All day yesterday Graeme Lay of Devonport watched with amazement the man felling the giant Norfolk pine across the street. "Single-handedly, and hundreds of feet off the ground, he is removing the branches from the tree with a chainsaw.

The last time I spoke to Dan Rhodes, he was rushing around his bachelor's flat "scrubbing". It was 2004, during his short-lived "retirement" from writing, and his brand-new wife had just upped sticks from San Francisco and was about to move in. It sounded like the start of a Dan Rhodes short story, provided that the story went on to have the besotted hero scrubbing himself literally to the bone ...

You might not remember who won last year's Super Bowl, but chances are you remember some of the commercials shown during the game.

Highly Recommended THE MOVIE: "As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a gangster." The most celebrated shot of Martin Scorsese's 1990 masterpiece Goodfellas comes early, when young wiseguy Henry Hill (Ray Liotta) takes Karen (Lorraine Bracco) on a date at the Copacabana. Eyeballing the long line outside, Henry instead ushers her to a back entrance, and the snaking camera follows ...

The Friends of the Wayne Public Library will hold a Blue Bag book sale Feb. 20 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the Friends Room of the library, 461 Valley Road. Pay $5 for a blue bag and fill it with your choice of books. Also, on Feb. 28 the group is holding a half-price book sale.

By RUTH ABREO For The Union Democrat Meagan Humphrey (Gold Country Youth/Adult) bowled some 39 pins over her average and Jared Ford (Black Oak Adult/Jr) continues to bowl in the 200 game area with a 211. Reaching the 700 mark for this report is Derek Gregory, Jokers Wild 258/718. High for the women this week are Elaine Simmons (High Rollers) 227 and Jeannie Philbin (Morning Rollers) 202/580.

Two-time Eagle-Tribune All-Star gymnast Shilanna Gallo has rewritten the Central Catholic record books this winter. It has been especially pleasing because a back injury nearly kept her on the sidelines.

By Sarah Carlson, Staff Writer Psychiatrist. Momma and Daddy. Jail Warden. All roles you have to juggle when teaching, says Wayne Sides, art professor at the University of North Alabama. But the role that never goes away is being an artist.

The bullet that took Bria Bell's sight also gave her something: motivation.

SEATTLE -- A woman walking along Interstate 5 in south Seattle has been struck and killed by a truck and a car, reported KIRO 7 Eyewitness News. A semi-truck driver told the Washington State Patrol he saw the woman stumbling along the northbound lanes about 1 a.m. Tuesday and swerved.

CORPUS CHRISTI Food, funny ads oh, theres a football game?Its Super Bowl Sunday, and I will be among the 100 million sheep herded in front of the television for the 44th football hype-a-palooza. If youve been in a sports-free cave, this years turf war is between the New Orleans Saints and the Indianapolis Colts.Considering I know just enough about football to embarrass myself, I dont ...

Rent It THE MOVIE: There have been few recent movies that I wanted to like more than Couples Retreat . It's got a terrific cast (Vince Vaughn, Jon Favreau, Jason Bateman, Kristen Bell, Jean Reno), it sports screenwriting credits by Swingers and Made co-stars Favreau and Vaughn (with Dana Fox), and it is directed by their longtime producing partner, Peter Billingsley, who was Ralphie in A ...

"I Am Ozzy" is a "true Hollywood story" in book format -- a ride through rock 'n' roll history with a driver saturated in controlled substances.

Rent It THE MOVIE: Scott Sanders' Black Dynamite is a broad blaxpoitation parody that knows all the words and none of the music. There are laughs in it, to be sure, some of them robust. But it is primarily a triumph of photography and design, and the script that they serve is undercooked and weak--a one-joke premise that wears mighty thin by the time the film's brief-but-somehow-flabby 90 ...

With Valentine's Day coming up in less than a week, and all the glorious goodies that come along with it having festered on the shelves of Wal Mart for more than a month, I couldn't help but take notice of Warner Brothers' upcoming - and originally named - film, "Valentine's Day".

With her huge voice (not to mention a famous mentor in the form of Amy Winehouse), teen singing sensation Dionne Bromfield is tipped for superstardom.

Shoes has been commissioned and produced by London's Sadlers' Wells, where it will begin performances Sept. 3 prior to an official opening Sept. 7 for a run through Sept. 11. Its season there will be followed by a U.K and international tour in 2011.

With his imposing couture salon and phenomenally successful perfumes, Jean Paul Gaultier could almost be mistaken for part of the Paris fashion establishment these days. But once a mischief-maker always a mischief-maker, as Lucy Cavendish discovers .

'Beyond Therapy' RATING: **

Check out the cats available at the Canton Animal Shelter.

PUYALLUP, Wash. -- A 4-year-old pre-school student was left unattended on a school bus in Puyallup Monday, a district official confirmed.

Herding cats is clearly easier than herding movie stars. At the Beverly Hilton, a roomful of media is on hand for a mass press-conference for the Garry Marshall movieValentine's Day,the most star-laden movie of the comedy director's career.[...]

A friend from the National Society of Newspaper Columnists wrote to tell everyone that Monday was National Laugh and Get Rich Day.

Bill Murray has been discussing his potential participation in Ghostbusters 3 intimating that he's keen to take part in the long-gestating sequel.

A new show from the imagination of artist James Gurney opens at the Delaware Art Museum beginning Feb. 6 to May 16. More than 60 paintings showing "Dinotopia", an imaginary extraordinary island where humans and dinosaurs live together in harmony will be on display.

I tried to watch an episode of Lost while visiting my parents house last year and my mom walked in and did the whos she? whats he doing now? why does that statue have four toes? questioning routine, which simply will NOT work with Lost . There is no quick premise that you can explain during a commercial break.

You little beauty: footy is back! With the NAB Cup starting this week, it's time to put down the cricket bat, pick up the Sherrin - and take a screamer with our predictions for 2010.

Highly Recommended THE SERIES: HBO seems like an appropriate place for the animated comedy series The Life and Times of Tim , since it seems most closely influenced not by the rapid-fire absurdism of The Simpsons , nor the scattershot pop-culture shitshow that is Family Guy (sorry, not a fan), but by its network cousin Curb Your Enthusiasm . Like Larry David, our hero Tim is not a perfect ...

Weez on ur island, makin ur picturez.