THEY used to say the economy rose and fell with women's hemlines. In the Roaring Twenties, women cropped their hair and their skirts and Wall Street soared. Then came ankle-length dresses and the Great Depression. New UH coach?
Cockadoodle profit!That old hemline rule of thumb is obsolete in an era of seemingly eternal recession, miniskirts and...um...''backless'' beachwear in Hawaii. Now, a better barometer seems to be Rainbow football. Think about it.
The early-Bob Wagner era was the boom time. The Japanese Bubble was inflated, you couldn't get a room in a good hotel without reservations made months in advance, but you could double your money in real estate and the 'Bows went to bowl games.
The bubble burst. UH raised academic standards and recruiting fell on hard times. Women's sports rightfully demanded more dollars and attention. Jason Elam graduated, the offense stalled and Wags was dumped.
With Fred vonAppen came disaster. The 'Bows won two games, then three, then none. Asian economies stumbled and fell; the yen dipped from 85 to 144 to the dollar; Japanese visitors forsook Armani and Benetton for Sam's Club and the Saks outlet at Waikele.
Ron McBride, June Jones, Cal/Tommy Lee, Duane Akina or whoever, our fate is in your hands. The day we run up the score on somebody -- anybody -- is the day Hawaii's cash registers start ringing again.
John Flanagan is editor and publisher of the Star-Bulletin.
To reach him call 525-8612, fax to 523-8509, send
e-mail to publisher@starbulletin.com or write to
P.O. Box 3080, Honolulu, Hawaii 96802.