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Kamaes will
hit the Strip
with a hot tip

Gambling advice and banana pancakes: Last time Eddie Kamae toured the mainland, it was 1949 with Ray Kinney and His Hawaiian Musical Ambassadors. Days ago, Kamae and wife Myrna flew off for a five-week West Coast tour. No concerts -- it's a promo for Eddie's bio, "Hawaiian Son," well-penned by James Houston, plus sneak previews of Eddie's documentary, "Keepers of the Flame."

The two will stop in Vegas. Myrna got gambling advice from a woman she met at Liliha Bakery. "Her name was Auntie Molly," says Myrna. "Her husband was a distinguished-looking, older Japanese man. She told me his name was Honey Bun." Auntie Molly and Honey Bun advised Myrna to play $2 a pull on the "10 Times" machine at the Fremont Hotel. "They said they never lose." Adds Eddie: "She can do whatever. I just drink a glass of wine and watch the scene go by." For Eddie on gambling, see the book.

Use your noodle: You'll read anything when stuck in traffic. We loved the sushi van whose plate read SOBA-UP, a message to warm Duke Aiona's heart.

Opening a can of worms: Wendie McClain, wife of interim University of Hawaii President David McClain, is excited to have worms -- a thousand of them in a can, presented to her by former state legislator Mindy Jaffe. The worms turn rubbish into fertilizer, helping make College Hill, in a buzzword, sustainable. "Just throw in garbage and the worms are happy, happy," says Wendie McClain. "You don't even have to recycle your newspapers." Striking terror into all of us who put ink on newsprint, she rips up her papers and feeds them to the worms as well.

Drop Baby Drop: At the Gordon Biersch blowout for his new album, "Ka 'Eha Ke Aloha," Sean Na'auao, a big bling-bling "S" on a chain around his neck, was celebrating eight highly creative years -- not only the stream of hit albums since 1997's "Fish and Poi,"but also the five sons (the oldest is 7) he's had with wife and co-songwriter Kau'i Dalire Na'auao. Selling CDs at a folding table, Kau'i looked so young she might only be a year or two out of the UH Hawaiian Studies program. "Yeah, I sometimes think she was only 11 when I married her," jokes Na'auao.

Maui no ka ghost: After the Maui Writers Conference, New York author Barbara Lazear Ascher ("Landscape without Gravity," "Playing After Dark") stayed in Maunawili with old friends Dave and Kathleen Pellegrin. Ascher's no-nonsense, famous for kicking off her New York Times column with zingers like: "I can tell you what I'd do if I discovered my husband was having a love affair. I'd go get a gun." Still, she says, "Stories that make you say, 'Oh, yeah, right' in New York seem believable on Maui." Told about the Night Marchers right before she walked a dark path to her hotel room, she found her heart pounding: "It was my first trip to Hawaii. I wasn't ready to meet a Night Marcher."

How to intimidate a linebacker: Bumped into the most unlikely of old friends at the UH-USC game -- Peter Nicholson, UH's expert on medieval lit and the very picture of a bespectacled intellectual. Turns out Nicholson, when he's not teaching Chaucer and Beowulf, is faculty representative to the NCAA. His job? Determining academic eligibility. Advice for the team: Nicholson's a tough guy. Get to class, or he's likely to go medieval on you.

Crime in the streets: Still shaking my head at HPD's show of force downtown last week. Pushers on Hotel Street, druggies crashed out in Chinatown doorways, vandalized galleries -- and HPD went gung ho against ... jaywalkers? Office workers trying to beat the Don't Walk signal? There's already an incentive to cross streets safely. Called fear of violent death. If HPD really cares about pedestrian safety, wouldn't it be better to ticket drivers who make turns through crowded crosswalks or run red lights?