WHILE Sugar Ray Leonard is still talking foolishly about reentering the ring after a looooong retirement, the man who gave him the three toughest rounds of his life in Las Vegas, Marvelous Marvin Hagler, is content to watch others duke it out these days. Leonard was in town last week and took in the Dennis Alexio kickboxing match against Masaaki Miyamoto of Japan which Alexio won by a TKO in the sixth round. Hagler also stopped by Scott's Seafood in the Aloha Tower Marketplace Friday night and signed autographs, but nary a punch was thrown and all was peaceful on the waterfront. I first met Marvelous Marvin shortly after that memorable match with Leonard, stolen from him by the Vegas judges many feel. Sitting in a booth at Scruples nightclub in Waikiki we viewed a videotape of the fight. Hagler watched attentively and mentioned he'd not seen the tape before. I expressed amazement at that and he quipped that he really didn't need to watch it: "I was there, remember?" ...
THE speaker at today's Rotary luncheon at the Royal Hawaiian is Steve Case, a name familiar to Internet users as the founder and CEO of America Online. With over $1 billion in revenue and 6 million members, AOL is the largest of the Internet providers. So how did the Rotarians land this millionaire bigwig as guest speaker? To begin with, he's a Punahou grad, Class of '76 and son of local legal eagle Daniel Case, who just happens to be a past Rotary president. His company is undergoing tough times at the moment, and folks nationwide will take interest in what he has to say ... SPEAKING of attorneys, Jeff Portnoy - he's heard all the "Portnoy's Complaint" jokes, thank you - adds his own "Small World" item. While attending the Olympics in Atlanta, Portnoy was approached by a fellow who asked why he was wearing a Tulane hat. Portnoy explained he has a daughter who attends school there. "Me too," said the stranger. But that's not the small world part - the guy asked where he was from and Portnoy replied Hawaii. "Do you know Don Robbs?" the guy asked. Portnoy and Robbs had worked side-by-side for years on the board of the Manoa Valley Theatre. Turns out the stranger was Johnny Holiday, a former D.J. who worked with Robbs over 30 years ago at KYA in San Francisco. OK, now you can say it: "Small world." ...
"TONIGHT Show" host Jay Leno came out with a list of suggested state slogans the other day, and ended with one for "the great and dignified state of Hawaii." His suggestion: "Hawaii: The only Hos here are named Don." ...
RETURNING to the scene of the sublime Friday night was KGMB morning show host George Groves with wife Kim, celebrating their 20th anniversary at Nick's Fishmarket. The pair told manager David Nagaishi that their first date 21 years ago was at Nick's ... And the next night KHON-TV anchorman Joe Moore was in Nick's with wife Teresa. Fresh from a romantic vacation in France, the two were celebrating Joe's birthday. I don't know which one, but he doesn't appear to have a gray hair on his head. (You don't suppose...?) ...
