The film “Oppenheimer” has reminded several islanders about the atomic tests that were visible in Hawaii skies in the 1950s and 1960s. The tests were high in the atmosphere and, despite the distance, visible from Hawaii.
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- By Bob Sigall, Special to the Star-Advertiser
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Aug. 4, 2023
- 32
In July I wrote about Tosh Kaneshiro, owner of the Columbia Inn on Kapiolani Boulevard near South Street.
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- By Bob Sigall, Special to the Star-Advertiser
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July 21, 2023
I had lunch with Gene Kaneshiro last week. He showed me a photo of the Columbia Inn Roundtable All-Star baseball team from the early 1970s.
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Where was the Waikiki Dairy? Not in Waikiki, or even Hawaii for that matter. It was in Spokane, Wash. Why is there a Manoa Shopping Center in Pennsylvania? Why is there a town in Oregon named Aloha? And why do they pronounce it “A-lo-ah”?
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- By Bob Sigall, Special to the Star-Advertiser
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July 7, 2023
- 6
Laurence Wiig, who says he’s now 81 and living in Oregon, suggested I write about the Saturday Kiddie Matinee Movie Clubs that many Hawaii theaters had in the mid-1930s to early 1960s.
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- By Bob Sigall, Special to the Star-Advertiser
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June 23, 2023
- 11
One of the greatest family restaurants in Hawaii history, in my opinion, was the Columbia Inn. It wasn’t a fancy place like the Third Floor or Canlis, but it had good, affordable food and was open 24 hours a day.
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- By Bob Sigall, Special to the Star-Advertiser
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June 16, 2023
- 5
June marks the beginning of hurricane season in the Central Pacific. Hurricanes Dot (1959), Iwa (1982), and Iniki (1992) were the most consequential in recent times.
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- By Bob Sigall, Special to the Star-Advertiser
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June 9, 2023
- 16
uzz Schneider had a talent for starting things. His first restaurant, Buzz’s Steak ‘n’ Lobster, opened in July 1957 in Waikiki. In the following decades there would be over 20 restaurants in his orbit.
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- By Bob Sigall, Special to the Star-Advertiser
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June 2, 2023
- 7
I asked readers who they managed to have a photo with. Did they cross paths with a celebrity and have a photo to prove it? Last month I shared stories of their meeting Neil Diamond, Willard Scott, Beatrice Wood and Nancy and Ronald Reagan.
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- By Bob Sigall, Special to the Star-Advertiser
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May 26, 2023
- 1
My email inbox is usually overflowing with reader comments and questions. Sometimes they ask things I have never considered, such as when Punchbowl was first considered as a cemetery, or about proposed nuclear power plants on Oahu.
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- By Bob Sigall, Special to the Star-Advertiser
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May 19, 2023
I met R. Buckminster Fuller, the inventor of the geodesic dome, a few times when he was in Hawaii around 1980. I have a photo of us somewhere.
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- By Bob Sigall, Special to the Star-Advertiser
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May 12, 2023
- 37
One of the greatest broadcasters in sports history, in my opinion, is Al Michaels.
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- By Bob Sigall, Special to the Star-Advertiser
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May 5, 2023
Jeffrey Young asked, “Can you find out where ‘Chinese Hollywood’ is and how it got its nickname?
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- By Bob Sigall, Special to the Star-Advertiser
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April 28, 2023
In March I wrote about the original “Hawaii Five-0,” which ran from 1968 to 1980. Several readers told me about their experiences with the long-running TV show.
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- By Bob Sigall, Special to the Star-Advertiser
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April 21, 2023
- 12
A few months ago I wrote about vendors who drove, biked or walked though residential communities selling milk, ice cream, pastries, meat, vegetables, fish, manapua, tofu, ice, brooms, etc.
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- By Bob Sigall, Special to the Star-Advertiser
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April 14, 2023
- 6
On April 7 I wrote about the somewhat obscure history of that thumb-and-pinkie wave we call shaka. It brought in several interesting comments from readers. Here are some of them.
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- By Bob Sigall, Special to the Star-Advertiser
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April 7, 2023
- 14
Recently, Steve Sue, who is making the documentary “Shaka, the Story of Aloha,” interviewed me about that local thumb-and-pinkie wave we do here. In preparing for it, I decided to take all the things I know about the shaka and put it in a timeline. It helped me gain some perspective on it.
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- By Bob Sigall, Special to the Star-Advertiser
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March 31, 2023
- 5
People ask me all the time where I get the ideas for my columns. Many of them come from questions readers send me. Here are three I’ve gotten in the past few weeks.
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