|
Alo-Ha! Friday Charles Memminger |
Rochelle didn’t have
to fear Simon CowellThere's been so much attention paid to Hawaii's two survivors on "American Idol" (Jasmine and Camile) that no one noticed another Hawaii woman competing in a more grueling reality show: "Fear Factor."
Sure, singing in front of strangers is hard, but so is being stuck in a box with hundreds of snapping geckos and writhing pythons. That's one of the stunts Rochelle Ovitt had to endure on a recent all-women version of "Fear Factor."
Ovitt, who grew up in Hawaii and lives in L.A., returned to the islands last week to watch the episode with her family. Unfortunately, while she didn't win the $50,000 grand prize, she also didn't have to put up with insults from Simon Cowell.
Now the news:
Lawyer dogs do-gooder
SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) -- An animal-rights activist was convicted of trespassing and prowling after petting another person's dog and giving it water.Tamar Sherman said she was walking by the house of Ron Berki when she noticed the dog she thought might be distressed. So she petted it and gave it water.
Berki, a lawyer, said he discovered Sherman in his back yard when he went to fill up the dog dish.
"My response was, who the (blank) are you? She told me, I'm here to pet your dog." For that she ended up pleading guilty to two misdemeanor counts and was sentenced to 75 hours of community service and told to stay at least 100 yards away from the lawyer's house.
(Moral: Lawyers always bite the hand that feeds their dog.)
He was really needled
BEIJING -- Doctors in China successfully removed three sewing needles embedded in a man's brain for nearly 29 years, according to the Xinhua news agency.The man and his parents say they have no idea how the needles got into his head, but doctors who performed the operation said someone likely stuck them in his skull when he was a baby. The man, identified only as Guo, found out about the needles after an X-ray for a 1994 brain injury. Doctors initially advised leaving them in place but agreed to the surgery after Guo complained that he worried so much about them his college grades dropped.
(Guo's father said the fact that he took a "Learn Acupuncture At Home" course 29 years ago was only a "coincidence.")
Honolulu Lite on Sunday
It's already illegal for landlords to deny anyone housing on the basis of, I think, race, gender, religion, pimples and hair color. Now the Legislature is adding homosexuals to the long list of people who cannot be denied a rental crib. We could save a lot of time here if we just tell property owners they have to rent to everyone except smokers, pet owners and owners of pets who smoke.Quote me on this:
"Equal opportunity is good, but special privilege is even better." -- Anna Chennault
See the Columnists section for some past articles.
Charles Memminger, winner of National Society
of Newspaper Columnists awards, appears
Tuesdays, Thursdays , Fridays and Sundays.
E-mail cmemminger@starbulletin.com