<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML><HEAD> <META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> <META content="MSHTML 5.50.4611.1300" name=GENERATOR> <STYLE></STYLE> </HEAD> <BODY bgColor=#ffffff> <DIV> This from Cockburn's NYPress column: "A friend saw three Chinamen tumble out of a nightclub at 353 Broadway, each with bandages around one ear. One white man was similarly styled. She asked what was up. "We are celebrating Vincent van Gogh’s birthday," they chorused. True, it was March 30. All three Chinamen were artists, one of them recently graduating to that state from a previous career in investment banking. It turns out the party commemorating Vincent’s birthday was put on by those wonderful Russian artists, Vitaly Komar and Alex Melamid." Ah, hell Alex, why not go the full nine and say three Chinks? If you're gonna do it, do it right. Then, at the end of the item, Cockburn, perhaps unconsciously feeling the PC pressure build within, writes: "The birthday party for Vincent was a big success, with a band playing a blend of Polish and Irish music, plus mushroom soup with slabs of good bread and absinthe dispensed in huge cups." What? Not Polack and Mick music? Man, I hate these mixed racial descriptions. DP</DIV></BODY></HTML>