Posted on: Friday, June 10, 2005

HAWAIIAN STYLE

By Wade Kilohana Shirkey
Advertiser Staff Writer

Bits and tidbits picked up hither and yon:

• Clever Lahaina store: Cafe O' Leis, a coffee shop, of course. Equally misspelled, but cute: Beach 'N Bagelz, a Kihei cafe. And Kihei's Auntie Snorkel's shop. Then there's Buns of Maui, "Home of the Best Cinnamon Buns."

• Word of Mouth Rent-a-Used-Car on Hana Highway — 'nuff said. Whisper Hawai'i, an Internet company. Kahului's Banzai Paintball Distributors — too cool, eh.

• And on a van tooling around Kane'ohe — safely! — emblazoned with the Batesville Casket Co. logo: "DRIVE CAREFULLY." As in, or else?!

• Technically punny: On the back of a SuperGeeks computer repair Mini Cooper: "HOW'S MY HARD DRIVING?" Hard drive, get it? No? Never mind.

• Only in Hawai'i: Requested for the recent funeral of a Papakolea resident: "Aloha attire and slippers." Too good!

• "By Any Other Name," Chapter I, Verse I. Reader phones in: The local Wilkerson family has four daughters: Twilight, Starlight, Skylight (Skylight?) — and Delight. And then the late Alexander Akau — of whom Starlight is a hanai daughter — had one more deliciously named daughter, Precious Akau.

• A nickname or just the most wonderful name in the world? In Kealakekua on the Big Island, there's one Happy Hula.

• Then there's Candid Cambra, and the alphabetically easy, Abcde (pronounced Abseedy).

• Holy great names, Batman!: Ezekiel Cachero's sister? Why, Psalms Cachero, of course.

• Fine ol' name: Out Waipahu Depot Road way, Bimbo Enterprises.

• Post-Merrie Monarch, Kalina Chang called in, taking great delight in the melodious culinary name Snowbird Bento and offers one from her husband's past: Clyde Hyde. (Just for you, Kalina — and manuahi, at that: Bento, a fine, upstanding Portuguese name; Snowbird, taken from her mom's favorite 1970 Anne Murray hit of the same name — hence: Snowbird Puananiopaoakalani Bento.)

• The Hawaiian Historic Society sponsored a recent "Evening's Conversation with Hawai'i's State Foresters" — featuring Hardy Spoehr (pronounced "spore").

• Simply a great name, no matter how you "tell" it: Woody Fern, the storyteller. Or Misty Lake.

The Advertiser's Wade Kilohana Shirkey is kumu for Na Hoaloha O Ka Roselani No'eau. He writes on Island life.