Now I can drive in peace, listen to the FM radio, pay attention to the road, maybe even put in a cassette tape (just google it, kids). Once again, the car has become a place of refuge, a brief respite from the constant yammering. For a short time every day — every day — I will be virtually unreachable.

So put your phone down, drive safely, keep your attention on the road, and don't fret. It's only for a little while. In the meantime, enjoy the ride.

Michael Jackson was a great talent, who was derailed by, well, that weirdness thing.

I'm not saying he had no part in his own career demise. He had everything to do with it, his character already wounded by a sometimes sordid upbringing and the basic corruption faced by all child stars.

But I saw that famous 1983 TV appearance in which he moonwalked and spun and made us believe that "Billie Jean is not my lover." (Oh, if we only knew then how true that was!) And I thought, this guy owns this audience. Superstar is an overused term, but it applies to him.

Perhaps I should add that I had a special spot in my heart for Jackson ever since I was 13 and I won my one and only radio contest. On KPOI 1380AM, there was a countdown "Name That Tune" game. I was the right caller. The countdown began along with the music. "Thirteen dollars and eighty cents!" the DJ shouted. "Twelve dollars. Eleven dollars."

I named that tune: "I'll Be There."

That was the best 11 bucks I ever earned. It brought more joy to my teenybopper heart than all of Michael's millions ever brought him.

-- Vicki Viotti

For non-Catholics and those who don't believe in the divine, all this attention to a religious ritual for one man may seem a bit much. Damien himself, a modest man of humble origins, likely would agree. But there are historical reasons that Hawaii folks, religious or not, can appreciate.

Of all the thousands of saints revered by the 2,000-year-old church – from popes to paupers,  famous to forgotten — Damien's ministry is unique.

He will be the first, and only, saint who spoke Hawaiian.

He will be the first, and only, saint who lived as a Hawaiian — sharing poi from the common calabash as he traveled the remote corners of his parish in Kohala, where, in the late 1800s, the old Hawaiian ways were still practiced.

He treated the banished Hawaiians lepers with a dignity and humanity denied them by their government and popular Western opinion. And he put Hawai‘i on the map.

Many saints labored in obscurity and remain known only in the communities they served, if that. Not Damien. He gained worldwide fame while alive, and from his lonely outpost on Molokai, he did what a proper saint is supposed to do: He inspired others to good works, and to follow his example of treating society's untouchables and outcasts with human dignity and love.

His followers included Mahatma Gandhi, a champion for India's untouchables caste, and Mother Teresa of Calcutta, who built her Missionaries of Charity organization to serve "the poorest of the poor." Damien Centers around the country follow his example in caring for HIV/AIDs patients.

For this is what a saint is: An example of a life lived to the highest ideals of love, service and peace. Impossible to reach perhaps, but worth reaching for.

Even so, why should non-Catholics — or non-believers — care that Damien will become a saint in the Catholic church?

Here's one  reason: Out of simple respect for the man. After all, Damien didn't come to Hawai‘i because he wanted to be Hawaiian. He didn't want to be famous, or set a good example to last 120 years. He didn't come because he believed in social justice.

He came because he was a devout Catholic, and wanted to serve God by following the example of another man: Jesus Christ. For Damien, his life's mission — the work that brought him worldwide fame and adulation from believers and non-believers alike — was built on his unshakeable devotion to his God and his religion. To Damien, his faith is what mattered most.

From that perspective, sainthood becomes a fundamental part of the Damien story.

But for others who don't, it's proved a revolutionary form of expression. Perhaps literally.

Anyway, that's how I respond to Ann Kobayashi's latest political announcement, that she's seeking a return to City Hall.

She said at the time -- it was just last fall -- that she was ready to move on from City Council but had to be persuaded that a run for the mayor's seat was a good plan. When that decision was made, it came in so late that those wanting to fill her Council vacancy had to scramble and ... well, you know all about that mess.

I never really believed that she wanted out of Council politics, so I was anything but stunned to hear she wants to succeed her late successor in the chair, Duke Bainum.

But it was startling that she made the move rather soon after his death. What was the rush, exactly? Couldn't there have been a brief, marginally tasteful mourning period? Wouldn't now have been the time to hold off on any public statement?

Lastly, consider how long Kobayashi still has left, potentially, on the Council. She was elected in 2002 in a special election replacing Andy Mirikitani. Those two years did not count against term limits. Council members are barred from serving more than two regular, consecutive terms. Kobayashi's first began upon her election in 2004. Then she decided not to run for re-election. If she wins the special election, those 3 1/2 years don't count against her term limits, either. Because she took a Council hiatus of six months, she can run for two more consecutive terms starting in 2012.

But by then, she could — and should — be genuinely sick of Council politics.

-- Vicki Viotti

Then he asked: "You're younger than I am, maybe you can answer this question. What is Twitter?"

It's a good question to chew on, figuratively speaking. How do you explain Twitter to someone who doesn't do online social networking? Who doesn't read blogs? Who gets his news from a newspaper?

How do you describe the value of a technology used by someone to post what she's planning to have for lunch, what she actually had for lunch, whether she liked what she had for lunch, and what she'll have next time she goes out for lunch? How do you explain such an obsession?

When I was able to speak, I offered the first answer that popped into my head. I though it would make sense to him: "Twitter? It's a colossal waste of time."

He didn't disagree. He finished his work; and while he may not know Twitter, he certainly knows the technology of dentistry. The crown fit perfectly.

The administration's official line was that it was waiting for the latest Council on Revenues forecast to be released on Thursday. That begs the question: Why? What possible difference could the forecast make? Would the state not apply for the stimulus funds if the forecast had been rosy? (It sure as hell wasn't.)

The teachers union and Board of Education members, and a few letters to the editor, are asking why Lingle hasn't acted by now. Some don't buy the Council on Revenues story. They think Lingle is holding back to gain leverage against the union in contract negotiations.

An earlier version of this post — unfairly, I concede — did not have the administration's explanation. Here it is, from administration spokesman Russell Pang:

As part of the application  for the state stabilization funds, the  federal government requires that we submit FY09 education expenditures. As such, the Governor elected to wait until after the Council on Revenues to ensure that we provide accurate expenditure figures.  The dramatically lower projections for the remainder of FY09 — an additional $186.5 million — will have an impact on education spending.  We are in the process off determining exactly what the impact is and will be submitting the application for the fiscal stabilization funds -- with the updated, accurate education expenditures for FY09 as required.

On Thursday morning — the day of the forecast — council chairman Paul Brewbaker addressed a Hawaii Institute for Public Affairs forum on the stimulus funds and what Hawaii should do about getting some. One of his first, most emphatic comments: "Don't wait for the Council on Revenues forecast!" He pointed out, as have many others, that the economic forecasts, now and in the near future, will be gloomy.

Nonetheless, let's hope the updated forecast — and its anticipated impact on education spending — will help the state get more stimulus money than it otherwise would have. That would make it worth the wait.

This year we heard from the American Beverage Institute, which sent out a notice that checkpoints do little to keep holiday drivers safe. “By holding sobriety checkpoints, Hawaii safety officials are ignoring the root cause of today’s drunk driving problem—hard core alcohol abusers,” wrote Sarah Longwell, the ABI managing director.

The institute's contention: The real drunks figure out a way to avoid the checkpoints, either by taking the back roads altogether or by alerting each other via cell or text message. The better solution, according to the ABI: Roving patrols. Police should simply be on the lookout for erratic drivers and pull them over.

Mothers Against Drunk Driving, not surprisingly, begs to differ. Its blog cites 20 percent reductions in fatalities when checkpoints are run properly, which is to say that they are unannounced and pulling over cars at random, according to their position in a prearranged sequence. The entry:

http://tinyurl.com/pspotd

Certainly, checkpoints aren't perfect, but neither are police patrol staffing levels. Can you imagine having enough patrol units so that they can be buzzing the bars all night, looking for erratic driving?

Surely this isn't any fun for the alcohol industry, but so far it hasn't come up with a workable solution.

Happy Memorial Day to all. And even if it goes without saying: Don't drink and drive.

-- Vicki Viotti

Peter Rogoff, the Obama administration's nominee for transit administration at the U.S. Department of Transportation, was prodded by U.S. Sen. Daniel Akaka about the project. The mayor couldn't have asked for any more of a hoo-rah than he got.

Rogoff assured the senators that he's toured the project corridor and that "everyone is talking to each other clearly in terms of what needs to be done to move this project forward."

More to the point, however: Rogoff has a long memory. He remembers when, in the early '90s, the council reversed itself on the project and underscored that "we must not let that happen again."

So it seems he will be attuned to signs of wavering commitment. So the city, while it's reviewing how to manage the environmental impacts, needs to do so without seeming to be getting cold feet.

To use the wedding analogy: It's the difference between having normal jitters about getting married and bolting from the church, leaving the bride (or groom) at the altar. Bad enough to do that once, let alone twice.

-- Vicki Viotti