StarBulletin.com

Brief asides


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POSTED: Friday, October 23, 2009

EEEEK!

Probably best to avoid gory costumes

Parents and guardians, time is running out. Halloween is just a week away, which means store-bought costumes may be in short supply or size-limited. Princesses, witches and Spider-Man are expected to be popular costumes for children, as well as Power Rangers, “;Star Wars”; characters and Dorothy from “;The Wizard of Oz.”;

Think twice, though, about gore costumes for the young ones. Do kids of a certain age really need to be done up as a blood-splattered, rubber-knife-wielding killing machine like Leatherface, Freddy or Jason?

BEAT BOISE!

Stand by your Warriors

It's turning out to be a painful season—and we're not just talking sidelining due to injuries.

But loyal fans are keeping the faith with their University of Hawaii Warrior football team, which is struggling through a current 2-4 season.

It's in that vein that we send out strong victory vibes to the squad as it takes on No. 6 Boise State tomorrow at Aloha Stadium. Game time is 5:05 p.m.

FIRST SIGHTING

Repeat visitors having a whale of a good time

They're baaaaaaaaack.

In one of Hawaii's very few change-of-season observances, the humpback whales have returned. The first reported sightings of the whales in waters off Hawaii came in Tuesday from people on Maui.

Humpback whales migrate to Hawaii's warm waters around this time each year to breed and birth, then return to Alaska in the spring and summer to feed.

With the sightings come a seasonal wave of whale-watching stakeouts and excursions. But do so from a respectful distance: Humpback whales are protected under the Marine Mammal Protection Act and the Endangered Species Act.