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Mazie not only shows
up, she lends real support

A CLASS ACT: Many politicians curry favor from community groups by showing face at the groups' social events and awards banquets when they're up for election or burnishing their image while in office. Nice to see Mazie Hirono, out of office since 2002, not only stop by the Honolulu-Hawaii NAACP 2005 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Gala Dinner Dance on Friday but stay through dinner ...

WHO KNEW that the character David Carradine played in the television show "Kung Fu" was a "half-American orphan" raised in a monastery in China? So say the program notes in the playbill for Kumu Kahua's world premiere production of "David Carradine Not Chinese," and a "Kung Fu" Web site confirms that Kwai Chang Caine was half Caucasian. The Darrell H.Y. Lum comedy continues through Feb. 5 ...

SOMETHING IN COMMON: Two couples attending a small Sunday evening dinner party celebrating Compadres' 21st anniversary at Ward Centre found they had something in common. Debbie and David Koerner first met there several years ago as guests at another event. John Michael White (a k a "Juan Blanco") met Deanne when he stopped in for a drink on his way to a date with someone else. Five years later he and Deanne were married ... Also dining at Compadres that night, although not part of the anniversary party group, Cox Radio production director and alt-music expert Chris Chang and longtime gal pal Cora R.J. Spearman. They met while she was working at Cox. "He was my boss -- for a minute," Spearman recalls ...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY: To Haunani Apoliona, who is celebrating tomorrow ... also to Hailama Farden (Saturday), Lance Rae (Sunday), and to Scotty B and Tricia Marciel (Monday) ...

SQUIDS ANYONE?: Now that "Uncle Tom" Moffatt has reissued his long-sought stash of mid-'60s recordings by Linda Green and several of Hawaii's top garage bands of the era, might the time soon be right for a retrospective on The Squids? Widely known as Hawaii's first true "New Wave" band, the Squids released a well-received four-song 45 EP in 1981 and keyboardist Kit Ebi confirms there's enough in the archives to justify a CD if demand warrants it ...