Well, we've survived Thanksgiving and are into the next phase of the holidays that some hopeful retailers are calling "Thanks-getting." That's a good kickoff point for our "flASHback" on the week's news that amused and confused:

• Gov. Linda Lingle stressed sharing in her Thanksgiving message while Mayor Mufi Hannemann emphasized hope. In this economy, the only thing they can hope to share is the pain.

• Some 82 percent of Hawai'i residents — the most in the nation — are satisfied with their standard of living, a survey claims. They must have only polled the ones still living with their parents.

• More than $1 million worth of Hawai'i commemorative quarters have been sold locally. I hear the state is scooping them up for our next tax rebate.

• Honolulu is one of the top cities for text messaging. With the low reading scores in our schools, it figures we'd embrace a medium that values poor spelling.

• Medical marijuana use in Hawai'i has almost doubled in the past two years. Why not? Everything else in medicine is getting higher.

• O'ahu neighborhood boards have added telephone voting to their elections. They call it "Dial-a-Do-Gooder."

• The city is sending out this year's property tax assessments by e-mail. I think I'll file my appeal by text message: R U ppl CraZ?

• Burglars broke into the offices of the state Ethics Commission, but didn't take many things. If the thieves were looking for ethics in government, there wasn't much to steal.

• Board of Education member John Penebacker says it would take at least a year and a half to close schools to save money. Hah, it takes the BOE a year and a half to look up "dither" in the dictionary.

• Work on the international space station to convert urine to drinking water could have earthly applications. Some Waikiki bartender will stick an umbrella in it and call it a "Tropical Flush."

• A Makiki man was arrested for stealing $30,000 worth of equipment from a camera store. When police booked him, he provided his own mug shot.

• Former University of Hawai'i football coach June Jones says he's optimistic despite the 1-10 record of his SMU Mustangs. Their mistake was giving him 2 million reasons not to sweat it.

• And the quote of the week ... from Michelle Obama to the White House staff on leaving her daughters to do their own chores: "You don't make their beds. Make mine, but skip the kids. They have to learn these things." In her position, you have to delegate your bad examples.