A couple of weeks ago, I posted here a very funny "challenge" of sorts that John Oliver made on Last Week Tonight to help make the Puteketeke the "Bird of the Century" in a contest held in New Zealand by the organization Forest & Bird.  It was a stunt that even by Oliver's own admission was "alarmingly aggressive”.

On Sunday, he dealt with the results.  And not surprisingly, it was a treat.

Unfortunately, the show only makes its Main Story available online.  However -- good news -- I recorded the Bird of the Century story off my TV using my mobile phone.  The sound is a bit tinny, but it's perfectly clear.  I thought of recording again, but...well, no matter how small it is, holding a mobile phone reasonably steady for eight minutes just one time is more than enough for this.

(How much is that?  The video was too large to embed on this site.  It was 1.3 gigabyte, and the limit is 1 GB.  However, I was able to compress it a little, and I think the quality is still just about as good.  But it took a long time and then to encode for the site.  But I digress.  And compress...)

By the way, just to reiterate -- as I noted in the earlier article, before putting this effort into operation, the Last Week Tonight people contacted Bird & Forest to let them know they wanted to do something (they didn't say what...) and asked if the organization was okay with that.  They were, so they were aware that the show was going to do something.  And it's important to know, too, that Forest & Bird particularly appreciated the worldwide attention that they got from the stunt, and also that they raise money off of this event.  And...well, let's just say that they did fine this year.

Of course, it's also worth making clear (which it likely is to most people) that this isn't an official national contest with any actual, substantive meaning.  And further, that any bird organization in New Zealand or anywhere in the world can have their own Bird of the Century contest if the way.

And in the end, the Puteketeke is an impressive-looking bird.  With, as John Oliver notes, a name that's so much fun to say.

Yesterday, we posted the Main Story here from this past Sunday's Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, a serious look at Abortion Rights, with the show's usual comic perspective.  This is not that again.  It's just something else the show did that was too much fun not to include.

Generally, the show has a standard order.  They open with a few headlines, then go to "And now this..." which is an amusing few minutes on a specific theme, and then end with the Main Story.  On occasion, they'll have a funny final story.

On Sunday, however, they went directly from the headlines to the Main Story, which was surprising.  There were still almost 35 minutes to go, which would have been a very long time for a Main Story.  It turned out, however, that there was a good reason for all this.

That's because after the Main Story they did another story for 12 minutes.  And for reasons that will be clear, it had to come after the Main Story -- not before -- because it was one of those things for which the phrase, "I wouldn't want to follow that," was coined.

It was a story about a "Bird of the Year" contest in New Zealand.  Or this year, a "Bird of the Century" contest.  The report was a lot of fun and very funny.  And then got funnier as it went out, building to wonderful hilarity in a way that only Last Week Tonight does.  And then...it topped even that.

You couldn't have gone from that to a Main Story on Abortion Rights.  In fact, you wouldn't have wanted anything to go after it.  For reasons that will be clear.

The problem is that while Last Week Tonight always posts the Main Story, that's usually all they make available.  And such was the case with this report on the bird contest in New Zealand.  But I search for it, to see if somewhere what got posted, somehow.  I found a few short clips, but that was it.

And then finally, I found someone who seems to have recorded the report on the phone, and then posted it on Tik-Tok.  The audio quality isn't great, a bit tinny, and the image is much smaller than ideal -- but a) the audio and image are fine, and b) this is too funny not to use it and be grateful it exists.  But do click on the "diagonal arrows" in the lower-right corner of the video to make the image it a bit larger.

I'll just say to keep an ear open for a two-word phrase that begins with the word "alarmingly."

This cuts off right before the end, but I'll post the final line below.  However, for those who want the full, brilliant experience, I found a video of the final minute -- with the last line intact.  So, when he starts to get up from his desk, stop the video here and then scroll down.  (However, if you just want to watch this Tik-Tok video alone, fine, I'll post the cut-off line under the second video.  I trust this is all clear...)

And fun, too, I'll have a brief follow-up on some of the reaction to this, which I'll post underneath the video, as well.  We are a full, information service, after all.


But it's best to watch this first with unsuspecting eyes...

Okay, for those who only want to know the final line, it's when Oliver says, "This is what democracy is all about – America interfering in foreign elections!!"

I also want to reiterate that I think the phrase "alarmingly aggressive” is one of the funniest that the show has used.  And the show may have blown its promotion budget for the year.

Finally, while there has been some criticism of the show getting involved with, basically, hijacking the contest, I'm happy to note that the organization running it was not only fine with it, but they appreciated it.  And surprisingly, as you'll see, it turns out that the show responsibly gave the organization an idea ahead of time that they would be getting involved.  So, the organization was not caught totally unawares.  And...was fine with it.

From two articles I found --

"Quoting Forest and Bird’s response at the time, he said: “'We’re not mad, just impressed that someone cares enough about New Zealand’s native birds to rig the competition. This all speaks to how much the people of New Zealand justifiably love this competition.'”
 
And...

​"Forest & Bird CEO Nicola Toki told Morning Report she was unperturbed by Oliver's attempt at fixing the vote, and their website had held up.
 
"'It's fair to say that a fair amount of weight was applied to work on it. My team working on it has had very little sleep. We're pretty impressed that the website held up, given the thousands and thousands of votes that came in.'
 
"The vote-rigging was not unexpected, as the team behind Oliver's show had been in touch earlier this year.
 
"'They were keen to be involved and we said, 'Go for it!'"
 
"All votes would need to be verified, but the bar to entry was low, she added.
 
"'You need to be a bird lover and someone with a valid email address. As John Oliver figured out, it doesn't matter where in the world you are.'
 
"The controversy around this latest flurry of votes did not bother Toki.
 
"'We rise to a challenge here in New Zealand - let's treat this as our new Everest, to show we can punch above our weight.'"

In fact, the organization even happily promoted their contest on social media with a nod to Last Week Tonight​'s efforts.

Three weeks back, I wrote here about the devastating Lahaina fire on Maui and having traveled there several decades ago with deeply fond memories. The town, I said, "had a sense of the past and world culture that seemed to be living all around you."  I particularly singled out the Pioneer Inn, where I stayed and remembered with great affection, all the more so since it was destroyed in the fire. 

"But most of all, I loved staying at the Pioneer Inn.  It permeated the Old World with simplicity and warmth, and I soaked it all up, reveling in knowing not only how it fit into the whaling past, but that people like Mark Twain had stayed there.  Its wood structure painted white, with wonderful wood slats in the windows, and a Polynesian sensibility crossed with New England sturdiness."

I had such fondness for the Pioneer Inn that I'd kept matchbook keepsake from my time there, and embedded photos of it.  I had wanted to post a photo of the place itself, but didn't think I had access to a photo I'd taken of the Pioneer Inn -- but happily I was able to find it.

I've added it in the originally article.  And as an homage, since I figure most people here aren't going to be going back to read it, I include it below

At the moment, things are actually beautiful here in Los Angeles, where I've made the decision to tough it out. No hurricane will keep me from standing strong with all the people here!! As proof, this is a photo I took from my balcony. As you can see, it's sunny and calm. We're all in this together!
​

​I don’t have much to add about the excruciating disaster in Lahaina that even touches close to the reporting and video footage, and I can’t put my reaction anywhere in the universe of those whose lives are part of the community.  This is not intended to.  But that I feel as heart-sick as I do from just two trips to Hawaii, with one visit to Lahaina, speaks to how overwhelming and almost indescribable this conflagration is.
 
I’ve mentioned in the past that my friend Peter Carlisle was Chief Prosecuting Attorney of Honolulu for about 17 years, and served as Mayor there.  And I have good friends from Hawaii. So, my appreciation of their deep love of the state and its history from all our talks over the decades has them as its foundation.
 
On one of the trips, I went to Maui and drove to Lahaina to spend a couple days.  I didn’t know much about the town, but read up on it, and loved his whaling history.  Lahaina has a wonderful, sweet charm that was different from the grace of the rest of the state.  It had a sense of the past and world culture that seemed to be living all around you.  But most of all, I loved staying at the Pioneer Inn.  It permeated the Old World with simplicity and warmth, and I soaked it all up, reveling in knowing not only how it fit into the whaling past, but that people like Mark Twain had stayed there.  Its wood structure painted white, with wonderful wood slats in the windows, and a Polynesian sensibility crossed with New England sturdiness.  

(When I initially posted this article, I didn't think I had a photo I'd taken of the Pioneer Inn, but happily I was able to find it.)​

In fact, although the trip to Lahaina may have been 35-40 years ago, I had such a strong appreciation of the Pioneer Inn that even after all those years I have still kept a souvenir of the hotel to maintain a connection. 

Though a small souvenir, but it's brought great memories, a match book.

In the back of my mind, I had thoughts of returning to the Pioneer Inn.  But the moment I heard there was a fire crushing Lahaina, I know the hotel was gone.  And likely the town.  When I’ve thought of the Pioneer Inn over the years, I thought of “wood.”  And the town had that feel, as well.  It wasn’t going to stand against roaring flames.  Lahaina would be a place for memory.
 
And that’s what Lahaina is now.  Heart-sickening is the only word for me to describe it, and that doesn’t even come close to doing it justice.
 
It’s not just that everything has disappeared, and that emergency relief will be so difficult for people there to access.  But once they do, once they get their FEMA support, once they get their government assistance, once they get their insurance – there’s no Lahaina there to go back to.  It’s gone.
 
(There is also one other sickening aspect to this disaster.  It’s all the delusional, empty people who point to this soul-crushing loss and try desperately to say “Wait, this wasn’t a natural disaster at all.  Look at this photo and that shaft of light.  This was from aliens.”  Lahaina was a community about the natural world.  Nature was at its core.  And the winds and heat and flames that tragically came together in the changed climate world we live in today sadly become a part of that history.  Those who try to make it about something conspiratorially phantasmagoric not only demean themselves, but spit on the lives of all those who have lived in Lahaina over the centuries.  Happily, they missed by a lot.)
 
People will return.  Lahaina will be rebuilt.  Chicago burned down in flames, and returned to become one of the great cities of the world.  And there will be a thriving Lahaina.  At some point.  But Lahaina is different, Lahaina was about history.  And those structures are no more.  Those museums are no more.  But at least the thing about history is that it’s always there where it was.  So, while the Lahaina that returns will be new and different, there will be in its spirit the Lahaina that always was and will always be.  That may not be enough in many ways.  But it’s something.  And it’s important.

​Aloha.​