Buzz Bin

by MICHAEL BOWEN & r & & r & We Are Not Making This Up & r & & r & While AIDS remains a serious threat among high-risk groups and in sub-Saharan Africa, world health officials declared last week that there is no threat of a global AIDS pandemic among heterosexuals. (Hundreds of millions of dollars may have been wasted on prevention programs aimed at low-risk areas and populations.) The source of this statement? None other than the director of HIV/AIDS at the World Health Organization -- the man who for the last several years has headed the global battle against AIDS -- a man named Kevin de Cock. He was joined in making the announcement by a United Nations health officer, the UNAids director of evidence, monitoring and policy. His name -- and we are still not making this up -- is Paul de Lay.





Oh, Go Buy an Umlaut


Wa*t to *ud*ti*n fo* Whe*l *f Fo*t*ne? The Wheelmobile, recruiting contestants for a certain nationally syndicated game show starring P** S*j*k and V**n* Whi**, will stop at Northern Quest Casino on Sunday, with auditions at noon, 1:30 pm and 3 pm. Pick up an application an hour beforehand. Visit www.khq.com. And don't bother hoarding any consonants.





Deth Thrett


The Bin was challenged to a duel this week. In light of our Spokane Is Spelling victory last October, persons unidentified hand-delivered to Inlander HQ a glass vial enclosing a dead "spelling" bee in some viscous fluid or other and promising to see us in October (see photo). (Ooh, our dictionaries are all a-quiver.)





One small irony, by the way. The challenge -- "To: The Pacific Northwest Inlander "Glottogonics" (Michael Bowen, Anne Colford, Joel Smith)" -- misspells our associate editor's name. As she points out, should our challengers seek the correct spelling, they can find it, in our office, on last year's championship trophy.