Sunny Side Up

For what it's worth, Didion didn't seem fazed. "Some people have asked me if she was upset about it, and she was not," Swartz says. "At the end of it we got offstage and she threw her arms around me and gave me a big kiss."

Levy, for one, doesn't sound anxious to do the same. While he says, "I don't want to see Mimi hung out to dry" because "she just had a bad night," he will be making changes: He'll now discuss beforehand with interviewers what questions they need to ask.

Up next: playwright Terrence McNally. He'll be interviewed by Gregory Boyd, artistic director of the Alley Theatre. Who better bring his A game.

Banned in Aldine

Susan Ohanian is an education activist who's written several books and has a popular Web site featuring her views.

Those views include regular attacks on the No Child Left Behind act, the crowning achievement of George W. Bush's education policy.

Ohanian is one of the leading critics of NCLB. Although you wouldn't know it if you're a student or teacher in the Aldine school district.

One of Ohanian's regularly updated "outrages" on her Web site is a recent item headlined "Critical Thinking in Houston." Aldine ISD, she announces, has blocked district computers from being able to access her site.

What gives, Aldine? A little criticism of W and you come down with the censorship hammer?

Not really, says AISD spokesman Mike Keeney. "A company called Blue Coat updates our block list every night, and political activism is one of the categories," he says. "It doesn't matter if it's left or right...If it doesn't have educational value, those sites would be blocked."

He says the Web sites of Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter are blocked, too.

So there's no great pro-Bush conspiracy. Then again, there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of open-mindedness, either.

AlmostMySpace

In the past, we’ve featured the AlmostMySpace of Reddy the Red-Light Camera, the Big Brother piece of technology that Mayor Bill White is so fond of. Reddy’s not the only hi-tech marvel working the Net, though. We’ve found HPD Chief Harold Hurtt’s bestest buddy, the scourge of the Third and Fifth wards — the Taser!! To check out Tay-z's AlmostMySpace page, Click Here.