Dead Man Walking---or "Somebody Forgot to Tell the Computers"

The regular on-line email from The Honolulu Advertiser arrived on schedule this morning, one offering the weather, the other the "latest news."

But the only content was the date: June 7, 2010.

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Monday, June 7, 2010 ADVERTISEMENT This e-mail was sent to: wrightw001@hawaii.rr.com This e-mail was sent by: The Honolulu Advertiser, 605 Kapiolani Blvd., Honolulu, HI 96813, USA You may decline to receive further electronic mail from The Honolulu Advertiser. To request not to receive future electronic mail you may unsubscribe to this mailing or change account preferences using our account management form (requires log-in). Replying to this message with 'Unsubscribe' in the subject line will deactivate your online account and cease delivery of editorial and electronic mail from The Honolulu Advertiser within a maximum of 10 business days. Changing account preferences using the account management form may cease further electronic mail faster and gives you more control over what kind of email you want or don't want to receive. Use of this service indicates your agreement to the Terms of Service (updated March 2009) Unsubscribe to commercial electronic mail | Change account preferences | Terms of Service

(Oh, and there was an advertisement for "super-fast 4G technology" of the kind that has been killing off competing daily newspapers all across the country for years. My other alma mater, The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, succumbed March 17, 2009, and survives only in on-line form.)

The rest is history.

The Honolulu Advertiser died in its sleep last night. It would have been 154 years old on July 2.

That's the date in 1856 that a missionary's son named Henry M. Whitney pulled the first edition of the weekly Pacific Commercial Advertiser off a hand press in a little wooden building on Merchant Street.

Whitney was also the father of the other newspaper that has died here overnight--the Honolulu Star-Bulletin, which has bought out The Advertiser for a reported $125 million. The new nameplate appears this morning, the first edition of the new Honolulu Star-Advertiser.

It appears that Whitney was likely Honolulu's first blogger. (Sounds unpleasant, doesn't it--and you probably would have gotten punched if you called a man a "blogger" in 1856 in the dusty little town of Honolulu.)

Whitney had a book store where every day he posted a "bulletin" of the latest news and talk of the town.

So perhaps there is still hope. Stick around 154 years and see.