Hawai'i is a funny place, a place where people will rarely tell you to your face of their disapproval, but will ice you out with deafening silence and blatant nonparticipation if they don't like you or what you've done. The other side of the "no talk stink" axiom is "just don't show up."

It's passive-aggressive to the max.

How many locals will go through the hassles to go to Hanauma Bay? Even when we have guests come from the Mainland, it's "No, you folks take the car and you go. I gotta get stuff ready for dinner."

How many locals jaunt to the Neighbor Islands for the weekend like they used to? Forget it. Flying interisland just for fun is no fun anymore. It's too expensive and too stressful.

Same with Sea Life Park, which is too pricey for anything other than special occasions or discount school trips.

And then there's the Convention Center, which started out with a "no locals allowed" policy. Once that was lifted, the smell remained and there's hardly been a stampede to get in. Why go where we're not wanted?

There shouldn't be much head-scratching and expensive analysis to figure out why folks stayed away in droves from the UH football game this past weekend.

It costs too much to go watch the team lose.

The typical UH fan isn't a high-roller, box seats, champagne with all their flashy friends in the limo on the way to the after-party moneyman. These are people who wait eagerly for their Longs value books. They are salt of the earth, and guarantee that salt was bought on special.

The typical UH student is living on rice-pot cuisine, hoarding quarters for laundry and saving to replace a stolen moped. They may be well-fed, but they're still starving students.

Who are these well-heeled deep-pocket people the athletic department is angling for? We don't know these guys.

The other truism about Hawai'i is that people will endure great inconveniences for things of value, be it economic value or something we hold in high esteem.

They'll stand in line for hours for those cream puffs from Japan. They'll drive all the way out to the North Shore for shave ice on a Sunday afternoon. Longs Drugs on value book day is hardly an easy endeavor.

And they will go to watch their beloved Warriors win or lose, boozy or dry, come rain or heat or dark of night, if they feel the experience is of value.

Clearly, for many, it isn't.

Lee Cataluna's column runs Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Reach her at 535-8172 or lcataluna@honoluluadvertiser.com.