OK, so maybe the meeting wasn’t so epic after all

By many standards, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation CEO Summit last week could have been rated a success. There were many corporate leaders in attendance, global company executives, policymakers, heads of state, top academics.

The homegrown business types were impressed. Paul Kosasa, president of ABC Stores, seemed exultant at the chance to learn from the big dogs.

"I go to a lot of conferences on the mainland," he said. "It’s never this epic."

Trouble is, organizers had initially estimated that the conference would draw 1,500. Biggest in APEC’s 16-year history, they promised.

So the final count of just under 900 conferees had to burst our bubble.

Oh, the dangers of too-high expectations.

Champion rodeo bull on Maui gets a little tired

No cowboy had been able to stay aboard 800-pound Skywalker for the full eight seconds, but the rodeo bull finally met his match — a 50-pound truck tire that was dumped at the Triple L Ranch in Maui.

Ranch owner Paige De Ponte said the tire somehow ended up around Skywalker’s neck last week, and the bull spent about 20 hours trying to unload the unwanted adornment.

Ranch worker Kawika Manoa finally used a piece of wood to pry off the tire. Skywalker went straight to the water trough for recovery.

"Our open-range ranch has been here for 50 years and never have we ever seen such an event like this," De Ponte said.

Ole!