NEWS LITE : ELDERS GOES ON BOOK TRAIL.

You can take the woman out of the country, but don't expect her to leave the straight talk behind.

``When you're poor people, you don't have time to beat around the bush,'' said former Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders.

Elders autographed copies of her recent autobiography, ``Joycelyn Elders, M.D.'' on Thursday at the 20th Book and Author Dinner at The Racquet Club of Memphis.

She credits her rural upbringing in southwestern Arkansas for the straight talk that cost her the high-profile Washington job.

President Clinton appointed her to become the nation's top doctor. He fired her in 1994 after she was criticized for remarks about masturbation as an element of human sexuality.

Froggy's behavioral warts barred

Froggy's decadent lifestyle - the smoking, the criminal activity - got him kicked out of school.

The controversial illustrations in Kevin O'Malley's book ``Froggy Went A-Courtin''' prompted officials to yank it from library shelves in Baltimore County.

Froggy is depicted as a 1930s gangster - burning money, robbing, smoking and toting a revolver as he speeds away from police, portrayed as cats.

O'Malley, 35, who has written and illustrated 14 books, said the school district should have given him a chance to defend his work before banning it.

``I'm angry that they put me in this position without being heard,'' he said in Friday's editions of The (Baltimore) Sun.

School library coordinator Della Curtis said the ban isn't censorship, but ``selection'' - although she acknowledged that she couldn't remember the school district doing such a thing previously in her 27 years there.

RuPaul, Rodman chat just a drag

SOURCE: Renee Graham

The Boston Globe

RuPaul and Rodman.

Think of the endless possibilites of a meeting between these charter members of our cultural theater of the absurd: RuPaul, the statuesque blond bombshell and America's undisputedqueen of drag; and Dennis Rodman, the combustible chameleon-haired iconoclast who wears women's clothing, sports several tattoos and body piercings, and, oh yeah, is a rebounding demon for the Chicago Bulls.

Just getting these two together to chat should be a stay-at-home, set-the-VCR knd of event. But like a much-hyped hurricane that sputters out to little more than a nasty downpour, Rodman's appearance on ``The RuPaul Show,'' whichpremiered Saturday night at 11 on VH1, just doesn't live up to its billing.

It's too bad, especially because it would have been a wonderful start for this weekly chatfest. RuPaul would seem as perfect a talk-show host as he has been a dance diva and makeup model. He has personality to spare, always comng off as everyone's best girlfriend. How else could an African-American man in a dress and blond wig - 6 foot 7 in heels, no less - be accepted so warmly in a society never too comfortable with gender-bending?

And that's the problem. RuPaul is just too nice. He needs David Letterman's mean streak, not to mention few of his writers to give this show a necessary spark. The half-hour program can coast for a while on RuPaul's considerable charms, but after that it's apparent his megawatt smile is the most illuminating thing about theshow.

At least RuPaul tries, which is more than can be said for the somnabulistic Rodman. Look, I've always found Rodman's antics humorous in a damn-the-establishment kind of way, but there really isn't too much there beyond that gaudy exterior. Being blessed with an ability to attack the boards the way Bob Dole attacks liberals does not a interesting talk-show guest make.

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Photo: ELDERS

(2) Stuck in the middle of nowhere

This Ha lloween witch doing a face plant on a power pole is just one of the amusing sights this time of year in Billings, Mont., where residents like to hang decorations everywhere.

Associated Press