Shepherds

The professor at Valley College, with his long gray hair and beard, reminded student Mary Jackson of the biblical "Ancient of Days" sitting on his heavenly throne. Another admiring student compared his appearance to none other than Noah. But it's not only his resemblance to a Hebrew sage that brings distinction to 54-year-old professor Zev Garber.

Nearly every English pub serves shepherd's pie every day except Sunday. It's a simple dish of ground beef and gravy covered with mashed potatoes and baked until the top starts to brown. How is it possible to offer the same dish every day in almost every pub in the country without causing a revolution? Well, like the hamburger, shepherd's pie is a good combination of textures and flavors, a nice balance of meat, starch and vegetables.

Mark Shepherd Jr. announced his retirement Friday as chairman of Texas Instruments Inc., Dallas, effective April 21. TI President and Chief Executive Jerry R. Junkins will assume the additional title of chairman upon Shepherd's retirement.

And then there were five. Comedian Sherri Shepherd officially joined ABC's "The View" on Monday, filling the seat vacated by Star Jones Reynolds last year. "Well, this is the worst-kept secret," said Barbara Walters, the daytime talk show's co-executive producer, as she introduced Shepherd to the cheering audience. "Oh my gosh, I'm actually one the girls!" exclaimed a beaming Shepherd, who has been a guest host on the program nearly two dozen times.

The competition staged at Valley College a few days ago had all the ingredients of a miniature Olympic Games. Besides the intense battle for prizes, there was extraordinary grace under pressure, plenty of fanfare and regalia, a village for the contestants, behind-the-scenes maneuvering and, of course, unabashed commercialism.

The blues come easily to guitarist Kenny Wayne Shepherd. Maybe too easily. At the House of Blues on Friday, fiery instrumental passages again seemed to flow effortlessly from his young fingers, sending fans into fits of euphoria. But he's yet to make a lasting personal mark on his genre. Shepherd plays in an expressive style most often compared to his heroes Stevie Ray Vaughan and Jimi Hendrix.

Former Marine Corps Commandant Lemuel C. Shepherd Jr., who fought in three wars during his 42 years of service, died Monday in San Diego at the age of 92. Shepherd served as commandant, the Marines' highest-ranking officer, from 1952 to 1956. A native of Norfolk, Va., Shepherd was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Marines in May, 1917, and a short time later was on his way to France as part of 5th Marine Regiment.

I am a fan of Cybill Shepherd's "Cybill," and I respect and admire her outspoken support of the human and civil rights of gays and lesbians. However, in her interview with Don Heckman ("Cybill's Moonlight Serenade," Calendar, July 19), Ms. Shepherd made an overstatement, if not an error. She claimed that with the live vocals employed in "At Long Last Love" "Peter [Bogdanovich] reinvented a system that hadn't been used since the '30s." Actually, under the co-direction of Herbert Ross and William Wyler, Barbra Streisand sang "My Man" live for "Funny Girl," her 1968 film debut.

There was never a bandleader quite like Woody Herman. His instrumental skills--on clarinet and alto saxophone--were high-grade, but not at the virtuoso level of such contemporaries as Benny Goodman and Artie Shaw. Although he is credited with a few pieces, his compositional efforts cannot remotely be compared to the work of Duke Ellington or even Stan Kenton.

When, exactly, did Sherri Shepherd become an icon of the multi-platform, multimedia age? And does she get residuals? A co-host of "The View," the author of a book and now the star of her own Lifetime series, Shepherd has taken her hard-knock past, infidelity-plagued marriage and gift of gab and created a cottage industry of self-revelation. For years, Shepherd was a professional sitcom guest star, most recently on "30 Rock." Then she became an official lady of "The View," acting as self-appointed surrogate for working mothers, wronged women, born-again Christians and the factually challenged.