A Howard Hills story

Thinking of Howard Hills, since he's in the news again.

Howard was a real pest back when he was pushing Marshallese nuclear claims. Now, I was always willing to do a story on the victims of U.S. nuclear tests. If it was news. If it wasn't, I couldn't have gotten it by my editors at the Pacific Daily News anyway.

He never gave up. I mentioned this to PDN's Mark Cook and Margaret Sizemore when they were on Saipan for a visit. We'd gone to the Nikko Hotel's coming-out party at the Hyatt Regency* Hotel, and he just wouldn't leave me alone. They were having the same problem, and said he probably started bugging me because everybody on Guam tried to avoid him.

As the night wore on, and the drinks kicked in, he left us alone. And then, behold, there he was in the entry. Asleep on a stuffed chair. In his stocking feet. We hid his shoes.

*The best feed I ever got as a reporter, and I went to a lot of events with/for food. Something Beach Brad forgets to mention when he writes about the 'bennies' of being an underpaid news dweeb.