Hot Dogs!

This morning, we finally settled on a long-standing bet. To recap: Dan and Dave picked the San Antonio Spurs to win the NBA Championship, while Mahea and I picked the Cleveland Cavaliers. You’ll recall the Spurs swept the series. And it took this long to figure out what we would do, as the losers. Taking a cue from the world-famous Nathan’s Hot Dog eating contest on Coney Island, we tried to eat at least one hot dog from Great Hawaiian Hot Dogs.

Mike “Ramsey” Fujita cooked up the weiners, and I think I won, finishing my hot dog first.

Of course, seemingly on cue, there were two dogs and their owner on the sidewalk behind us, and one of them was a wiener dog. Of course I fed them, and the dogs enjoyed the dogs.

The crew didn’t mind that we only ate one dog each. Fujita stayed afterward to cook up some ‘ono steak hot dogs, which promptly disappeared. The dogs didn’t get those. Oh, yes — one was delivered to Dave Hisaka at the traffic management center a few blocks away, fresh out of the cooker.

Pineapples And Roller Coasters

On Thursday, our newscast had a bit of a double punch: Fred DeAngelo, owner and chef of Ola Restaurant, dropped in for a visit, along with spokesperson Merrissa Uchimura of the Wahiawa Pineapple Festival. Fred was great, being able to make two quick dishes in the allotted time (which is frankly, pretty short). When the newscast started years ago, Fred was the first regular weekly chef. And even though it’s been a few years since that regular weekly stint, he was able to get right back into it, just like riding a bike.

I helped him with one of the dishes, involving crepes with hazelnut chocolate sauce, quickly fried with some pineapple and sprinkled with powdered sugar. It will likely hold the record as the dish that had the briefest survival rate after it was cooked. During the commercial break right after the segment, the crew and guests descended upon the crepes and pineapple like ants with forks. By the time the break was over, the food was absolutely gone.

Thursday was also the day Dan went for a preview of the 50th State Fair at Aloha Stadium, including the “Wild Mouse,” the roller coaster pictured here. It ain’t something from Six Flags, but it’s still pretty impressive. And we’re also impressed that Dan went aboard for a few rides — he’s not a fan of roller coasters. And while the Wild Mouse didn’t change his mind, he says he still had fun.

Happiness Is A Warm Puppy Licking Your Face

Photographer Kevin Matsumoto and I were sent to cover the “debut” of four beagle puppies born to one of the dogs in the State Department of Agriculture’s Dog Detector Corps. You may have seen these dogs at the airport, sniffing arriving luggage for unwanted fruits, plants and animals, like snakes.

It’s a puppy pilot project. The state usually has to find a good detector dog, usually from another country. The price tag per dog can run to $1,500 or more. So there was an arrangement made with a local breeder to have one of his male dogs mate with “Nari,” one of the state sniffers.

Three of the two month-old pups (Ko`i, Sparky, and the lone female Daisy) are headed to foster homes, where screened foster parents will raise them for the next two years. They’ll determine whether the little beagles have the right personality and temperament for the job. The fourth pup will go to the breeder for a career as a father. The breeder will get to name him.

And you can’t help but fall in love with them. Another reporter mentioned to me that we could say just about anything in our voice tracks for the stories we’d put together on the puppies; no one would be listening anyway, since the puppies would get all the attention. Ko`i came up to the fence of his enclosure when I approached for a close-up look. The state agriculture inspectors overseeing the puppies said I could pick him up. We seemed to bond, especially when he ended up licking my face on-camera, which I didn’t mind at all.

Call it a cushy assignment, but we get sent to floods, fires, car crashes and the like. It isn’t often we get to do a story like this one. Even Kevin stopped to hold a puppy for a while when he was done shooting video. He didn’t seem to be in a hurry to leave, and neither was I.

Teamwork

For the first time I can ever remember, all three of us were sent to cover a story: Tuesday’s fire at the Kapiolani Manor apartment building. When a serious fire occurs, one crew is usually sufficient. However, when it became a two-alarm blaze, Mahealani went out with photographer Bert Yoshishige. Then, when a third alarm was called and ambulances were sent to the scene, I was sent out with chief photographer Bob Guanzon. Dan was there with morning photographer Kevin Matsumoto, covering the makai side of the building, where the fire actually was occurring.

Essentially, we were able to cover what was a story that was sprawled over a large area. Fire trucks were all over Makaloa St., on the mauka side. That’s where Bob and I covered victims being taken to hospitals. Mahealani was able to get the apartment owner, who admitted he had left candles burning unattended. Long story short, the three of us were able to meet up briefly from time to time to see what each of us had, and to share what each of us might need with one another. Of course, Dan and Mahea also were able to do live reports from the scene while I checked with fire officials to stay updated.

Expanding on the teamwork, we now have a strong news presence on the web, and Keoki Kerr was able to organize all the incoming information into something coherent, which Webmaster Brent Suyama then put into story form for the website.

When we got back to the newsroom, we touched base again to determine which photographers had what footage. Each of us ended up using footage from all three photographers, but it was an easy process. Not exactly a typical day at the office, but this was definitely team coverage.