HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY: "Fly Me to the Moon" could be Tia Watson‘s theme song. Tia, 12, who was admitted to the Mensa worldwide high-IQ society when she was just 4 years old, will witness Wednesday’s rocket launch at Cape Canaveral in Florida. Tia will be with her parents, Tammi and Doug Watson, sister Dava, 5, and grandma Amy Arakaki, retired principal of Kahaluu Elementary. "Tia has always been interested in space," said her mom, a former Chaminade University MBA accounting instructor."She wants to be a scientist and a doctor. She was in the Starbase Atlantis Apollo space camp at Ford Island last summer where they launched water-bottle rockets. Tia won for the farthest water-bottle rocket launch." Tia is a sixth-grader at University Laboratory School. "Dava is the artistic one, always drawing pictures of rockets," Tammi said. "We just saw ‘October Sky’ on Netflix and it was so inspiring to see how the studentsbuilt their own rocket and how it shaped their lives" …
BITE ME: Hard Rock Cafe is proud of its wide variety of hamburgers. The cafe says it has taken its selection of hamburgers to 57 countries. This is National Burger Month and Hard Rock is in the thick of it with a contest offering winners a three-night beach getaway for two at Hard Rock Hotel and Casino Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic. One winner daily will be selected through May 31. Hawaii contestants must send in a picture of themselves with a burger at Hard Rock Cafe Honolulu and post it via Twitter or Instagram using the hashtag #hardrockburger, or upload it to www.hardrockburger.com. No purchase necessary. Props are available.
The Hard Rock menu has more than 10 burger offerings. Honolulu’s favorite is chef Dan Campbell‘s $16.75 Surf Burger, according to local sales manger Jill Gilboy. A dollar for each Surf Burger sold benefits AccesSurf, a local nonprofit charity that empowers people with disabilities to enjoy the ocean in a safe and barrier-free environment. The burger includes a 10-ounce Angus beef patty topped with blue cheese crumbles, caramelized onions, grilled pineapple chunks and bacon, served on a toasted Hawaiian sweet roll …
STAR-ADVERTISER restaurant critic and style editor Nadine Kam says she will hold a celebration of her late husband Chris Neil’s life from 6 to 8 p.m. Tuesday at Murphy’s — pupu and a no-host bar. Neil, 56, a former Honolulu Advertiser news editor, died April 22 after a 2 1/2-year battle with lung cancer. The event will serve as a scholarship fundraiser for Kapiolani Community College’s Culinary Institute of the Pacific. Kam said Neil "liked to hang out at Murphy’s pau hana and the restaurant was always top of mind when he wanted to satisfy a burger craving" …
THAT WAS 4-foot-11 Clarissa Chun, so heavily bundled up in gear she looked somewhat like a bowling ball, in a fake sumo match against a big guy on "Hawaii Five-0" Monday. Chun, 31, is a Roosevelt High grad who won a bronze medal for wrestling in the London 2012 Olympics …
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Ben Wood, who sold newspapers on Honolulu streets in World War II, writes of people, places and things. Email him at bwood@staradvertiser.com.
