THIS JUST IN!

News You Need to Know, or Not!

As the Los Angeles Times reported last week, the governor has been spending nearly every night in his Brentwood mansion, shuttling between Sacramento and Southern California in his private jet.

The governor uses his own money to pay for his Gulfstream flights, which price out at about $10,000 an hour, the Times reports.

And what about the cost to the environment? The governor's staff says he purchases "carbon credits." Such credits are aimed at offsetting the greenhouse gases generated by his flights but do nothing about the particulates and smog-forming compounds they spew into the air.

Obviously, this green-leaning governor is sensitive about the apparent hypocrisy of his daily jet-setting.

He should be. Carbon credits? It is good, however, to be a rich governor.

*****

Human Sushi Platter.

By Tom Horgen Minneapolis Star Tribune (edited)

Naked under two roses and a large daisy placed you-know-where, she lay still for more than an hour as people plucked raw fish off her body at Temple, the downtown Minneapolis restaurant that held its inaugural naked sushi party this weekend.

About 200 other Minnesotans thought the same, forking over $75 apiece to partake in this rare culinary adventure. You might expect a drooling crowd of male hedonists, but the diners -- evenly split between men and women, and ranging in age from 20s to 50s -- were calm and curious, though they did mingle about with ear-to-ear smiles, as if each had just won the Powerball.

Minneapolis' health and licensing officials signed off on Pham's venture after witnessing a mock trial, he said. What city health official would miss this?

Dudes. Half the models were men. "It's only fair for the ladies," the owner said.

The male model didn't mind going totally hairless either, which was a requirement for each model (they were paid $100 an hour, plus tips). The whole thing seemed like a walk in the park for the soft-spoken Jaworski. Waiter there is a curly hair in my sushi.

But eat they did. Upon entering Temple that night, every diner was issued one pair of fine wooden chopsticks. They were also given a list of rules: Don't speak to the models, don't touch the models and don't say anything inappropriate. You might be eating raw fish off a semi-naked person, but please don't treat them like strippers. Why not? Party pooper!

Chopsticks in hand, Lily Crooks, 25, stood with a group of friends just feet from one of the male models. After watching someone else make the first move, she rallied her group: "OK, now we better move in."Her roommate Ellie Blades, 27, went straight for the male model's chest. Crooks, the right thigh.

When asked about the sushi's quality, Blades smiled and said: "It was the best piece of salmon I've ever had in my life." You Betcha!

*****

The quotation of the week came from Clinton adviser Harold Ickes. "Too much is yet unknown about Senator Obama," he said during a Clinton campaign conference call on Wednesday. Now that raises a fascinating philosophical issues we have not pondered since the philosopher Donald Rumsfeld instructed us that while there are "known knowns," there are also "unknown unknowns," those we "do not know we don't know."

HUH?

*****

By Henry Samuel in Paris
French women are becoming increasingly assertive in their sexual habits, while one-in-five younger French men "has no interest in sex", according to one of the most comprehensive surveys of the nation's love lives. I am not sure what this says about French men!

*****

Joshua Coleman, a San Francisco-area psychologist and author of "The Lazy Husband: How to Get Men to Do More Parenting and Housework," said equitable sharing of housework can lead to a happier marriage and more frequent sex.

Honey, where’s the vacuum?

Have a nice day!

Sammy C.