Still dotty after
By Burl Burlingame
all these years
Star-BulletinWe have come upon the 30th anniversary of "Dave Donnelly's Hawaii," much as you would come upon a scenic loop in a highway, so you can look back on the road thus traveled and go, "My!" ...
As a radio disc jockey known as "The Moose," and kiddie TV show performer "Mr. Checkers," Donnelly had the qualifications needed to interpret this new-fangled rock music for the kids, or so thought Star-B Solon Bud Smyser (who himself has been at the Star-Bulletin since 1821 -- just kidding, Bud).
Today, some of those "kids" are retired and double-dipping, and Donnelly's right index-finger has grown mighty from striking the period key, making those dots ...
DISSIN' DOT -- While dining with the paper's Phil Mayer in 1968, Donnelly heard the current try-out columnist was getting the boot. "Spread the word!" Donnelly blurted out, and within hours, he was dotting away ... Donnelly came to Hawaii pre-statehood as a Navy journalist, second class. He became a newspaper columnist, first class, stitching together all the tiny community happenings and quotables, all the quiet things that wouldn't otherwise find a niche in the daily thunderings of Hawaii's afternoon wave-making newspaper.
Donnelly's longevity has made him part of Hawaii's cultural landscape. His column probably gives a truer picture of what's on Hawaii's mind over the years than any number of polls ...DOT DOT DOT DAAAH! -- A brief stay in a hospital a few years ago marked one of the few times in the last three decades Donnelly's itemizations have not appeared in the Star-Bulletin. Unlike the ghastly pallor and surly attitude of a few (pre-hospitalization) years ago, these days Donnelly is apple-cheeked and surly. His manner is that of a friend who has just dropped a fresh peach in your pocket. He comes in early, checks his e-mail and phone messages, sweet-talks women, sour-talks men, and is on the streets by noon, sniffing out dottable subjects.
He is an expert on the subjects of theater, Irish poets and pork chops. He writes columns that occasionally use the words "sage," "quipped," "wags" or "woof!" His acting and directing on local stages have won widespread admiration, and although Dave has married but once, his dates have won widespread admiration at office functions ...
DOT'S ALL SHE WROTE -- Donnelly was one of the first popular journalists in Hawaii to recognize the power of the internet, going on-line while rival writers were still figuring out push-button telephones. Dave was out there in the Wild West of cyberspace, where a wrong URL might bring up a picture of a nekkid lady (frontal, backal, pubal, boobal -- you name it) instead of Dave's smiling face. Except for one time Dave's surprised face was pictured next to a lady who was far too starkers for THIS family newspaper ...
WHY DON'T WE DOT IT IN THE ROAD? -- Five years ago, this scribe cobbled together a similar piece on the occasion of Dave Donnelly's 25th anniversary at the newspaper, which also ran on a Wednesday, next to the headline "Blank stares might be petit mal seizures." The snap judgment would be to rerun the piece, reasoning that nothing has changed. But, of course, things have.
Today, Donnelly is robust, unlike the rest of us dodderers. Today, his column is on-line, reaching hundreds of thousands of readers, perhaps being the most-read Hawaii writer worldwide. Today, the Today section is called TODAY once more, except on Thursday, when it is called DOT! ... sorry, DO IT!
And today, Donnelly has the 1993 story about him framed and sitting nearby. A while ago it fell off his desk and the glass on the front shattered, leaving jagged edges. Donnelly has left it that way. "But, Dave," suggests we, "If someone were to touch it, they'd be lacerated." And Donnelly fixes us with that merry, bright Irish eye, and bellows, "Good!" Some things never change ...
DOT'S ALL, FOLKS -- See you in five ...
Dave Donnelly's 30th Anniversary Column
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