Alo-Ha! Friday
How 'bout separation
of Mitch and O'Reilly?McKinley High School's decision to take "God" out of its honor code led to a classic clash of blowhards on national television, featuring one of Hawaii's own. (Maybe "blowhards" is too severe. How about "overly excitable guys you'd least like to get cornered by at a cocktail party"?)
Mitch Kahle, head of Hawaii Citizens for Separation of State and Church, appeared on Fox's Bill O'Reilly show this week to discuss McKinley's removal of "love for God" in its code of honor.
The fiery and frequently annoying O'Reilly and equally fiery and annoying Kahle were soon at each other's throats.
"Start being honest or you're outta here!" shouted O'Reilly. To which the unbully-able Mitch threw back, "You've totally lost control of yourself!"
Mitch held his own against O'Reilly, who is known to make grown men weep and weeping men groan.
Now the news:
Da-fence against war
SYDNEY (Reuters) >> Catholics are flocking to pray at a fence post at Coogee Beach which they believe projects an image of the Virgin Mary.Devotees say the Virgin can be seen on a white post and believe she appears to comfort Australians worried about possible war in Iraq.
(Devotees cannot say why the Virgin would choose to appear on an Australian fence post instead of, say, in front of the U.N. Security Council, which is considering the war issue.)
Feds crack egg caper
MIAMI (Reuters) >> A Russian man was sentenced to 30 months in prison for smuggling 98 pounds of caviar into the United States without the required permits. Mikhail Kovtun, of Moscow, and two others were caught with the sturgeon roe hidden in their suitcases.(Investigators were trying to determine if the roe had ties to al-Qaida or simply was a salty delicacy good on crackers.)
Hairy life for nonshavers
LONDON (Reuters) >> Men who don't shave every day enjoy less sex and are 70 percent more likely to suffer a stroke than daily shavers, a new study shows. The study also found a link between Welsh men who didn't shave every day and increased occurrence of coronary heart disease and heart attacks.(On the other hand, men with goatees and mustaches suffered only slight heartburn.)
'Honolulu Lite' on Sunday:
You've heard of the "axis of evil" and Saddam Hussein's "sinister nexus" with al-Qaida, but do you know which countries are in "hideous cahoots" and "bothersome togetherness"?
Quote me on this:
"I have not failed, I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work." -- Thomas Alva Edison
Charles Memminger, winner of National Society of Newspaper Columnists awards, appears Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. E-mail cmemminger@starbulletin.com