That's OK, Bob, I'm sure you were no worse than the other haoles, and probably better! My ex used to refer to Hawaiian names as "alphabet fruit salad". That is an interesting point about Finnish, though. [Caution, thread creep ahead.] "Haole" (pronounced as you wrote it, 'howlie') is an interesting word. It's usually used to mean "Caucasian", but my understanding is that the Hawaiian word really means "silent" or "not speaking". Apparently it was applied to the immigrants because they were not able to chant or state their genealogy, which was the traditional way Hawaiians introduced themselves in formal meetings. It's also interesting that people of Portuguese descent are the only white people in Hawaii who are NOT called haoles. (The term for them is "Portagee"!) There's probably a good historico-cultural explanation for that, but I don't know what it is.

You may well have been at that gathering at John's house, Bob. It's faded far enough in my memory, though, that I can't recall anybody else who was there. But that's not surprising...I had forgotten I'd met Don Firth, too, even though he rode in my car for two hours or so from Seattle to San Juan Island. And Don's not an easy person to forget!

That ride, by the way, was to the Seattle Song Circle's "performance" at San Juan Island National Historical Park, which was hosted by John Dwyer's daughter, Maggie, who was then a park ranger on the island, and who is now "Stilly River Sage", who started this thread in the first place....so there, I've brought the damn thing back on track!

Aloha,
Mark