Advertisement - Click to support our sponsors.
Hawaii
REMEMBER the old saying, "It depends on Regulation
rings bellwhose ox is being gored"? There was a lovely example of what it means at the Downtown Exchange Club's luncheon at Oahu Country Club. Vanessa Chong, head of the Hawaii ACLU, spoke about local ACLU lawsuits and during the question and answer session, one Exchange Club member asked why the ACLU would want to stop the city and county from preventing noisy performers in Waikiki. As Chong responded about free speech issues perhaps being more important than regulation of noise, the questioner's cell phone went off loudly. Without missing a beat, she concluded her answer, "Of course, some people think that government should regulate against noisy cell phones." I'm for less, rather than more, government regulation, but if they had to start somewhere, they might insist cell phones vibrate rather than ring ...
FORMER Hawaii resident Scott Simpson, a seven-time PGA tour winner who's in town for the Sony Open, was a guest on the Perry & Price Hanohano Room show Saturday. Simpson had taken a year off of the PGA tour to recover from his ankle injury and prior to this year's Open he also shaved his trademark moustache. When asked why by host Michael W. Perry, Simpson quipped, "It's getting as white as your hair." Ouch! ...
Garcia later
SOMEONE at Hawaiian Hard Drive, a local tabloid aimed at Internet users, must be an avid San Francisco '49er fan. In a cover story this month about the Pro Bowl, who is featured on the cover but Jeff Garcia. Who? Oh yeah, he's the Steve Young wannabe who led the 'Niners to a dismal 6-10 record, but still got named to the Pro Bowl. And if that weren't enough, the tabloid also did a feature on Pro Bowl cheerleaders and, as Gomer Pyle might say, "Surprise, surprise, surprise." There's a photo of Petra Rothenberg, who'll be here representing the '49ers. They also include a Web site where you can check out photos of all the S.F. cheerleaders and download a calendar picturing them. Never fear, however, as there'll be players from other teams here as well ...YOU might think of Whitney Houston as a "10" and you wouldn't be far off. A year-end run down of the best news stories for 2000 included Houston on the list at No. 10 when she left her handbag at the security check point in Hawaii after a guard found marijuana in it. The story followed directly behind No. 9, which was the story on the approval of medical marijuana ... Jim Allen has left the local office of Southern Wine & Spirits to take over as exec V.P. with Southern in Denver. Now he can help folks get a Rocky Mountain High ...
Bye bye, C.I.
HAVING delivered the eulogy for the late "Tosh" Kaneshiro 20 years ago this year, I couldn't bring myself to revisit the Columbia Inn, once his personal fiefdom, on its final day. I miss old Tosh, fellow Dodger devotee, every day, and couldn't take the final closing. But about Bill Kwon's reminiscence of a martini drinking contest at C.I., back before I gave up imbibing, his memory needs a bit of a jogging. I never took a nap, as he claimed, and I can picture it today as clearly as I did then, four guys lifting up the vanquished Kwon from his table, his face the color of a ripe tomato, and carting him home. I must admit, however, that yesterday I started next door to C.I. as if nothing had happened. Like any death, it'll take time ...
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