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Hawaii Dave Donnelly |
The fake grass
is always much greenerIN England and Ireland a turf accountant is a fancy name for a bookie who handles bets on the ponies. But the man best known for his accounting on turf in America is former NFL groundskeeper George Toma. He's the guy who those in the know call on to get football fields or whatever in shape for play, and he was the man who oversaw the installation of FieldTurf at Aloha Stadium. First reactions were ecstatic. Appalachian State, who lost on the FieldTurf to UH, has also installed the surface in their home stadium. One member of their hierarchy here was so impressed at how much nicer Aloha Stadium looked than their stadium and its FieldTurf that word is he signed up Toma on the spot to come in and go to work on it ...
TOMA had turned down some NFL assignments in order to see the competition of the new field here because he loves Hawaii and is a June Jones fan as well. Or so he told football fanatic Adrienne Sweeney when he stopped into the Island Princess Macadamia factory outlet, where she's sales manager, to get macadamia items to send home. Incidentally, happy birthday to Adrienne, whose husband Ray, in concern for his health, refuses to say which one it is. My lasting memory of the birthday girl is when we discovered we were on the same flight to San Francisco, and as we sat together at the airport chatting, mutual friend David Lyman happened by. Adrienne deadpanned, "Don't tell anyone you saw us here!" The staggered Lyman could only nod his head ...
Diaz-aling
SOME time back we itemed that sexy actress Carmen Diaz took surfing lessons with Hans Hedemann when hanging out (if not hanging ten) on the North Shore. She even went on the Jay Leno show in what I described as a "peek-a-boob outfit cut to the waist" during which she heaped praise on Hedemann, calling him "a great surfer, but better teacher." She may be tempering such praise since last Saturday, when she again took to the waves, took her sister's board in the nose and, we're told, incurred quite the ding on her face ...WHEN former Associated Press bureau chief Bob Liu was back in town from the Hong Kong A.P. bureau he's headed for some 30 years, he and wife Judy stopped off at their favorite Chinese restaurant, the Mandarin on Cooke Street. They were seated next to a familiar looking couple. Finally it clicked, and each realized who the other was after many years. It was Hawaiian music performers Keith and Carmen Haugen. The Haugens invited the Lius to their new musical home in Neptune's Garden in the Pacific Beach Hotel and to their surprise, the Lius turned up on K&C's opening night ...
Private Schoolyardbirds
THEY call themselves Mystic Rising but perhaps Private Schoolyardbirds would better suit them. The group, comprising Hawaii kids, was formed in Seattle where they're regulars at 'Ohana in trendy Belltown. The group consists of Angela Manke (Kamehameha), Kiley Sullivan (Punahou), Daniel Pak (Iolani), Jason Youn (St. Louis) and Sean Mikell of Maui. The group makes its Island debut at 10 p.m. Friday at Don Ho's Island Grill in the Aloha Tower Marketplace ...
See the Columnists section for some past articles.
Dave Donnelly has been writing on happenings in Hawaii for the Star-Bulletin since 1968. The Week That Was runs Sundays and recalls items from Dave's 30 years of columns. Contact Dave by e-mail: ddonnelly@starbulletin.com
