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Hawaii
THE Mailman Cometh: Post Office letter Mighty effort
supports Mocarrier Bruce McDowell is a shimmering star to thousands of folks who at one time or another have dedicated time and elbow grease to restoring the USS Missouri to its former glory. He even joined Memorial CEO Don Hess in L.A. when Hess was awarded the 2000 National Preservation Honor Award from the National Trust in L.A. Hess estimates 20,000 volunteers have helped restore the old battleship, but McDowell has spent so much time working on the ship he probably qualifies as a crewmember. Hess accepted the award, but with full credits going to all who helped scrape rust, repair the sides, shine the brass and fix the teakwood decks ...
THEY'D better put a weight limit in Benny Agbayani's New York Mets contract if his performance at Alan Wong's Pineapple Room is any indication. He was invited to a plate lunch there, but went through many plates before making it to home. What does a local lad fresh from the World Series crave? In Benny's case, he tore into ahi sashimi, ahi poke, a house salad, a Caesar salad, calamari salad, kalua pig pizza, crab cakes and much more -- a Big League eater. But he's something of a role model in other areas. At a Hanahauoli School fund-raiser, a baseball donated and signed by Benny sold for $400 ...
Far flung flings
LOCAL public relations exec Ruth Limtiaco recently found herself "on business" in an outrigger sailing canoe in the middle of Ulithii Lagoon in Yap, with a Yapese navigator from the island of Ifaluk. Well, it's small world time -- the navigator was a relative of Mau Pialug, also from Yap, who was the original navigator on the Hokule'a and who taught celestial navigation to many crewmen. Limtiaco was somewhat bemused to find her client, head of the Yap Visitors Bureau, accompanying her while wearing a Yapese loin cloth, carrying a woven coconut container for betel nut and lugging an out-of-place looking briefcase ... Then there's former localite Jean Dickinson, brushing up on her Mandarin as she readies for a riverboat cruise up the Yangtze River, stopping in cities along the way before getting in some sightseeing, shopping and dining in Shanghai ... Meanwhile, Dickinson's former colleague in Hawaii, Megan MacPherson, is now based in Pensacola, Fla., where things are even more confusing than in Yap or China. To think, she says, that she once thought Hawaii elections were a bit quirky ...AND if all those places weren't far-flung enough for you, ponder the trip ex-TV newsman Bob Jones has on tap. He and wife Denby Fawcett leave Hawaii in a couple of weeks on a tough trek with six others across the biggest expanse of Sahara Desert -- it's in Niger -- from Agadez to Lake Chad. Jones turns 65 in January, and wants to get this last big exploration in while he can. The couple is prepared, having arranged camel depots and for Tuareg tribespeople to bring in water and food supplies at drop points. Should be home for Christmas ...
Selleck & Selleck
IT may sound like a dreamy law firm, but the pair who dropped into Scruples to hang out the other night were actor Tom Selleck, here to receive an award from the Hawaii International Film Festival, and his brother Don. Both Sellecks are longtime pals of Scruples owner Fred Piluso, and get together either here or in L.A. when they can ...
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