This young lady is the coolest cat I’ve seen so far on this Designated Writers sojourn to Honolulu for the Hawaii Bowl, which Louisiana Tech and the University of Hawaii will play in Saturday night at 9:30 CST in the historic Aloha Bowl, hard by Pearl Harbor.

Again, cool things to be see every whichaway in our 50^th state, but this little girl…She can’t be 10 and the reason I noticed her was because in a fair crowd of people, she was by far the youngest on one of these boards. Her dad sort of pushed her out there and turned around to do other things because perhaps they have done this dozens of times. She was as at home up there and out there on the water as jelly on toast. On this beautiful morning in Waikiki, the life she represented, the gift of life and youth and health and confidence, was the most gorgeous and glorious thing I saw.

What I have not seen in three days here is a necktie. Wait, I saw one. A guy on a moped was wearing it, riding in the misting rain, just off work or leaving for lunch. Otherwise, ties here are as rare as sport coats, English, and weather in the 30s.

Those of Asian descent have about a 40-to-1 advantage over we non-Asians, it appears. I have done no sightseeing except to walk down the road to Eggs and Things (to eat some eggs and things), but that particular stretch of Kalakaua Avenue is a people-watching paradise. The team has gone to Pearl Harbor and a Lau Au (not at the same time) and will visit a water park tomorrow, and some of them have hiked Diamond Head and driven to the North Shore.

I can report that the team workouts have been spirited, that I think the Bulldogs have convinced me they will cover the small spread, and, most importantly, that the pineapple is delicious.

-30-

The NFL season is rapidly coming to a close and it’s time for an amnesia check.

Do you remember when Indianapolis quarterback Andrew Luck was overrated, a bust, and never going to come back?

Do you remember when Jacksonville beat New England and we thought those were two teams passing in the night?

Do you remember when Richard Sherman and a bunch of former Seattle Seahawks were pouring dirt in their former team?

Do you remember in Week 2 when the New Orleans Saints were about to close to the Cleveland Browns and go to 0-2 to start the season and how the season was nearing toilet status?

Do you remember how rookie quarterback Sam Darnold of the New York Jets was being compared to Joe Namath?

Anyone who thinks they can figure out the NFL is lying to someone, especially themselves. Every week is open season to overreact and the league is such a week-to-week existence that we tend to lose sight of all that has happened.

The Colts started 1-5 and now are in the playoff race. Baker Mayfield wasn’t even a starter at the beginning of the season and now he’s a foundational player. The Dallas Cowboys were bad, then they were good, then they got shut out for the first time since Quincy Carter was the quarterback.

The two teams in Los Angeles? One of them was great and the other was an afterthought. Now, one of the them looks disorganized and the other is on a roll.

Week to week, the Saints seem to forget to bring their offense for the first half.

The lesson? We just don’t know. Nobody knows.