Hello gang! Some news and notes for the week. Shall we begin?

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WOO HOO
Congrats to our editor-in-chief for the fine write-up he received in the St. Petersburg Times this past week. Well deserved attention, my friend. (Thank you, sir!---N)

SPEAKING OF
Last week I mentioned the passing of former "Deep Throat" star Linda (Lovelace) Boreman. As a weird sort of segue, I now report that former Nixon White House Secretary John Dean has announced that in June he will announce, in an online book, the identity of the informer known as "Deep Throat." It was Mr/Ms. Throat's information, relayed to Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, that helped bring along Nixon's shameful resignation in August 1974.

PERHAPS THE 11th TIME IS THE CHARM
Talk about no one caring about YOU. I mean, all you did was mastermind some of the most brutal murders of the '60's. You were on the cover of "Life" magazine with a swastika carved into your forehead. Hell, Guns and Roses even covered one of your songs. And now you've been turned down for the 10th time for parole. Sucks to be you, Charles Manson! Manson, 67, now must wait 5 more years for his next hearing.

PASSING ON
Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes, the outspoken member of the Grammy-winning trio TLC was killed in a car crash while vacationing in Honduras. She was 30. Lopes, who had a condo there, was driving a rental car with six other people when she lost control and crashed. She was the accident's only fatality. Nicknamed "Left Eye" because of her habit of replacing one lens of her glasses with a condom during performances, Lopes was known to us in the Kansas City area for more then her music. In 1994, after a fight with her then boyfriend, former Kansas City Chief receiver Andre Rison, Lopes burnt his million-dollar mansion to the ground. Despite this little set back, the two had announced plans to marry earlier this year.
Ruth Handler, a marketing pro who co-founded Mattel and created the Barbie doll, died Saturday from complications after colon surgery. She was 85. She and her husband, Elliot, teamed up in 1942 with industrial designer Harold Mattson. They launched a sideline making doll house furniture. Within a few years, the company began making a profit and began to specialize in toys. The company was named Mattel, fashioned from the "Matt" in Mattson and the "El" in Elliot. Seeing her daughter bored with the standard paper dolls of the day, Ruth created "Barbie Teen-age Fashion Model" and debuted it at the 1959 American Toy Fair in New York City. She named the doll after her daughter, Barbara. Barbie was later joined by Ken, named after the Mattson's son. In 1975 she and her husband were ousted from Mattel by new corporate managers.

STILL A KID
This past Monday, my son, Phillip, along with two other players, were honored at their high school on Senior Night. There was a very nice ceremony between baseball games where the parents were introduced and got to walk on the field with their sons. Hopefully, I'll have some photos for next issue. As I stood next to him, it hit me that he is almost a man and will soon be off to college. I looked at his mother and said, jokingly, "They grow up so fast." But before I got too depressed, I came home today to find him watching the first "Ninja Turtle" movie on TV. What I thought was great was that he had almost every line and action of the film memorized! The kid is still with me and I'm sure he always will be!

Well, that's it for this week. Look forward to the "World of Nolan PCR Special." See ya!