Fan Club

The fathers' reactions were the most striking. You might have thought that the male fans who descended on the PGA Tour's Bank of America Colonial tournament here would share the resentment expressed by some of the professional male golfers toward Annika Sorenstam, the best female golfer in the world. After all, pro golfer Vijay Singh told reporters he hoped she missed the cut and said she didn't "belong" here. Another pro, Brian Kontak, threatened to sue the LPGA unless it let him play in the U.

MeetUp, the Internet service that arranges meetings between individuals with special interests and hobbies and like-minded people in their area, has gone global, with more than 31 countries represented. But MeetUp's Web site operators didn't expect such a great response from Internet users in Pakistan. It seems that users, seeing that there were "Sex and the City" groups for fans of the HBO series, signed up to form "Sex and the City: Islamabad."

For the 100 or so people gathered in a small hotel ballroom Saturday near Los Angeles International Airport, the question posed by an audience member triggered a wave of murmurs in the crowd. Why exactly do late-night cable television programmers persist in the outrage of showing "I Love Lucy" reruns but no old Jack Benny shows? This is the kind of issue that can heat up a room, especially when the International Jack Benny Fan Club is in town.

The earnest young man in tortoiseshell glasses spends up to 18 hours a day peering at a computer screen. Despite his unassuming appearance, Hwang Myong Pil's online moniker is "Nuclear Bomb," and he is one of the secret weapons of South Korea's president-elect, Roh Moo Hyun. Hwang, 29, is a volunteer for an online fan club that is an increasingly important player in South Korean politics.

Living in Communist East Germany, Wolfhard Kutz used all kinds of schemes to smuggle in his beloved Frank Zappa records: secretive rendezvous with West Germans at highway rest stops. Hidden compartments in his car doors. Accomplices who sneaked albums across borders. After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, Kutz could pursue his passion openly and created a fan club: the Arf Society, a reference to Zappa's Barking Pumpkin record label.

Since Jim Murray's death, there is only one Times sports columnist whom I read regularly and with pleasure--the much-criticized T.J. Simers. He is constantly funny, interesting and courageously outspoken. He is admirable in his battles against the egoism and infantilism in the world of sport. If you don't like his brand of sarcasm and irony, don't read him. Sam Woods Los Angeles

Any chance that the L.A. Times will stop fawning over players that don't play in this city, in fact, players that have hurt this city's Lakers? I do believe that Michael Jordan already has a fan club. David Flanders Mission Viejo

Chris Foster's view of Paul Kariya ["Cold Sets In in Quest for Cup," Oct. 12] is a perfect example of the media hype that goes on in sports. Kariya, the "steadfastly loyal" savior of the Ducks? Kariya, the $10-million-a-year superstar? Give me a break! How about Kariya the holdout who sacrifices half the season for more money while his team struggles to win games? How about Kariya the half-season wonder who hasn't played a full season in who can remember how long, usually because of a sore toe or something equally as lame?

What a relief. Now that the Dodgers won't have center fielder Johnny Damon as their leadoff man, the pressure is off the fans. They can continue to avoid traffic and arrive late without fear of missing anything, other than Tom Goodwin striking out to start off the home half of the first. Of course, it will still be an exciting year for Dodger fans, the tension mounting as Goodwin goes after Bobby Bonds' single-season strikeout mark of 189 set in 1970.

With the solemnity usually reserved for the passing of revered civic leaders, San Diego Zoo officials on Friday announced the death of Ken Allen, an escape-artist orangutan so beloved that he had his own fan club. Zoo officials had worried that the death of the 29-year-old Bornean orangutan after a fight with cancer would be traumatic for local zoo lovers, particularly the Orang Gang, a group that appears daily to check on Ken Allen and the zoo's other seven orangutans.