Matt Dillon was in town last week, adding a few final touches to his film,

mostly collecting bits of background sound. He says the movie, which won't be

called Beneath the Banyan Tree, will probably be shown at a few film festivals

in August and September before an eventual release late this year.

King Norodom Sihanouk received a New Year's note from Colonel Muammar

Al-Gathafi, Libya's leader of the Great Al-Fateh Revolution. The letter, dated

24 December 2001 and re-printed in the King's Bulletin Mensuel de Documentation,

reads as follows:

"On the occasion of the end of the year 2001, for the

Christmas Eve, and with the forthcoming year 2002, I would like to offer to Your

Excellency my best gift of knowledge and wisdom, found at the last verse of the

Old Testament of the Holy Bible, in the book of Genesis, about the dream of

Joseph, the son of Jacob. Please take a look at the said verse in the Holy

Bible."

Could some alert reader be so kind as to check this out and send

in a summary of what Joseph's dream was all about?

US President George Bush has this to say in his State of the Union

address:

"For too long our culture has said, 'If it feels good, do it.'

Now America is embracing a new ethic and a new creed: 'Let's

roll.'"

Could some alert reader be so kind as to check this out and send

in a summary of what President Bush's dream is all about?

If you see some shaven-headed guy about town who looks like Hurley Scroggins,

please be advised that it IS Hurley Scroggins.

Jim Kennelly passed away on January 29 after an extended illness. May he rest

in peace.

Jim, knowing that the Great Reaper was near for some months

now, passed on heaps of personal anecdotes for inclusion in this column to be

used In Memoriam.

One of the few that can actually be printed concerned

his tenure as a UNV Election Observer in 1993. Jim was trying to manage a

give-away program of radios donated by Japan. When a feeding frenzy ensued, Jim

decided enough was enough. From the balcony of his UNTAC building he took a boom

box and hurled it at one of the leading rabble rousers, hitting him smack on the

head. Jim said that the crowd became much more orderly real fast.

A wake

for Jim is being held tonight at Tom's Irish Bar.