a part with Marilyn Monroe?! He would also become very active in Ronald Reagan's run for governor. And, of course, he supported Ronnie when ran for president and made this country a mess (excuse the political bias).

Politics remains a passion for Boone as he went on Fox News to support the War in Iraq, where his record sales are probably still fairly minimal.

Conservative commentator P.J. O'Rourke, who know contributes to "The Weekly Standard" said Boone's music was one of the things he began to embrace when he went from becoming a liberal to a conservative (hmmm....I may have settled for Lawrence Welk, but since I voted for Obama, I guess I can still listen to The Clash).

Personally, I prefer "The Weekly Standard"'s rival publication "The New Republic" for those of us on the center-left. Jonathan Chait's piece on Republican nihilism (do-nothingism) is a classic!

Boone also sang along '70s cartoon character Dynomutt in a Christmas Carol for a tv special circa 1978. A hysterical Youtube video of that was available as of last Christmas. 'Ralph,' a friend of mine, who is also 39, and I discussed the possible sexual orientation of Dynomutt's sidekick The Blue Falcon. I think in retrospect he may have been gay. Ralph begs to differ.

But, Boone did surprise the record industry with a compilation of heavy metal covers, including a version of Ozzy Osbourne's "Crazy Train"! Amazingly, Osbourne and Boone were also once neighbors which must have made for one very interesting block party.