Wags

"B onsoir, mesdames et messieurs . " The host of a French version of "The Dating Game" welcomed bachelors and bachelorettes at Pierce College's annual foreign language immersion retreat last weekend. Retreat participants were performing in a variety show to showcase their improved fluency in French and Italian. A belle jeune demoiselle named Coco had the difficult task of choosing between celibataire numero un, deux ou trois.

We were sitting in a booth at Musso's. Outside it was drizzling. Inside, Pat Caddell was telling a story. This particular story had to do with the deep and visceral connection between Hollywood and Washington, D.C. Caddell, you may recall, gained fame as the ridiculously young pollster for Jimmy Carter during the 1976 campaign, when the former Georgia governor, against all odds, won the presidency.

"Permovet animum conturbatque deminutum nuper linguae latinae studium, " said Reginald Foster with lover's zeal and scholar's precision. He ain't whistlin' "Dixie." Foster is a Carmelite monk with a message. Decades after he left Milwaukee with well-thumbed grammars and a dream, Foster works in the Vatican, putting pronouncements of a Polish Pope into the ages-old official language of church business. Father Reginald Foster is the Apostle of Latin.

It's been two weeks since I praised journalists and a couple of fact-check outfits for exposing John McCain's lies about Barack Obama. Maybe Obama thought the media had given him a free pass. Not so. Now some of the same mainstream media outlets and websites have called out the Illinois senator for his own series of dispiriting distortions.

Eight Pomeranian puppies at a San Clemente animal shelter celebrated a different kind of homecoming on Thursday. The pups were among 39 confiscated Jan. 27 from what authorities say was an illegal kennel at a Dana Point home. They spent weeks at the shelter recuperating from respiratory infections and parasitic problems. The first eight adoptees snuggled into the arms of their eager new owners and prepared to head for homes as far away as Northridge, Chula Vista and Lancaster.

In 2003's "Dogville," the first installment in Danish filmmaker Lars von Trier's United States trilogy, the town philosopher Tom Edison tries to explain his penchant for inflicting long public lectures on his fellow citizens. "I think there's a lot this country's forgotten," he says. "I just try to refresh folks' memories by way of illustration."

The notion that the hot dog should be redesigned inspires a variation on the mad-scientist-movie line: "Man was not meant to tamper in God's domain." Or, in this case, Oscar Mayer's. Yet the American Academy of Pediatrics is proposing that the wiener (and other products frequently consumed by children) be reshaped as a way of preventing toddlers from choking. The proposal doesn't sit well with an interest group we didn't even know existed, the National Hot Dog & Sausage Council.

Sunday marks the 100th anniversary of arguably the most famous art exhibition of the 20th century On Lexington Avenue at 25th Street in New York, the ad hoc Assn. of American Painters and Sculptors opened the International Exhibition of Modern Art on Feb. 17, 1913, beginning just under a monthlong run. Housed in the hulking brick headquarters of the 69th Infantry Regiment Armory, it quickly became known as simply the Armory Show. Or maybe not so simply. The Armory Show was hugely controversial.

Every man has his price. What's yours? --Jimmy Hoffa If Danny DeVito were a rubber band, he'd be ready to snap. For two days, the director has been trying to shoot a complicated sequence in "Hoffa," which stars Jack Nicholson as Jimmy Hoffa, dark prince of the American labor movement. Nothing is going right. The sound is garbled. Extras knock over chairs. A flock of pigeons flies across the sound stage's cavernous rafters, making a racket.

SAN FRANCISCO - Hudson Landers is high-energy and loves sports. Spencer Witaszek is into quiet evenings lounging at home. And Marley James? The Topanga Canyon blond enjoys the mountains and has an independent streak. All three are looking for love, just not the kind you might imagine. Hudson, Spencer, Marley and their two-legged guardians are part of a novel online service called City Dog Share, whose motto is as straightforward as its members: "I will watch your dog if you can watch mine!"