WELCOME TO THE READING ROOM

THOSE PACIFIST GRANNIES. Says their lawyer, Norman Siegel: "The grannies remind me of the whole 'We Shall Overcome' movement. They're very positive and upbeat and warm." And arrested. Kristen Lombardi of The Village Voice offered pre-trial coverage of the anti-war grannies. Here's initial coverage of the trial from Reuters.

WHO'S REALLY AT GITMO. 8% Al Qaeda fighters. 55% not determined to have committed any hostile acts against coalition forces, according to Nat Hentoff in The Village Voice.

DC STILL DOESN'T HAVE THE VOTE. But those license plates keep on coming. If the United States can spend billions to build possibly unfriendly "democracies" in the Middle East, why not let DC have voting representatives in Congress? It seems that the more that Americans realize the injustice of it all, the more they're in favor of reform.

THEIR OLD SCHOOL. Can you believe Steely Dan's Donald Fagen went to school with Chevy Chase and Blythe Danner (who dated Chase) as well as his musical partner Walter Becker? Fagen went back to his old school Bard with Rob Brunner in Entertainment Weekly (March 24, 2006). In the following issue, Jennifer Armstrong profiled Danner. I think the magazine might eventually cover that guy down the hallway who always wore a fur cap.

THE DORRIAN DYNASTY. The Village Voice's Sarah Ferguson digs up Dorrian dirt. I didn't know that Jack Dorrian courted controversy "put his family's East Side townhouse up as collateral on $150,000 bail for Robert Chambers."

WIKIPEDIA VS. ENCYCLOPEDIA BRITTANICA. Brittanica strikes back!

Photo: David Marc Fischer