TheBuzz Erika Engle

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Magazine rocks the vote for travel favorites

Time to stuff the ballot box for your favorite home state and vacation spot.

On the Net: » www.travelweekly.com/rc2008.aspx

You remember vacations, right? That's what you and your family did before "stay-cation" was coined as a way to hide the fact that an actual go-somewhere vacation was not in the budget.

If you are even a semi-regular reader of this space, you know that lists are often herein, to highlight how Hawaii businesses stack up amid their industries.

Many are based on reader surveys, as is the one now underway by industry publication Travel Weekly.

Those 18 and older can vote online for a favorite domestic and international airline, car rental company, hotel chain, casino hotel, spa hotel or resort, resort, tour operator, cruise line, cruise ship, destination and theme park.

Balloting is write-in and ends Oct. 31. Also, you need not vote in each, because unlike Hawaii's political elections, Travel Weekly doesn't count blank votes as "no" votes.

Winners will be honored Dec. 11 at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City.

Made in Hawaii

The annual Made in Hawaii Festival that wraps today has had many local companies busy, but some are doubly busy, as they also will be at Thursday's American Logistics Association Hawaii Food Expo.

Not open to the public, it is a business-to-business event that exposes local products to buyers for the military commissary system.

Eighty-plus companies are signed up this year, versus about 100 last year.

It's not all chocolate-covered mac nuts and coffee, either, not that there's anything wrong with that.

The mojo marinade by Soul de Cuba Cafe downtown was picked up for Hawaii commissaries last year, a first step toward possibly expanding into the rest of the commissary system.

Parting comic

It has been a week since editorial cartoonist Dick Adair drew his last for brand X, and his former readers might be wondering how he planned to fill his time.

TheBuzz recently asked and he was largely tongue-in-cheek.

"Well, I thought I'd run for governor. I can make my own signs (for) when I stand out on the sidewalk ... either that, or I can go to law school," though at 73 he said he might be too old.

Adair is active with the Honolulu Academy of Arts' printmakers group, "and I work in several different mediums beside the cartoons, so I'll probably be pursuing that."

"As far as a regular job, I haven't had a regular job in 26 years. I don't know if I could handle that," he laughed.

Not long before co-workers feted him on his last day, he said he had 26 years' worth of packing to do, much of it involving cartoons.

"I was going to trade them for drinks at Roy's. I don't know how far I can push that. Maybe Murphy's would be better," Adair laughed.