Hawaii
Where's the remote?" "Can you get me a beer?" "Honey, come get your kid." Sound familiar? Then you know football season is upon us. Yesterday's Monday Night Game ended the first weekend of Gridiron Disease, a disease which has much the same deleterious effect on households nationwide. Don't let it get you down, football widows -- at least most of it takes place on Sunday morning, and you know that lug of yours isn't about to go to church anyway -- not with the Great Satanic hysteria going on not just at your house, but all over the country. So prepare for your man to lose himself in the La-Z-Boy -- at least it precludes blood-letting. So lean back and enjoy it -- there are only 15 more weekends to go in the regular season. Playoffs and the Super Bowl are a thing unto themselves ... Football fiends morph
into couch potatoesSUNDAY was the 91st birthday party for band leader Del Courtney, and he was even involved for two decades leading the band for the Oakland Raiders. The party was held in the more delicate confines of the Royal Hawaiian Monarch Room, where the nonagenarian led the band for many years. And returning after 11 years on the mainland to help him celebrate was his primary female vocalist in those days, Madeleine Presse ... Ben Chapman, the guy who appears all over the country signing autographs of himself as "The Creature from the Black Lagoon," is feeling pretty black himself these days. He just returned from Baltimore where he slipped in his hotel's pool and broke his hip ...
Rock 'n' Roll lives
WORD of mouth must have been great for Manoa Valley Theatre's current production, "Smokey Joe's Cafe," because on opening night artistic director Dwight Martin announced that the show would be extended. Since then it was extended again, and as of this writing will go on through Oct. 7, but it may not stop even then. Director Andrew Sakaguchi skillfully takes us into rhythm and blues with a great cast recreating the oldies. So get set for "Charley Brown," "Poison Ivy," "Love Potion #9" and even a few unfamiliar tunes of the era. The cast is having a ball, and so, too, is the audience ...TODAY marks the 14th anniversary of 9-1-1 Day, pressing the phone number into the minds of people reporting emergency situations. And what better day than today to celebrate -- it is 9/11, after all ... MTV's Carson Daly told Jay Leno on the "Tonight Show" that they shoot one show in Key West, Fla., because it is "the southernmost place in the U.S." Sure it is! ...
How ya doin'?
ATTORNEY Pat Murphy was the lone non-Italian on the boat "Monkey Biz" in the Ho'ole'a Fishing Tournament. They'd caught one marlin and desperately needed another to be "in the money" in the big-bucks tourney. That was accomplished when George Lissandrello, who had been waiting seemingly forever for a bite suddenly began shouting the currently hot "Sopranos" greeting, "How ya doin'?" He was joined immediately by fellow Italians Vinnie Maggio and Ron DeMarco. As if on cue, a marlin hooked on Lissandrello's lure and he landed both his first billfish and a legend ...
Dave Donnelly has been writing on happenings
in Hawaii for the Star-Bulletin since 1968.Contact Dave by e-mail: ddonnelly@starbulletin.com