The Left Lane
Saturday night flavor

By Wayne Harada
Advertiser Entertainment Editor

The popular restaurant will launch a wee-hours dance format after dinner hours through 2 a.m., Saturdays only, with DJ Euphorik mixing acid-jazz and house music. Hawai'i chic is the dress, which means collared shirts, long trousers and shoes for men. Those attending must be at least 23. A $10 cover will prevail, which includes a pupu buffet from 10 p.m. to midnight.

Earlier tomorrow evening, Chai's will feature live Hawaiian music by Amy Hanaiali'i Gilliom and Barry Flanagan from 9 to 10 p.m., with other acts in the future. Adjustments also have been made to other dinner-hour entertainment at Chai's, as follows: Jerry Santos, Sundays and Mondays; Robert Cazimero on solo piano, Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays; the Brothers Cazimero Wednesdays.

For more information, call 585-0011.

If the unexamined life is not worth living, then Christopher Phillips is experiencing a most worthwhile existence. Phillips, a Leesburg, Va.-based former schoolteacher, is a on a mission: To promote the art of Socratic debate. His audience? Anyone who has ever asked why; anyone who finds the questions as interesting as the answers.

As he has criss-crossed the country setting up what he calls "Socrates Cafes" in coffee houses and bookstores, nursing homes and prisons, he's generated plenty of buzz, in magazines, on public radio, on his Web site www.philosopher.org, and via his book "Socrates Cafe: A Fresh Taste of Philosophy" (W.W. Norton, hardback, $23.95). Now Phillips is bringing a Socrates Cafe to Hawai'i, 3 p.m. tomorrow at Barnes & Noble, Kahala Mall. The group will decide the question, but it could be anything from "How old is old?" to "Why ask why?" Well, why not?

When U.S. troops deploy overseas to fight terrorism, a star-powered platoon will be waiting in the wings to entertain them — the USO.

In recent weeks, dozens of entertainers have contacted the United Services Organization and offered to help lift the spirits of service people, wherever they end up. And the celebrities will have a new commanding general — Wayne Newton.

"I'm just looking to serve my country, and the men and women of our military," says the Las Vegas entertainer.

Bob Hope, 98, who has filled the role of USO front man for half a century, has passed the baton to Newton. "No one could ever fill in for Bob Hope," says Newton, 59.

Newton ("Danke Schoen") has a long relationship with the USO. He has performed in every conflict since Vietnam. His first USO performance was at age 7, when he sang for President Truman.

The change-of-command decision was made several months before the Sept. 11 attacks, but not announced until now. Hope has been ill and has not performed for the troops since Operation Desert Shield in 1990.