THE LEFT LANE
Coconut noggins

Advertiser Staff and News Services

John Sedillo of Kailua takes coconuts he husks himself and makes them into Halloween novelty items.

He started making coconut heads carved out like jack-o'-lanterns last year, and sold out of his first two dozen. This year, his Halloween Heads sell for $8 at Wabi-Sabi in Kaimuki.

There are alien heads, wizened-one heads, happy faces.

"Each one is different," he explains. "It's a personality thing. I look at the coconut and see what it should be."

For information: 262-9827.

Search partying

What do "Tunisia," "tropism," "flying pig ceramic hanging ornaments," "carbon filter" and "Jehovah's Witness chat" have in common?

They're all topics that people have searched for using the MetaCrawler search engine. They were also part of a strangely captivating stream of non sequiturs recently appearing on the MetaSpy Web site.

MetaCrawler is a meta-search engine — one that searches other search engines. MetaSpy (www.metaspy.com) lists current search topics by MetaCrawler users, updated every 15 seconds.

Like a pack of cigarettes, MetaSpy comes in filtered (no adult content) and unfiltered versions, and is dangerously addictive.

Sibling skirmishes

Huh?

That's right.

Though they may drive parents crazy, quarreling kids are learning how to get along with other people, says Anthony Wolf, author of "Mom, Jason's Breathing on Me!" (Ballentine Books, $12.95).

Wolf's advice:

• Unless there's threat of harm, don't intervene.
• Don't listen to the content of the bickering. If your child whines about his brother, respond with, "Would you like a hug?"
• Siblings can't work out solutions unless you let them — which they won't do based on fairness but on real-life negotiation, often when you're not there.