An Arizona Memorial stamp for the ages

Nowadays, as the cost of mailing increases on a seemingly regular basis, we appreciate the simplicity of the "Forever" letter stamp. Buy a bunch at the current rate, and they’re good forever, cutting down on trips to the post office to update stamps or to get 1- to 3-cent ones to make old postage whole.

But now comes a good reason to visit the U.S. Postal Service, either in person or online at https://store.usps.com/store/. The USS Arizona Memorial will be depicted on a new stamp coming out March 13; it’s not for standard letters, but for the USPS’ $19.99 Priority Mail Express service. The striking artwork by Dan Cosgrove honors the shrine to the 1,177 sailors aboard the Arizona killed in the Dec. 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor. The stamp commemorates a dramatic period in Hawaii and U.S. history that should be remembered — forever.

It’s a bird! It’s a crane!

People of a certain age remember the old joke during the building boom of the 1960s and 1970s that the state bird of Hawaii was not the nene goose, after all, but the construction crane.

Not only is that quip back, with today’s redevelopment blitz, but it’s popping up all over the place. Googling "construction crane" and "state bird" gets hits from St. Petersburg, Fla., to Austin, Texas.

Guess it was never humor exclusively ours to begin with. But did other states also describe that crane as the "bird of paradise"? Doubt it.