Traffic is shape of things to come

Classes at the University of Hawaii aren’t starting until Monday — but traffic’s already picking up around the Manoa campus.

That’s because the official Manoa Move-In 2011 for dorm dwellers started Tuesday and will continue Thursday and Friday.

Motorists in the area should be advised that starting at 8:30 a.m. on those days, traffic will be increased on Dole Street and University Avenue.

This session also marks the reopening of historic Johnson Hall after a $6.7 million, yearlong renovation that included upgrades to all 98 double rooms, lounges and offices, and installation of modern safety devices.

Nice digs, if you can get it.

Bonsai offers path for Postal Service

Maybe it’s not surprising that a bonsai tree design has been selected for a new postage stamp. This one derived from a painting by Hilo artist John D. Dawson.

The art of growing these miniature trees was born in China, where they were pruned to resemble dragons, serpents, birds and other mythological beings. Later, when the practice migrated to Japan, Buddhist monks turned their cultivation into a form of zen meditation, and the bonsai became a symbol of harmony and balance.

And lately, balance is precisely what the postal service, trying to stem the red ink, needs most.