United front
inspires sloganNOW that Mayor Jeremy Harris has come out and endorsed Gov. Ben Cayetano for re-election, there's a perfect slogan for them to adopt. Signs could be printed up for backers to carry reading, "I Scream for Ben and Jerry "... Speaking of Cayetano, not long ago he was golfing at Waikele and passed by the home of a longtime friend, pianist Rene Paulo. He walked to Rene's backyard and went, "Psst, psst." Paulo reports his grandson came running into where he was sitting and said, "Grandpa, there's a Filipino man with a mustache outside trying to call you." Some people will go to any lengths to campaign ...
SPEAKING of great lengths, former Vice Consul for Italy Guido Salmaggi, who's been living at his wife's home in Florida most of the time these days, did return to Honolulu to sing "The Star Spangled Banner" at various Fourth of July events. Someone quipped that it took a statewide forest fire to drive him out of Florida ... Incidentally, didn't right-wing preacher Pat Robertson predict all manner of disasters would befall Florida if they persisted in pro-gay rights legislation? You don't suppose he's got some special pipeline, do you? Nah ...
THE cheery voice answering the phone at the Hawaii Convention Center belongs to Mapuana Washington, whose beautiful smile and willingness to help visitors greet people at the center reception desk. Her unofficial title, bestowed on her by one visitor and which stuck, is "Director of First Impressions." Mapuana makes a great one ...
Politics a dirty business
YOU don't think politics involves people getting their hands dirty? Just ask Brian Schatz. He's spent so many hours cleaning up the Ala Wai, Makiki Stream and the Manoa Cliffs Trial, that he's decided to try his hand in cleaning up government. At the age of 21, Schatz founded Youth for Environmental Services which, with apologies to First Hawaiian Bank's slogan, is acronymed YES. It's involved thousands of students from more than 150 schools in volunteer projects. And does Schatzy think if he's elected to the State House of Representatives, that he can succeed in cleaning up government as well as the odd stream or trail? In a word, YES ...THE newest addition to the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in Talladega has never raced on the famous Talladega Superspeedway course there. That's because it's a boat -- the late Tom Gentry's "Gentry Turbo Eagle," which the isle sportsman and home builder piloted to a world-record Superboat mark in 1987 on Lake Ponchartrain near New Orleans. Gentry was severely injured in a racing accident at Key West, Fla., in 1994 and went into coma. He never came out of the coma, and died earlier this year ...
Baseball dope
THE big All-Star game is tomorrow, and if you got a ballot you read some interesting condensed rules: "Open to legal residents of the U.S. and provinces of Canada. Canadian residents must correctly answer a time-limited mathematics skill-testing question to be administered by telephone at a mutually agreeable time as a condition of being awarded a prize." You just can't trust these Canadians unless they know math ... Looking through some old high school baseball statistics at O'Toole's, one customer mentioned that he discovered in his reading that a drinking buddy of his was hitting .392 on that date in 1958. "He still is," came a rejoinder from the bearded man at the end of the bar, "only now it's on a Breathalyzer" ...
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.