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Hawaii
THE headline of the year so far appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle, later appropriated without attribution by Time magazine. It dealt with possible Clever take
on possible tokemarijuana smoking going on in the home of William Shakespeare and read, "Doobie or Not Doobie." ... Also left over from vacation were e-mails from a couple of folks up in the earthquake damaged state of Washington. Former Hawaii TV anchorman Bob Sevey writes, "To my amazement, the house is still standing in the same old place. I wouldn't have bet on it for about 40 seconds when the Big Jiggle happened." ... Meanwhile, Ron Gomes was taking the winter bar exam at the University of Washington Law School and "the bloody quake hit right in the middle of the bar exam. Exams went flyin' and people went runnin'." Taking the bar exam is panic enough, notes Gomes, but after the shaking, all were reassembled to take the exam and were promised "We will advise the graders of the earthquake and they will take it into consideration when grading the exam." Gomes' response: "Yeah, right." ...
Stages of life
WHEREAS young Janel Parrish is thrilled to be showing off her acting, singing and dancing abilities in the lead role of Wendy in Lisa Matsumoto's summer musical, "On Dragonfly's Wings," John Philip Law is relieved not to be working. The actor ("Barbarella," "The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming") was in town visiting old pal Mike Dailey and just hanging out. Law and Dailey have a mutual buddy in Michael Butler, original "Hair" producer and sometime polo player. Law and I go way back to when he played Uncle Ben and I portrayed Willy Loman in Arthur Miller's "Death of a Salesman" back in 1958 at UH. Butler is also a friend of mine -- I took him to see an outlaw production of "Hair" here and when I introduced him to the producer, there was an unspoken "Gotcha!" ...ONLY in Hawaii would a TV station, KGMB, send out a notice proudly proclaiming that the 10 p.m. news will now start on time. In San Francisco, for example, all stations start on time and if you tune back and forth you can see that David Letterman and Jay Leno are greeting their audiences simultaneously ... New watering holes with Irish ties are all opening up to do business on St. Patrick's Day and enjoy the financial windfall that comes with being open that day. But one spot is bucking the trend. Peter Birnbaum's Sugar Bar lease is up at the end of this month and he won't be renewing it. So he's slated a three day party from March 17 to 19 with an auction on the 20th. The Sugar Bar was immortalized in song by Amy Hanaiali'i Gilliom in "Haleiwa." ...
Telepartying
WHEN former KHON-TV exec Lee Hacohen realized that he couldn't fly in from Amsterdam to wish good buddy Lloyd Kandell a happy 50th birthday, he moved into action. Hacohen contacted Sprint exec Lee Wilson and she set up a surprise video conference between the two. Prior to his move, Hacohen used to have a regular Friday breakfast with Kandell -- lox and bagels with cream cheese, etc. Kandell was lured to the Sprint facilities and there was the usual spread. He was sorely surprised to see his old friend live on screen enjoying a "virtual breakfast" with him. It being evening in Amsterdam, however, while Kandell drank guava juice, Hacohen enjoyed the local nectar, Heineken ...
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