Monday Morning Notes: Leprechauns, Marxists, Bettie Page

We kick off this week's Monday Morning Notes with a digitally assaulted photograph called "Shadowplay." Shot in wild, wonderful Dunbar. (Click the picture to enlarge. ) Now, on to the notes:

Briefs and Shorts-the Leprechaun edition: Thursday night, Kanawha Players presents the latest installment in their "Briefs And Shorts" series at Capitol Roasters, at the corner of Quarrier and Summers Streets in downtown Charleston. This edition of KP's series of short plays is entitled "Scenes From An Irish Pub Part Two." The ten-minute plays are "Cinder Reilly," "Green," and "Mrs. Harrigan's Big Mistake." In addition, there will be fiddle music, dancing, and stereotypical Irish behavior. Admission is only five bucks, and the show starts at 8 PM.

Calling Earl: Big news for fans of NBC's My Name Is Earl--a DVD collection of the first season will be in stores late this summer, before the start of season two. Aside from all the first-season shows, the set will include commentary, deleted scenes, highlights from the show's gag reel, and a 15 minute mini-episode that shows what would have happened if, instead of obtaining his life-changing epiphany from Carson Daly, Earl had continued to flip channels while in the hospital, and had obtained his new outlook on life from Stewie Griffin, the murderous evil genius baby from The Family Guy. "Must See TV" indeed!

Postal Irony: Have you ever had a piece of mail that was so badly mangled in transit that it arrived in your mailbox enclosed inside another envelope that bore the following apology?

I got one of these the other day. The funny thing is, the piece of mail that was nearly destroyed by the mail-sorting machines was none other than junk mail. But it wasn't just any old junk mail. The piece of junk mail mangled by the Post Office was an advertisement for.......the Post Office!

I guess that the mail sorting machines were so offended by the badly drawn "Cathy" comic strip, that they saw fit to rip it to shreds. Who knew postal equipment had taste? And what does it say about the Postal Service when they have to resort to paying to license a comic strip character to promote a service on which they hold a monopoly, and then they can't even deliver that piece of mail intact?

Song of the week: The Marxist Brothers, by Punk veterans NOFX. In stores tomorrow, this cut from NOFX's "Never Trust A Hippy" EP, is a clever comment on those folks who go through a Marxist phase, but never really understand what it means.

Paging Bettie: Bettie Page was the glamour queen of the 1940s and 1950s. Then she suddenly and mysteriously disappeared. Her absence enhanced her mystique, and she became a pop culture icon, with tributes appearing in comic books, movies, rock songs, and even fine art. After searching for the missing pin-up queen for years, she was finally discovered a few years ago, with a remarkable tale of how she went from being the nation's top model to working as a missionary for Billy Graham, and hitting rock bottom before finding out that, over the last couple of decades, she had become more famous than ever. Her story is coming to the big screen in April as The Notorious Bettie Page hits theaters, with Gretchen Mol in the title role. You can read more about Ms. Page's incredible life at her website, here.