Good news! The Making Waves Poll is out and Hawaii ranks best in the nation for beautiful sunsets.
The state had high marks in friendliness in traffic, and also ranks high in cars pulling out in front of you.
Air quality on the Big Island was voted No. 1 in the country with clear blue skies shining everyday from Volcano to Kona. The study was conducted in 1982.
In time spent on highway projects, Hawaii ranked lowest, paving roads slower than the U.S. territory of Guam, and Guam doesn’t even have highways.
Infrastructure of roads here ranked 48th, with most whiplashes from hitting pot holes.
A CNBC poll found Hawaii 47th out of 50 in cost of doing business here but the Making Waves Poll ranked Hawaii tops in quality of lollipops given out by local businesses.
In the category of most insects per household, Hawaii ranked second above Louisiana, where crawdads are considered an insect.
There are 300 cockroaches, 40 mosquitoes, 10 spiders and 5 million ants per household on the Big island, not counting geckos.
In the area of family members employed in the workplace, Hawaii was ranked first because every county employee is related to each other. No one outside the family, in fact, is allowed to work here.
Our state almost swept the nation in the area of food. The Islands are second in Spam and poi consumption. Nevada is No. 1 because of the Hawaiian influx in Las Vegas. They all love their poi.
In the area of creative food, Hawaii won with musubi, loco moco and sashimi, because no one in the entire country had any idea what they were, and could not pronounce the names. People thought loco moco was a flavor of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream.
The Hawaiian islands led the nation in pineapple consumption. People in New Hampshire, Vermont and Rhode Island have never actually seen a pineapple, much less eaten one. Also, people in these states refused to believe that coconuts were real.
Hawaii fell short in commuting time to work. Driving time from Kainaliu to Kona, the Kainaliu Crawl, was rated “just plain frustrating.”
We were 49th in the nation in education because Hawaii is always rated 49th in education. Someone should do something about this. Maybe pay teachers more than hamburger flippers. Not that hamburger flippers aren’t cool.
A new category was added this year, “Most time waiting in line at banks and grocery stores.”
Hawaii won when a lady talking to the teller at a local Kona bank told her entire life story and that of three family members while people waited in line behind her for two hours and 10 minutes.
But making up for bad marks, our islands once again came in first with most aloha.
Dennis Gregory writes a bi-monthly column and welcomes your comments at makewavess@yahoo.com.