Hawaii
Superstition held
sway over sharp giftSANSEI Seafood owner/ chef D.K. Kodama was thrilled to meet Food Network star chef Ming Tsai at a culinary event in San Diego. He was also happy to receive a gift from the chef, a combination Chinese cleaver/French chef's knife inscribed with the name of Tsai's restaurant, Blue Ginger. They should have been aware of the superstition about never giving or receiving knives as gifts, because, sure enough, when Kodama arrived home in Honolulu he cut himself while unpacking ...
THE former "Chaplain of Waikiki Beach," Bob Turnbull, read on the Star-Bulletin's online edition our mention of Michelle Phillips being married to Dennis Hopper for all of eight days. Turnbull and Hopper were in the same high school class in La Mesa, Calif., and it was Hopper who persuaded Turnbull to try his hand at acting in Hollywood. Hopper's agent took him on and got him a role as a good guy gone bad in a dreadful movie called "Dragstrip Riot." But it enabled him to meet others in the cast, namely Fay Wray (of "King Kong" fame) and Connie Stevens, who did "Hawaiian Eye." Though Turnbull now lives on the mainland, he and wife Yvonne will be in Honolulu to do a communication seminar on Saturday at Wayne Cordeiro's New Hope Fellowship ...
Speeding, but no arrest
It seems like only yesterday that Jimmy Pflueger was zooming around race courses made of asphalt, dirt and even water. Like father, like son. Alan Pflueger is also making national waves, but unlike Dad, he's been featured in an issue of auto racing's National Speed Sport News in the "Rising Stars" column. He gained "rookie of the year" honors for his motorcycle finish in the Baja 500 and then switched to four wheels, wining truck events on the grueling West Coast desert races. A rising business star, also as his father once was, Alan dusts off the desert sand and returns to his Honolulu office as president of Pflueger Honda/Acura ...AFTER "Soap Girl," a film about hostesses who bathe their clients screened at the Art House at Restaurant Row Sunday, producer Tomiko Lee and sex therapist Diana Wiley discussed the subject before the audience in attendance. Row theaters honcho Don Brown asked the two to repeat the session, and they're doing just that after the 4:15 p.m. showing today ... It ain't over 'til the fat lady throws a spear. That's what opera star Alison England did in a national commercial for Sky-Tel Pagers. She promises to leave her spear behind, however when she plays Musetta in Hawaii Opera Theatre's "La Boheme" opening Feb. 28 at the Blaisdell Concert Hall ...
On your toes
ASPIRING dancers should be aware that Rachel Berman, former star of the Paul Taylor Dance Co, is giving a master class and mini performance from 10 a.m. to noon March 9 at the Manoa temporary dance building. And directly after that, Peter Rockford Espiritu of the Tau Dance Theater will hold auditions for choreographers and dancers wanting to participate in an evening celebrating female artists in Hawaii ...
Dave Donnelly has been writing on happenings
in Hawaii for the Star-Bulletin since 1968.
The Week That Was recalls items from Dave's 30 years of columns.Contact Dave by e-mail: ddonnelly@starbulletin.com