Awful Drivers, A Great Golfer, Etc.

Don Chapman
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April 11, 2007
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Where’s a cop - or a handful of carpet tacks - when you need ‘em? My pal Dr. Mark Stitham forwards a YouTube video, shot apparently by a young Marine from Kaneohe, although it could just as easily be a civilian employee. The camera shows his speedometer and the road ahead as he accelerates past the base sentry booth onto the H-3, quickly hitting and maintaining speeds over 150 mph as he dangerously weaves in and out of traffic, even passing other vehicles on the shoulder of the road, reaching the Halawa interchange in barely five minutes. The bike, it says, is a 2004 Yamaha R6 - so it shouldn’t be too tough to track him down. You can view his criminally self-centered act at www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTFWfJZqzHo ...


Only slightly less idiotic was the guy in a car I saw running every red light as he sped up Pali Highway from town the other day - too quick, alas, to get a license number ...

But driving stupidity isn’t always reckless - sometimes it comes veiled as courtesy. A guy I know recently rear-ended a woman driver when she suddenly slammed on the brakes - on a busy four-lane highway - to let a pedestrian cross. Good drivers know what’s going on behind them as well as ahead of them, and are as courteous aft as they are fore ...


Speaking of fore: The Aloha Section PGA will be inducting Dick McClean into the Hawaii Golf Hall of Fame this month, and it’s a well-deserved honor for one of the game’s truly nice guys. In the 1980s and early ‘90s, Dick was Da Man of island golf, winning a ton of tournaments and helping to revive the Hawaii State Open.

Here’s how good Dick hits it: Before the Plantation Course officially opened at Kapalua in 1991, Dick was playing a round with Mark Rolfing and some other pals, and on the par-3 second hole, with the usual trade wind at their backs, scored a hole-in-one with a 6-iron. A week later, Mark invited NBC broadcast partners Johnny Miller and Charlie Jones to play the Plantation. This time, with a kona wind howling into their faces, Dick pulled out his driver on the second hole and scored another ace! ...

The induction dinner, by the way, happens at the Hawaii Prince Hotel on April 30. For ticket info, call 593-2230 ...

Speaking of golf: I’ve been going around and playing city golf courses, and will be doing a follow-up to the recent column on how terrible conditions are (still) at Pali ...

And speaking of awards: Please join me in offering kudos to Linda Dela Cruz of the MidWeek staff. On April 27, she’ll receive the Small Business Administration’s journalist of the year award for Oahu. Linda writes our Entrepreneurs column and edits the Movers column, so she’s well-plugged into the Hawaii business scene. This follows Katie Young’s award from the Hawaii Psychiatric Association and Bobby Curran, who writes for our weekend paper, being named Hawaii sportscaster of the year. I’m proud to work with such talented and hard-working folks ...

The SBA awards luncheon happens at the Hyatt Regency. For ticket info, call 526-1001 ...


Oh, and MidWeek just took second place in the state publishers association Pa’i Awards, for best non-daily paper. Pacific Business News won that, so you could say MidWeek is the best non-business non-daily with circulation of 268,000 and reader-ship of 467,000 - although with Linda’s award, plus the Business Roundtable column edited by Kerry Miller, we feel pretty good about our business coverage too ...

Good name for the state Ethics Commission’s newsletter, eh: The High Road ...

With so many people already running for president in 2008, you’d think there would be more appealing candidates. But as an independent, I wouldn’t vote yet for any of the frontrunners - especially with everybody dodging serious issues ...

Go figgah ...

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