SENSIBLE: Perhaps that's the best way to describe new Honolulu Symphony music director Sam Wong. You know he has a good ear for music - he's married to a professional musician, so he not only hears it at home, but when he goes to work as well. He'll be opening the Symphony's new season with the East-West Beethoven's Ninth Symphony Saturday night, and the next afternoon will conduct Dvorak, Mahler and Beethoven again with Christopher O'Riley at the piano. Wong has eclectic tastes, having played Cole Porter's "Anything Goes" at a Perry & Price breakfast show at the Hanohano Room back in June. He told Price he'd not only sample Portuguese food, but "if it's at Larry's house, I'll bring my entire family." Wong has a keen eye, too, and tomorrow at the Honolulu Club he'll be made an honorary member of the Hawaii Medical Association. Besides his musical gifts, Wong holds an M.D. in ophthalmology from Harvard ... KHNL-TV's morning news yesterday brought out a group of bachelors who've consented to be auctioned off Friday for charity. Among the prizes they offered to share with women who bid on them were a weekend for two at the Turtle Bay Hilton and two nights at the Manele Bay Hotel. This is, like a first date? We've come a long way, baby! How far we haven't come is reflected in the fact that while bachelor auctions are fairly common, I've yet to see a "bachelorette" auction where women offer dates ...
PUNAHOU grad Randy Havre of Honolulu Venture Capital, ventured a football bet with Ernie Fukeda of First Insurance, a St. Louis grad, on the battle of the undefeateds, Punahou vs. St. Louis. They agreed that after figuring "the spread," the loser had to wear the winner's school T-shirt at a Honolulu Club workout. St. Louis won the game, 42-21, but Havre says he can't figure out what the "spread" was. If there were one, it wasn't 21 points. You lose, Randy - get set to don that Crusaders T-shirt ...
ACTRESS and Hawaii Pacific University director Joyce Maltby is now answering to "Grandma." Daughter Becky gave birth to a son, Michael Joseph, and both mother and son, plus papa Dennis Graue are doing fine. Grandma is currently at work directing Arthur Miller's "View from the Bridge," slated to open Nov. 16 ... Notice how film auteurs are sticking their names in front of movie titles? The latest has opened up vast new possibilities - now out is "Stephen King's Thinner." What's next: "Stephen King's A Sex Machine" or "Stephen King's The Handsomest Man on Earth"? ...
AUCTIONEER Marty McClain is holding the grand opening Friday of what he calls "Our New Village," a kind of mini-neighborhood inside the neighborhood of Kakaako where you can find the McClain Auction House and Honolulu Furniture Antiques & Gallery. It's definitely worth a browse and has the proverbial something for everyone. There's even a grandma's attic brought to life. Someone should tell Joyce Maltby about it ...
WHEN he heard that comic Sinbad was in Sunset Grill, new chef Sean Kinoshita took it upon himself to send out some new appetizers not yet on the menu for Sinbad and his party to enjoy. They were so "sinfully bad" that when Kinoshita visited the table to meet Sinbad, the comedian jumped up, grabbed one of the eatery's crayons and wrote on the chef's coat, "You're the man! Sinbad." ...
