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Hawaii
SATURDAY night at the Kahala Mandarin Oriental Veranda was, depending on your point of view, a Joyous reunion
at the Verandatrip down memory lane, entry into a 25-year-plus time warp or a delightful reuniting of singer Jimmy Borges with pianist Betty Loo Taylor and her trio. Actually, it was all the above. Even Betty Loo's husband Ken Taylor was on hand, as she put it, "so people don't think he's a figment of my imagination." Borges fans filled the Veranda and its accompanying outdoor lanai area, bringing smiles to Hoku's manager Ed Hancock. The time warp came with the first person I saw on entering, former U.S. Rep. Cec Heftel. "Still driving that checkered car around?" he asked playfully. Cec knew well that I'd left the checkered Lincoln behind when I joined the Star-Bulletin and departed KGMB, which he owned. I had a stint at the TV station as Mr. Checkers on the "Checkers and Pogo" show. Before the evening ended, I wished I had that car back ...
ONE of the first people to come up to me once I'd seated myself with Heftel and Randy Preiser, was former model KC Holland. She's now a counselor, but somehow maintains the same good looks she had when modeling 25 years ago. And after Borges tried in vain to get people on the dance floor, she lured me up, prompting Jimmy to quip about me, "In all the years I've known him, I've never seen him dance before." ...
A-Carrolling we go
WHILE I was chatting with two attractive women at our table, stockbroker Christina Hom and fellow cigar lover Gina Schultz, Jimmy called a woman out of the audience and she danced a lovely hula. It was only when he said, "Miss Martha Carroll, ladies and gentlemen," that I realized this was a woman I'd dated more than 25 years ago when she was a popular dancer around town. I went over and we had a nice reunion. She now lives in Houston, Texas, with her industrialist husband, who said, "She's told me about you - you're the guy who beat her at Scrabble." True enough ...ALSO at the Veranda was fashion designer Mai-Scherelle, whose youthful exuberance belies the fact she's been designing fashion here for 20 years ... Myrtle Lee, ex-honcho of Island Holidays, and hubby Freddie Lee were also on hand, as was Channel 9 anchorman Russell Shimooka and his beautiful wife Kim, who loved it when I gigged him about mispronouncing the word "nuclear." He calls it "newk-u-ler." I told him he was in shaky cahoots with late show host Jay Leno, who's been mis-pronouncing the word for years. And the latest I heard say "newk-u-ler" instead of "newk-lee-er" was none other than GOP presidential candidate George W. Bush! Can't somebody wise up "W"? ...
Bad car, Good Samaritan
AFTER the last set, my trusty car was delivered to me with no trouble by the hotel valet, and just a few blocks away it went dead at Kilauea Avenue. The gas station attendant a block away had plenty of Cheetos for sale, but no remedy for my car. A young bystander named Mark Guerin, not knowing me from Adam, twice tried to start the battery with his jumper cables, but it died. He then pushed my car in with his VW van to the service station where I had to leave it, and volunteered to give me a ride home. He refused a tip, until I told him I'd have had to pay for a cab without his aide. "If you insist," he said. It was about then I was wishing I still had Heftel's checkered Lincoln Continental ...
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