Hawaii
Mixing up Michaels
BIG Isle photog Tim Wright works on assignment for Triple T Newsphotos, and often is called upon to shoot pictures of celebrities. The other day, wife Terry was looking through the clutter on his desk and saw a message which read, "Call Michael Jordan re: Taking pictures in Hilo." Now Terry is a huge NBA fan and when she saw that note she fairly begged Tim to take her to Hilo for the assignment. He was just too nice a guy -- or too afraid of his wife -- to invite her to tag along, since the M.J. he was shooting is the information manager for Alert Alarm of Hawaii. This Jordan wanted some new photos for his web page. It would have just been too mean to take her along on that assignment, though Tim deadpans he's glad Terry didn't find that other message from Shania Twain filed under his coffee cup ...
AND speaking of basketball players -- real ones -- NBA vet Shawn Bradley, all 7-6 of him, here for Pete Newell's annual "Big Man's Camp," had his usual encounter with housekeeping. Bunking at the Hawaii Prince, Bradley had to ask the hotel to push two king-sized beds together and position them diagonally so he could sleep with his head toward one corner and his feet in the other ...
Minority leader
LITTLE wonder the American Psychological Association has slated its national convention in Honolulu in 2004. The 1999 president of the group is St. Louis grad ('51) Richard Suinn, and the president-elect is Patrick DeLeon, senior assistant to Sen. Dan Inouye for the past 20 years. Suinn, a professor at Colorado State University (and former mayor of Fort Collins, Colo.), is the first Asian-American president of the APA. He's presiding over the annual convention in Boston over the weekend and throughout the week, plus hosting a mini-convention with a focus on ethnic minorities. A Hawaiian chant is part of the opening ceremony of that meeting, along with an American Indian ceremony, a gospel choir and a keynote address by Rev. Jesse Jackson ...FORMER Hawaii businessman Jorgen Skov has relocated to his native Denmark, and had e-mailed interest in the fate of the two Danish girls lost hiking in Kahana Valley. When I heard a bulletin they'd been found, I e-mailed the news back to Skov, who awoke to find the message. "To think, I hear it first from the Star-Bulletin," wrote Skov. He called his local paper, and was told the news was just coming over the wire, "so it will be another time before I can call myself 'Scoops Jorgen.'" ... Note from Aloha Airlines: "When will Hawaii's on-time airline throw the first big bash of the new millennium?" Inside comes the answer: "Ahead of schedule, of course." It's actually a bash for the travel industry on Sept. 16, 1999 ...
Luau canceled
THIS "political correctness" that's permeating our society is getting a bit out of hand. A Hawaiian luau at Dartmouth College was canceled after some students complained it was "culturally insensitive." One student sent an e-mail to everyone on campus calling it an act of "bigotry." And Aaron Akamu, described as a native of Hawaii, criticized the luau in the student newspaper. He wrote, "That people feel a right to capitalize on some stereotype of where I am from and the people I feel a cultural responsibility to in the name of fun, angers and hurts me." A word of advice: Lighten up! ...
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: ddonnelly@starbulletin.com