I read a rather bizarre story out of Libya in the paper this morning. 7 Bulgarian nurses have been sentenced to death for deliberately infecting children with AIDS, supposedly to try and find an AIDS cure. Pretty much everyone but the Libyans thinks the trial was bogus, especially since the Libyan government blamed the perrenial fall guys of Arab dictatorships, Israel and the US, in the past for the deaths. Outsiders say it was simple incompetence and poor sanitary conditions that caused the outbreak.

It will be interesting to see what effect this has on Khadaffi's efforts to improve Libya's status with the West. Colonel K. knows he's not getting any younger and wants to leave some sort of positive legacy apparently, instead of being remembered as "Crazy Khadaffi." And one thing he has proven to be is a survivor. Unlike Hussein he was able to figure out how far to push the West before the West would snap back.

Speaking of people looking to maintain their careers, unless you live in a cave, or at the very least don't watch commercial tv, you know that Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen have a new movie out in actual theatres. Roger Ebert, not surprisingly, gave it a star and a half. The Olsens and their management obviously hope this will be the opener to some sort of big screen career. But lets face it, if it doesn't work it won't matter all that much to them moneywise, just like David Schwimmer doesn't have to worry about working again. The twins are worth an estimated 150 million. Each. They'll have to be very stupid, or have very corrupt financial managers, to blow that kind of fortune. Its also interesting that the ads refer to them as Ashley and Mary-Kate Olsen, no doubt to break from everyone calling them "Marykateandashley Olsen," as if they had a collective first name.

With their 18th birthday coming up they'll be "legal," and as a result you're hearing lots of snide comments about how long until they do a photo shoot together in Playboy. I dunno. More likely in a few years one or both of them will get "born again" and go on to a career in the Christian entertainment business. Assuming of course some cult like Scientology doesn't get their hooks into them.