The Mayor’s Grand Prize at this year’s 97th Lei Day Celebration in Honolulu went to Dale Mar T. Acoba.
Acoba wowed judges Thursday with his white lei kui made of hypericum and pearl yarrow, and took home the prize of $5,400. The city also named winners in 14 other lei categories.
Thousands of visitors flocked to Kapiolani Park in Waikiki for the annual celebration, which included the lei competition exhibit, along with music, hula performances by various halau, cultural demonstrations, and a local craft market.
The theme of this year’s celebration was Ho’okahi ka ‘ilau like ‘ana, meaning “wield the paddles together.”
The competition drew 137 entries in various categories based on the lei-maker’s age, lei style, color, and materials, according to city officials.
Following protocol, the fresh lei from the contest were taken to Mauna ‘Ala, or The Royal Mausoleum, and Kawaiaha‘o Church this morning, and placed on the graves and tombs of Hawaii’s alii.
One of the silver linings in the coronavirus cloud ("bad cloud", as opposed to "good cloud" like Microsoft's Azure and Amazon Web Services) is that boredom and ennui have led to revisiting old videos.
Tosh Togo
The Three Stooges were a top-three favorite when my parents let this kindergartener watch on the old black-and-white during the '50's. I howled at the ridiculous physical comedy, complete with the sound effects of face-slapping, head-bashing, and eye-poking.
[Related: I also enjoyed watching the fake violence of pro wrestling on Saturday mornings and was later thrilled when Tosh Togo got the role of Oddjob in Goldfinger.]
But back to the Stooges, who had material for the adults, too. In 1940 they starred in one of the first anti-Hitler Hollywood films. You Nazty Spy! is filled with Nazi references such as "storm" troopers who wear raincoats while carrying umbrellas and "books" burning to erase gambling debts.
When arms dealers seek to install a puppet dictator, they entice wallpaper hanger Moe and his assistants Larry and Curly. Dialogue:
Paper-hanger Moe smears black paint above his lip by accident.
Moe: What does a dictator do?
Arms manufacturer: A dictator, why he makes love to beautiful women, drinks champagne, enjoys life, and never works. He makes speeches to the people, promising them plenty, gives them nothing, then takes everything. That's a dictator!
Curly: A parasite! That's for me.
The cinematography is obsolete, but the script is not.
