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Kokua Line
Question: I've seen several cars/trucks with bumper stickers saying "Pu in Sai." When I asked some local friends, they first said it was slang for "put inside," with a sexual meaning. Later they said it also could mean "pull inside," a surfing reference. All agree it's not in the Hawaiian language. What does it really mean? ‘Pu in Sai’ a bit of
sexual slang from IzAnswer: "Israel made it up in 1993," according to music producer Jon de Mello.
De Mello is chief executive officer of Mountain Apple Co., which released Israel Kamakawiwo'ole's last three albums, and was a close friend of the late entertainer known affectionately as "Bruddah Iz."
"It's not real polite," de Mello chuckled. The Star-Bulletin's resident music expert, John Berger, said, "It's strictly a sexual reference."
Berger recalled that former local comedian Shawn Kaui Hill, known as Bu La'ia, wrote a song called "No Pu in Sai," while Kamakawiwo'ole ad-libbed the words during a recorded concert performance of "Hene Hene Kou Aka."
The latter performance is on the CD "Iz, the Man and His Music in Concert," a 1998 collection of his performances between 1993 and 1997.
Berger observed that "Hene Hene Kou Aka" is "one of those songs that used an English phrase, 'for you and I.'" That seemed to spur Kamakawiwo'ole into throwing in the phrase "pu in sai" in various spots.
But de Mello said Kamakawiwo'ole would use the term "here and there" in other songs as well.
Kamakawiwo'ole died of respiratory failure in June 1997 at the age of 38.
Meanwhile, we found Bu La'ia's song, "No Pu in Sai," on his 1995 CD, "False Crack???" It begins: "This is a song I wrote about abstinence. You know, when you get all horny and you get the kickstand and you like pu in sai. Well, the safest sex is no sex. Not the plastic. So no pu in sai."
De Mello observed that "Iz and Bu were hanging around during Bu's brief career. They would pass things back and forth." But to his knowledge, he said, Kamakawiwo'ole originated the phrase.
Bu La'ia, who in his heyday in the early to mid-1990s had his own TV show and published a book, "Ask Bu," plummeted from the public eye after run-ins with the police.
Q: We recently received a letter from the Hawaii Newspaper Agency informing us that people who subscribe to the daily Star-Bulletin and Sunday Advertiser will be receiving separate invoices. Will the Star-Bulletin have a Sunday paper? Also, will the HNA still be the subscribing agent, and will we be forced to take classified ads with both papers?
A: The Star-Bulletin will have a Sunday paper after Canadian publisher David Black assumes ownership on March 15, said Frank Bridgewater, the Star-Bulletin's acting managing editor.
"HNA will have no involvement with the Star-Bulletin, and you will be able to place a classified in just the Star-Bulletin," he said.
More information will become available in coming weeks.
Bulletin shutdown archive
Mahalo
On New Year's Day, with 6 hours left in the second millennium, I was savagely attacked and mauled by a pit bull/Sharpei dog as my wife watched in horror. Mahalo to every person involved in the aftermath, including those who gave me two hours of emergency TLC at Kaiser Hospital-Moanalua. A special, heartfelt mahalo for the aloha spirit shown by the dog's near neighbor, the Seria family of Pearl City, who drove me home and offered valuable empathy and advice -- R. Stiver
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