Michael Ondaatje, Audra Lee Janeiro
DON'T know if you have an Oscar favorite (Oscar Wilde always has been one I've admired) but at the UH English Department they're rooting for "The English Patient." And perhaps not for the reason you may think. It has to do with the film's brilliant writer, Michael Ondaatje, a frequent guest on the UH campus since 1979 when Frank Stewart brought him here for a conference. In '82, Ondaatje was writer-in-residence and Stewart recalls, "He did a lot for the students," as well as the community when he gave a reading (with Stewart) at the Academy of Arts. Since then he's visited often, sometimes giving poetry and prose readings. The writer also has a special spot in his heart for Hawaii since it was here he met Linda Spalding, who's been his companion for 18 years. Spalding was here last semester, reading from her second novel, "Paper Wife," due out in paperback next month. Her first novel was "Daughters of Captain Cook." So if you're looking for someone to cheer for at the Oscarcast, how about Michael Ondaatje, if only for his local connections ... Oscar hopeful
Ondaatje isle fanREMEMBER old radio newscaster Bill Edwards, who used to begin each weather report with, "It's going to be a BEAUT-iful day in Hawaii." Well, it's certainly going to be a BEAUT-iful weekend here. I can't vouch for the weather, but I can tell you that tomorrow the Japanese Chamber of Commerce will crown a new Cherry Blossom queen. And not to be outdone, as mentioned earlier, Ala Moana Center will be holding three, count 'em, three fashion shows emceed by actress Tia Carrere. (Incidentally, the full-page color ad picturing Tia in yesterday's Star-Bulletin really didn't do her justice.) Miss USA Brook Lee will be signing autographs at Chocolates for Breakfast, and Miss Honolulu Sasha Waldemar will become one of your True Friends at the Ala Moana store of that name. And since we mentioned Tia's sister, Audra Lee Janeiro, there's been a deluge of requests for a photo of her, but unless you see her in person at Ala Moana tomorrow, this will have to do ...
THE yellow bunnies on those big Roberts Hawaii buses are supposed to symbolize quickness -- we won't get into every aspect of that just now. But the other day, Roberts' symbol was put to the test. The firm was charged with getting 3,500 Japanese visitors -- here for a major Amway Asia convention -- from the Blaisdell Center to Waikiki as quickly as possible. Since we have no rapid rail system in Honolulu, Roberts lined up 92 buses along several blocks of Ward Avenue, and they were in place at 12:15 p.m. when loading began. Believe it or not, those bunnies (and the people herding the riders on board) moved quickly and by 12:45 all 3,500 attendees were en route to or had arrived in Waikiki. The world didn't stand still during this massive movement, of course, and Roberts still moved its bunny tail in servicing all their other customers at the same time. Some (bunny) feat ... Quick like a bunny
TIME marches on: A friend tells me she saw the Hale-Bopp comet currently in the skies but kept wanting to call it the Hale-Boggs comet. It must be a sign of age -- I got it but when I ran it by a couple of colleagues, all I got was a blank look. People have forgotten old Senator Boggs already? How about a "Be-Bopp-a-Lula" comet? ... And I was shocked to read about how someone paid $10,000 for a roll of the original Associated Press wire copy announcing that President John Kennedy had been shot in Dallas. I held that same copy in my hand and read it on the air at K-POI in 1963. Where is it now? Who knows, but I wish I'd held on to it ...
IT'S time once again for the annual "Rubber Duckie" race which begins tomorrow with the isle's shortest parade, a 200-yard march from Duckie Headquarters at the McCully Shopping Center to the McCully Bridge. In the short but snappy parade there'll be a lion dance, a marching band, a beauty contestant or two and some "Duckie" look-alikes from the Rising Phoenix Jaycees. The race begins at 11:27 a.m. and is a fund-raiser for the United Cerebral Palsy Association ... Ducks in a row
Contact Dave by e-mail: donnelly@kestrok.com.
