Celebrate fourth
over two daysTHE folks at Aloha Tower Marketplace are getting a jump-start on Fourth of July festivities by having a dazzling display on Friday the 3rd, and Saturday. In charge of the fireworks is the Grucci Family, the same people who brought New York City to a standstill with a pyrotechnic display on and from the 100-year-old Brooklyn Bridge a few years ago. And if a double display of aerial sound and color isn't enough, the Marketplace itself should be awash Saturday with some strange hair designs. Fantastic Sams is trying to get into the Guinness Book of World Records by getting 500 people to dye their hair red, white and blue between 5 and 6 p.m. I'm already a third of the way there ...
MEANWHILE, the U.S. Army is holding its 27th annual free Fourth of July bash Saturday at Sills Field, Schofield Barracks. There's lots of entertainment all day long, culminating with the Krush performing at 4 p.m. and the Society of Seven taking over at 5:30. The annual program, "The Flags We Follow" will then be on the main stage, followed by a fireworks display ... Incidentally, the SOS have no intention of leaving the Outrigger Showroom. When magician John Hirokawa closes down his magic show at the Hilton Dome on Sept. 6, he'll reopen on the 15th at the Beachcomber Hotel Showroom. This means he'll once again be a neighbor to Don Ho, who also once performed at the Dome and who's at the Beachcomber now, moving soon to a bigger showroom next to his current location ...
We get letters
WHEN your newborn turns out to be a girl, your first instinct isn't to say, "I hope she becomes a great jock." But that's what turned out to have happened in the Rick Enos family. Rick, co-founder of Compadres, spends the bulk of his time in Northern California these days where daughter Lauren Enos just graduated from San Rafael High. A lot of local high school athletic directors will be wishing Enos had put her in a Honolulu school instead of in San Rafael, where she became the only student in the school's 110-year history to receive 12 varsity letters. She got four letters in volleyball, four in basketball, three in soccer and one in softball. Lauren was captain of her volleyball, basketball and soccer teams and was named all-league in four sports. When did she find time to hit the books? Is UH in her future? No way -- she's heading to Colorado in the fall ...FORMER Honolulu police chief Doug Gibb seemed to have his head on straight. He retired from HPD at a good time, and took on a comparatively cushy job as head of records and security for First Hawaiian Bank for the past eight years. Now he's retiring a second time, and with wife Melanie is moving to Iowa. Seems to me he's got things backward. But more than 80 First Hawaiian staffers showed up at the Hanohano Room to bid him aloha, and bank president Jack Tsui assured him that Des Moines is a nice place to live despite the flat terrain and bitter winters. Tsui should be in the used car business ...
Outed at last
HE still recalls when I said his first name was the world's most boring palindrome, but Bob Norton now feels he's been unfairly "outed." It occurred when Robbie Dingeman, writing in the morning paper, described Norton as "spokeswoman of Hawaii's Child Support Enforcement Agency." Norton says he could understand the gender-bender mix-up if the story were about someone named, say, "Robbie," but not "plod-along, gender-specific 'Bob.' " He's still a guy, folks. It's Robbie who's a woman ...
Dave Donnelly has been writing on happenings
in Hawaii for the Star-Bulletin since 1968.
His columns run Monday through Friday.Contact Dave by e-mail: donnelly@kestrok.com.