Kermit

If Kermit the Frog thinks "It's Not Easy Being Green," how will he like being bronze? The beloved Muppet sits beside his creator, Jim Henson, in a larger-than-life bronze statue that will be dedicated Wednesday at Henson's alma mater, the University of Maryland, College Park. The design, by sculptor Jay Hall Carpenter of Gaithersburg, Md., depicts Henson and Kermit in conversation, Kermit's left hand resting thoughtfully on Henson's wrist.

Flip your radio dial to 850 AM and get ready for anything from that hot track by the Chipmunks, "Achy Breaky Heart," to a hip message about brushing teeth. Welcome to Radio AAHS. It's new. It's slick. And it's for kids--24 hours a day. It joined the Los Angeles-area airwaves Feb. 11 after Los Angeles station KPLS dropped its Spanish all-talk format and became an affiliate of the Children's Satellite Network.

A Los Angeles gang member was convicted Thursday of four counts of first-degree murder in the mistaken-identity shootings of four relatives of retired professional football star Kermit Alexander. Horace Burns, 20, sat motionless as the jury--which must next decide whether Burns receives the death penalty or life in prison without possibility of parole--announced its verdict to Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Aurelio Munoz.

Kermit Jacobson, 79, who was 1976-77 grand master of California's Masonic lodges and former director of capital projects at Caltech. A native of Volin, S.D., Jacobson began his Caltech career in 1938, and, until his retirement in 1984, supervised the purchase of everything from pencils and paper towels to snowshoes and platinum to keep the science and engineering school running smoothly. On Monday in Pasadena of undisclosed causes.

Video The Best of Kermit on Sesame Street. Sony Wonder. 30 minutes. $12.98. He's "a singer, songwriter, reporter, alphabet-sayer and elbow-lover," according to furry blue monster Grover, presenting his pal Kermit with the "American Frog Institute's Frog of the Year Award" at the "Lincoln Center of the Performing Larks."

Kermit Lansner, 78, a former Newsweek editor who helped shape the future of weekly newsmagazines. Lansner first had a career as a philosophy professor and, married to an artist, was editor of Art News. But when Osborn Elliott became editor of Newsweek in 1961, he asked Lansner and Gordon Manning to join him as executive editors.

Kermit Roosevelt, a CIA operative who was a key player in the 1953 coup that restored Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi to power in Iran, died Thursday of complications from a stroke. He was 84 and passed away in a Cockeysville, Md., retirement home. The grandson of President Theodore Roosevelt and a distant cousin of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Kermit Roosevelt was a specialist in Middle Eastern affairs for most of his professional life.

I finished reading Bill Plaschke's piece on Kermit Washington [May 28] and couldn't understand how Mr. Washington couldn't get work in the NBA today when Latrell Sprewell got a second chance in New York (and appears to be making good, basketball-wise). Also, when you see that Bobby Knight still manages to keep a job, despite some of the revelations that have come out of the Indiana program of late. And don't even go there with how many athletes leave their children, beat their wives or girlfriends, etc. Maybe Mr. Washington should've been in football.

Loyola High led Crespi, 14-0, in the second quarter and Celt running back extraordinaire Russell White ran to the sideline after being stopped for a short gain. He looked at assistant coach Kermit Alexander, the former San Francisco 49ers' All-Pro who is White's cousin, and threw up his hands. "What are we going to do?" White said in an alarmed tone. Alexander smiled calmly and replied: "Don't panic. Stay cool, Russell."

They are one of cinema's most popular couples. No, we're not talking about Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman here, but those Muppet superstars Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy. In fact, the duo have become the Tracy and Hepburn of the Muppet world. Teaming up for the first time nearly a quarter of a century ago in the classic TV series, "The Muppet Show," they made their film debut 20 years ago in "The Muppet Movie."