No Moore
complaintsANYONE amazed that Joe Moore and his KHON-TV news team is again a strong No. 1 in the ratings? I'm not. Three years ago, Moore was unhappy when NBC moved its top-rated shows to KHNL, leaving his station with Fox programs. He groused about it often and at length on the air. I finally wrote in January of '96, "Hey Joe, you're in a no-lose situation, so enjoy it. If your ratings decline some, it's to be expected. If they stay the same, you remain Top Gun in news. And should they go up, well I'd like a hand in helping renegotiate your next contract. So stop with the crybaby tactics already. Sit back and enjoy your win-win position." In the first rating period after Fox trotted out its programming on KHON, Moore's newscasts did indeed come out No. 1, and to his credit, Moore called to say after some reflection he felt I was probably right and he'd complained too much. Heck, even the Fox primetime shows are tied for No. 1. Now if Fox owner Rupert Murdoch can just do the same for the Dodgers, I'll be as happy as Moore ...
WHILE dining at David Paul's with Phillip Scarborough, a San Francisco pal who has a Hawaiian trio that Andy Bumatai named Hui O Haole, we ran into Ed Petrillo, a fellow San Franciscan who'd flown over from the condo he owns in Wailea. The two had never met, wouldn't you know. Petrillo, owner of the Asian eatery called Tin Pan and former owner of the restaurant Eleven, recently resigned as a member of the S.F. Police Commission, due to ill health. Nothing like a stay on Maui to recuperate ...
Nashville go bragh
JUST back from a two-day engagement in Nashville(!) are the members of Irish Hearts, the Celtic music group. Why Nashville? One of the group's charter members, Dermot Maher, now lives in that city and invited the group to hold a reunion there and perform with him two nights at an Irish pub called Seanachie. The session went well, and both nights were recorded with the intention of making a "live" CD. Maher has returned to Honolulu with the rest of the group and tonight they'll perform at the Irish Rose in Waikiki, and tomorrow at their regular Friday gig at O'Toole's Irish Pub downtown ...Living in L.A. now and working in the Hill & Knowlton office there, former localite Jean Dickenson still reads the Star-Bulletin online edition. She sends along congrats for 30 years of dot-dot-dotting and couldn't resist mentioning a new business she found with the noble name, "Merchant of Tennis." ... Gabe Baltazar's final local gig of '98 will be Friday at Coconuts in the Ilikai. He'll be welcoming in the New Year off Acapulco on the "Crystal Harmony," performing with his mentor (and former boss) Stan Kenton, greatest of the "Big Band" leaders in my humble estimation ...
Multi-hued hapa haole
YOU have to give localite Lisa Kowal credit for contributing to Hawaii's rainbow reputation. Kowal, who wrote "hapa haole" as her race and ethnic background on her application at Harvard, went from a "beige" young graduate of the Punahou "buff 'n blue" to a leader of the Harvard "Crimson" basketball team, leaving others "green" with envy. She's merely a sophomore, but her contributions have been felt from her first game as a freshman. Now the subject of a feature story in the Harvard Crimson newspaper, Kowal overcame homesickness for Hawaii to become floor general for the team seeking to win its fourth consecutive Ivy League crown ...
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.