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Hawaii
YOU don't think money grows on trees? Don't tell that to Japanese visitor Chiyoko Yoshizumi. While touring the Honolulu Academy of Arts she dropped a plastic bag loaded with yen, and as luck would have it, the bag ended up in a potted plant --almost a tree. It sat there undetected until the next morning when Academy gardener Ben Sabado found it and turned it over to the Aloha grows on trees
museum's security department. With a little detective work, security director John Brassell tracked down the money's owner and learned she'd returned to Japan. With help from her tour agent, her address was found and the money was sent to her mailbox in Japan. Should leave one great, lasting impression of Hawaii ... By the way, former Academy security director Johnny Rouse, who moved to Seattle last fall, has landed a plum job. He's been named security manager for Experience Music Project, the $250 million interactive music museum bankrolled by ex-Microsoft exec Paul Allen, Forbes' fourth richest man in America. Academy secretary Cathy Ng received a behind-the-scenes tour from Rouse during a vacation in Seattle ...
Model behavior
LOCAL girl Malia Jones went from being a surfer to becoming a top model and acknowledged beauty in La-La Land. Now she'll have to move over to make way for Lokelani McMichael. You may remember Loke as making the Guinness Book of World Records for being the youngest, at 18, to enter and complete the Ironman World Championship Triathlon. The Kona girl is taking time out from training for her sixth triathlon to answer the siren call of the New York fashion world, which has labeled her one of the next "It" girls. Though camera shy, Lokelani, now 23, was featured in the May issue of Self Magazine, is in the July issue of Elle and will be on the cover of the August Esquire. All this has taken her by surprise, she says. "Though I worked in my parents surf and bikini shop, I was always too shy to ever wear a bikini." Yeah, right! ...ONE of the more bizarre reasons to party was behind the fete on the lawn of Peggy Kehoe Buchwach's home Sunday. It was the 124th anniversary of Custer's Last Stand and honored the only federal survivor, a horse named Comanche. The steed belonged to Capt. Myles Keogh, one of 32 Irish-born cavalrymen to die that day in 1876 ... The Hawaii Opera Theatre presents a "sneak peek" at opera on the last Thursday of each month at the Diamond Head Grill. This Thursday, Channel 2's Joe Moore and other Mozart fans will want to know, the upcoming "Marriage of Figaro" will be previewed from 6:30 to 7 p.m. ...
The first Leon
MANY years ago, the late Warren "Waldo" Johnson and wife Pat had myriad Christmas decorations up each year at their Diamond Head home. On the piano they had four angels, each holding aloft a sign reading "N," "O," "E," and "L." One year the cleaning woman, after dusting them off, was apparently confused and set them up to spell "LEON." The Johnson's left them that way for years as a reminder of the original snafu. Now KSSK's Perry & Price are celebrating "Leon Day" today, the midway point to Christmas, and Santa's helper Sweetie Pacarro will visit the offices of those businesses who followed their suggestion that Christmas decor be put up. She'll award prizes such as a four-pack of tickets to the Jeep Oahu Bowl and Jeep Aloha Bowl Classic on the real Christmas Day ...
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