Ramona Harris, John McCreary
IT looks like well known isle businessman Charlie Pietsch has found just what the doctor ordered. In this case, the "doctor" is psychotherapist and board certified sex therapist Diana Wiley and she ordered up herself. It began in 1961 when Diana met Charlie and determined he was a "peach" of a fellow and they began dating. But soon she learned the guy of her dreams had pinned his high school sweetheart, Margie, and ended up marrying her after graduating from Syracuse. The story resumes in 1990 when Diana flew in for the 75th birthday party of mutual friend Becky Connable in Honolulu, also attended by Pietsch and his wife, Margie, whom she met at that time. A five year silence followed until 1995 when Charlie called to see if Diana was flying in for Becky's 80th birthday, and reporting at the same time that Margie had died following a long bout with cancer. Diana recalled later that after she and Charlie had broken up in 1962 she wondered if he'd ever call again and now, 33 years later, he had. The fade out of this story and the beginning of another takes place Easter Sunday when Charlie and Diana meet at the altar. Best wishes to the two of them -- a story like this one deserves a happy ending ... A love story,
36 years in the makingWHILE we're in a romantic mood, Barbara Holm reports "What's Cookin'" in the Hawaii Foodservice News, and one of the hottest things going right now is the romantic story behind the Murphy-Lane merger. Sounds like a big corporate deal, but what it involves is the surprise popping of the question from Lane Muraoka of Pizza Bob's to Murphy Chang of Philip White and Associates. The two met four years ago at a "Progressive Dinner" held by the Hawaii Restaurant Association and things progressed nicely since then, culminating in a proposal of marriage at this year's HRA dinner during a stop at 3660 on the Rise. The question came as a surprise, but she said "yes." ...
THE City's First Lady, Ramona Harris, is heading to Washington Place, but don't get too far ahead of me here. She's going to have 25 men in tow at lunchtime tomorrow. These are some of Hawaii's top execs who are walking in support of the March of Dimes' annual "ExecTrek." They'll start at the Financial Plaza of the Pacific and trek up Bishop Street to Beretania before entering Washington Place where Ramona's real lunch date -- Mayor Jeremy Harris -- will be waiting. I'm sure Gov. Ben Cayetano will be there to make sure the Harrises don't get too comfortable ... Mrs. Harris goes to where?
SPEAKING of Washington Place, John McCreary has been organist and choir director at St. Andrew's Cathedral next door to the governor's mansion for more than 31 years. It's been his dream to renovate the Aeolian Skinner organ before he retires, and he's about two-thirds finished with the task. You'll get an idea of how well things are going when you hear that Fred Swann, the internationally known organist, was so impressed with the combination of the fine acoustics of the Cathedral and the organ itself, that he called McCreary and asked if he could record his next CD at St. Andrew's. But of course, came the reply, and Swann will fly in from the Crystal Cathedral in Riverside, Calif., on Easter Sunday and record in the wee small hours (to avoid traffic noise) that week. On April 3, he'll give a free public concert ...
THE weekend began sedately Friday with a Vienna String Quartet playing in the courtyard of the delightful Cafe Vienna in the Dillingham Transportation Building. Among those attending the reception was Austria's consul general Hans Strasser, just off the plane from the real Vienna ... Meanwhile, the local ad industry's 1997 Pele Awards at the Coral Ballroom Saturday night should have won an award for the longest bit of mutual backslapping and awarding of prizes ever held. Emcee Andy Bumatai tried his best to keep things moving, but nobody could have saved that yawner of an evening ... Two sides of the coin
Contact Dave by e-mail: donnelly@kestrok.com.
