When Hawaii became a state, UH landscaping historian Raymond Higashi recalls, a Manoa service club - maybe the Lions - thought it would be a swell idea if 50 monkeypod trees lining University Avenue and Dole Street had at their bases an emblem of statehood, placed in the order of joining the Union, starting with DELAWARE (trivia question!) and winding up with HAWAII.

Money raised, blocks made, plates affixed. Then - ooops! - a hitch. There were only 45 or so trees. The blocks were set aside whilst bureaucrats did some serious head-scratching. During the years, some blocks disappeared, as did some monkeypod trees when University Avenue was widened.

And that's why the blocks are now used to keep cars off the grass. They don't know what else to do with them. Higashi points out that it isn't too late - there are at least 50 monkeypods scattered around the UH campus, if not on Dole or University, and the missing plaques can be remade if funding rains down from heaven.

University of Hawaii students, however, went ahead and placed the HAWAII block at the foot of the grand monkeypod shading Founders Gate at the corner of Dole and University. That sort of screwed up the order of state-admittance, but it at least made a good snipe-hunt target for gullible freshmen being hazed.

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