Sideburn Cutting Contest??

Well, it's not exactly a Klondike Bar, but I can think of a lot of things I'd do to have a stake in that $640 million jackpot some lucky people just won. ... Everything except buy a ticket that is. ....

So, Zarks has a new owner, Sallie Overbey. ... I understand she's going to let Leo hang out there once in a while, so she's already on my good people list. ... Personally, I think a lot of places could use a good business pet. ... We definitely need a library cat, for instance. ... If the Crescent Hotel, with all it's high-falutin' world class, can have a feline licking its butt in the lobby, why can't everyone? ... C'mon, tourists love it.

Don't know about you, but I can't wait to see Drumming in the Dark, or whatever they're calling it, in Basin Park on the 14th. ... C.D. tells me Jeremy Mason McGraw has this huge black light cannon he's using for that Creative Energy project. ... It would be over the top to see nothing but a sea of pairs of hands covered in neon glow-in-the dark paint drumming away in the dark. ... I also hear McGraw is a little touchy about being accused of Photoshopping those lights onto onto his pictures. Not that I trust C.D. to have told me exactly how all that works, but apparently McGraw told her he actually does all that light painting outdoors himself, setting the camera so you don't see him, only the lights he's waving around -- like for hours, taking one shot at a time -- layer on layer. ... What some people do for art, eh? ... Like a lot of art, the more you get the process the more impressive it is. Otherwise it's kind of like spending a fortune on diamonds and having everyone assume they're rhinestones. ... (Story of my life.)

Speaking of photography, it's Chip Ford's birthday on the 5th. ... If you can find him, ask about the sideburn cutting contest.

And you can cut my sideburns at oliverdeplace@hotmail.com.