Dude

Prepare a hearty white Russian for the latest run of Lebowski Fest , the slavish annual appreciation of the comedy that made bowling the coolest thing a man can do. A screening at the Wiltern is followed the next day by a bowling party where the Dude himself (well, Jeff Dowd, the inspiration for Jeff Bridges' character, above) will abide. Screening at the Wiltern, 3790 Wilshire Blvd., at 8:30 p.m. Fri. $19.99. Bowling party 9 p.m. Sat. at Cal Bowl, 2500 Carson St., Lakewood. $30. See www.lebowskifest.

Dude! Today is a day of special significance and the appointed hour is 4:20 p.m. What it all means is on the tip of the tongue. Literally. Welcome to April 20, a day that has come to mean a celebration of marijuana and a protest against the fact that its use, sale and possession are crimes. From the narrow streets of New York's Greenwich Village to the open expanse of San Francisco's Golden Gate Park, users will congregate to do their thing. Perhaps the most notorious gathering will be at the University of Colorado-Boulder, where last year 10,000 people smoked at the same time.

Dude Fun With Dude and Betty Lisa Pliscou, illustrated by Tom Dunne Harper: 32 pp., $14.99, ages 4 and up Once upon a time, there was a little surfer looking for some tasty waves. Not kiddie swells in the wading pool. No way. What he wanted was some good, righteous stuff to make him shout "Stokaboka!" all day long. Lisa Pliscou's children's book, "Dude: Fun With Dude and Betty," is the story of this young man's quest to ditch homework and spend a hot summer's day on the finer things in life, like cranking waves and eating nachos.

BOOKS Aimee Bender The Los Angeles-based writer and USC professor will read from her work and discuss the art of fiction. Bender is the author of four books, most recently "The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake. " Santa Monica College (HSS 165: Humanities and Social Sciences Building), 1900 Pico Blvd., Santa Monica. 11:15 a.m. Free. (310) 434-4303. http://www.smc.edu MUSIC The Sea and Cake Sam Prekop's jazz-infused indie band has always balanced gentle, sensitive vibes with a streak of adventurous musicianship (drummer John McEntire does time in the freaky experimental outfit Tortoise)

As an avid dude ranch vacationer, I read "Say Howdy Dude" (July 17) with considerable interest. The two ranches you covered were both large in terms of guest capacity; there are many ranches that accommodate 30 or fewer, and these have a distinctly different feeling, marked by a far more flexible structure. Also, Eugene Kilgore's "Ranch Vacations," distributed by John Muir publications, is an excellent source on dude ranches, fly fishing ranches and cross-country skiing ranches. LESLIE GOLDENBERG, Los Angeles

Probably no movie in recent memory uses the words radical and dude as much as "Rad" (citywide). You seem to be hearing them every minute or so. But that doesn't mean it's a radical movie . . . dude. The whole thing reminds you more of an overanxious teacher or coach, taking a few slang words and repeating them endlessly in a doomed attempt to "relate." "Rad" is about BMX bicycle racing.

Jeff Bridges, looking like a Malibu prophet with his bushy beard and seasoned surfer smile, says he had a bit of a flashback while filming "The Men Who Stare at Goats," which fictionalizes the oddball odyssey of a U.S. military program that tried to train soldiers to use mental powers as a weapon (and, yes, to snuff out farm animals by glaring at them). "I found myself remembering my own experiences in the 1970s when I hung out with John Lilly, the man who invented the isolation tank and did experiments with trying to communicate with dolphins," Bridges said.

Hey, dude! What's not cool? It's not cool when I tell my 10-year-old son that drugs can kill. Look at Bruce Willis. One cool dude, right? Doing anti-drug promos. Great! But what do I say to the same kid when he points to the same cool dude lighting up a cigarette on an episode of "Moonlighting"? Do bears bear? Do bees bee? Do cigarettes kill? Think about it. S. James, La Canada

L. A. is about to be Monked. Michael Lane and Jim Krotty, co-publishers of Monk, the country's only mobile magazine, arrived two months ago to chronicle the best, the worst and the weirdest of L.A. for a special Los Angeles edition of Monk. "Everything you read about L.A.

Thank you to Howard Rosenberg for telling it like it is in his column about KCOP's nightly newscast ("UPN 13's News for Dummies," May 6). He couldn't heap enough ridicule on those clowns to satisfy me--and I don't mean to disparage any actual clowns by comparing them to the blow-dried and glossy bunch at Channel 13. "UPN News 13" is like the forgotten candy bar one finds in the back of a drawer: a gooey, artificial mess that, once consumed, leaves...

As strong and sure as the trainers of the horses in the Breeders' Cup Classic are about their entries for Saturday's $5-million race, the truth will rise not from the Southern comfort of biased analysis but from the demands of the 1 1/4-mile-long dirt track at Churchill Downs. "You need a seasoned, battle-hardened horse to win this -- tactically quick, but able to grind it out at the end," said trainer Aidan O'Brien, whose New Zealand-bred entry, So You Think, is making his U.S. debut on dirt.

How about ghost of boyfriend past? Game On Dude was within yards of making Chantal Sutherland the first female jockey to win the Breeders' Cup Classic on Saturday when Sutherland's ex-boyfriend Mike Smith and his colt Drosselmeyer surged past on the outside to win the $5-million race before 65,143 at Churchill Downs. "I looked up, saw white and said, 'You've got to be kidding me, it's Mike Smith,' " Sutherland said. For Smith, who was aboard Zenyatta last year in a heartbreaking Classic loss to Blame at the wire, the redemptive victory tied him with now-retired Jerry Bailey for the most Breeders' Cup triumphs in the event's 28-year history with 15. "Last year, I sat here just devastated, thinking my life was over," Smith said.

Reporting from Louisville, Ky. — A mare is seeking a horse racing accomplishment for the record books. So is a woman. And a group of men have put their faith in a young female horse that has performed as if their late Southern California friend is orchestrating the outcome. These are some of the stories leading into the Breeders' Cup as the sport's largest collection of international thoroughbreds compete in 15 races Friday and Saturday worth a combined $25.5 million at Churchill Downs.

From Del Mar — When the smoke cleared from Sunday's $1-million TVG Pacific Classic at Del Mar, a thoroughbred that hadn't been in the conversation suddenly emerged as a candidate for horse of the year. No, his selection won't be by acclamation, even though that is this smooth-striding, 5-year-old's name. The grand Eclipse Award at the end of the year is always a grand juggle for voters who must consider Triple Crown-race winners and Breeders' Cup stars, among others. But Acclamation's victory Sunday, on another perfect Del Mar day, before 29,267, in the third of Southern California's three main races for older horses, had to turn some heads.

The richest day of the prestigious annual Del Mar thoroughbred meeting will take place Sunday, and it will feature three races totaling $1.45 million in purses, led by the $1-million TVG Pacific Classic. The Classic will go off as the ninth race on an 11-race card. It will be preceded by the $200,000 Del Mar Handicap, the third race of the day, and the $250,000 Pat O'Brien Stakes, the fifth race of the day. The Classic is run over 11/4 miles on the main synthetic track; the Handicap 13/8 miles on the turf and the Pat O'Brien seven furlongs on the main track.

Why do so many of us smirk when a Hollywood movie star picks up a guitar and walks toward a live microphone? Maybe it's because, as songwriter Harlan Howard once said, music is about "three chords and the truth" and, really, an actor's day job is about the closest you can come to lying for a living. The question brought a sage smile to the 61-year-old face of Jeff Bridges, the Oscar winner who this week will release his first major-label album, a 10-song collection from Blue Note/EMI called "Jeff Bridges.

Bravo to Christopher Knight for his scathing review of the Keith Edmier-Farrah Fawcett show at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art ("Like, Conceptual, dude," Nov. 25). Once again this show reinforces my belief that the Los Angeles County Museum of Art has been taken over by the entertainment industry. Richard Meade Los Angeles

Look, Matthew McConaughey has his shirt off. Perhaps it's his attempt at baring his soul for the apparent labor of love and Sex Wax, "Surfer, Dude." Yeah, there's a comma in there, presumably to imply something deeper than the disjointed mess it actually is. For his production company's first jaunt, McConaughey has gathered friends including Willie Nelson and Woody Harrelson, a regular stoners' all-star team, to tell the tall tale of a super-mellow surfer dude (no comma) who refuses to take part in the corporate game.

Horse racing was trying to create a new star in Twirling Candy, but instead it was a familiar star in trainer Bob Baffert who brought some life to the 72nd running of the Hollywood Gold Cup. Baffert's First Dude and Game On Dude put forth a strong stretch run and finished first and second in the $500,000 Grade I race at Hollywood Park on Saturday. First Dude won by a nose and paid $10.20 to win. Twirling Candy finished third, a neck behind Game On Dude. "When they hit the wire, I knew I had won it," Baffert said.

With the absence of retired Zenyatta, thoroughbred racing has been searching for a horse to provide star power, and Twirling Candy could be ready to come to the rescue. "He's one of the most talented horses I've ever trained," John Sadler said. Twirling Candy, a 4-year-old son of Candy Ride, is the 4-5 favorite for the biggest race of the Hollywood Park spring-summer meeting, the $500,000 Grade I Hollywood Gold Cup on Saturday at 11/4 miles. Set to be run as the eighth race in a 10-race card, the Hollywood Gold Cup brings together eight top older horses bidding for a guaranteed spot in the Breeders' Cup Classic on Nov. 5 at Churchill Downs.