Question?

[aesopsfable]

Well that would make Obama a misnomer.

[13]

Do any of you know the full name of the state bird of Hawaii? 

Well, I knew the Hawaiian goose was called the "nene" because it shows up on a lot of crossword puzzles, okay?

But the Hawaiians have one slightly longer name for a larger variety of the goose and that's the "nene-nui."

Both species are Hawaiian geese and the Hawaiian word "nene" means "goose" and "nui" means "great."

So maybe Hawaiians really meant for the bigger bird, the "nene-nui" to be the state bird, but in just calling all nenes "nenes" -- or all geese "geese" the way people call all different kinds of geese -- like Canadian geese and domestic Greylag geese and Chinese geese all "geese" -- somehow the smaller, regular goose was assumed to be the state bird when really they meant for the larger goose to be the state bird...

You know, it's that size and power thing related to naming critters to these symbolic positions, and that's why we ended up with the eagle as our national bird instead of the wild turkey which Ben Franklin stumped for as national bird -- but others found it too wimpy or something?

Anyway, you're going to love this, there's even a *gasp* scandal about the parent hood of the Hawaiian state goose!

Yes, it seems there's a question whether that goose was not originally a native of Hawaii, since it's ancestors are from a different country!

"State Bird of Hawaii Unmasked as Canadian by Ben Harder for National Geographic News. February 6, 2002

With winter cold settled over much of North America, it would be hard to blame any native of Canada for contemplating a move to Hawaii. So perhaps it should be no surprise that Canada geese did it some time ago. Unexpectedly, scientists have learned that the distinctive-looking and endangered Hawaiian goose, known as the Nene (nay-nay), is a not-so-distant relative of commonly known Canada geese. "Rather than being a sister species of the Canada goose, the nene is an evolutionary descendent of the Canada goose," said Helen F. James, a biologist at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C."
http://www.birdinghawaii.co.uk/XNene2.htm


Funny, but that seems to have a familiar ring to it... and I bet your Hawaiian friend is maybe having a little chuckle over that?

Oh, those Hawaiians, they are such warm and accepting people they'll grant citizenship status to anyone human or creature!

Pri-ttee durn cool!

[Griobhtha]

I was curious, so looked up AESPOP, 

The very  name, Aesop, may however give us a clue to his country of origin.   The name Aesop is derived from the Greek word Aethiop which means  Ethiopia! And Aesop was described by Maximus Planudes (c.1260-c.1330), the Byzantine scholar who wrote a biography of  Aesop and a prose version of Aesop's fables, as follows "His visage  was of black hue". In Aesop's biography Planudes describes Aesop an  ugly, deformed dwarf, and the famous marble statue at the Villa Albani in Rome depicts Aesop accordingly.

[13]

Drats!  Hoist by the Spirit of the Staircase and I didn't get back here quick enough to add this thought to my first response here: 

It doesn't matter where in the world you come from, once you're a Hawaiian, you're a Hawaiian for life!