On the morning the King of Rock and Roll, Elvis Presley, died, a good-sized earthquake hit Hawaii. I know because a group of college students from Linfield College was there (Elizabeth Rennie was one of them), doing a summer studies program at the University of Hawaii. How appropriate it seemed to this group of teenagers to have the whole world around them shake, rattle, and roll as the news of Elvis' death came over the airwaves. Even as he left this world there was a whole lot of shaking going on.

Shaking isn't usually seen as a good thing. In the 1950's Elvis scandalized parents and delighted their teenagers with his shaking hips. Another shaking iconoclast, who first made his appearance in Ian Fleming's 1953 novel "Casino Royale," was the inimitable James Bond, Agent 007.

The reigning p…