2001-12-28 | 8:56 p.m.

corduroy licorice had a nose for news. he liked to rub the morning paper across his snout and then pretend to be a coal mine worker for the rest of the day.

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i just got back from seeing the royal tenenbaums with my homegirls c & s, pure cane sugar.

we had a fun old afternoon together. since s-girl lives in enwhysee now, i don't get to kick with her like i'd like. home for the holidays, she had some time to hang in the l.a. basin. so me, her and her sistah pulled a foo and ate, shopped, talked, walked and viewed together. i'm lucky to call them sweet and sassy girls my own.

the movie was extra fabulous, as i heard tell it would be. it's a grandma's quilt of a black comedy and i must give wes anderson and his posse mad props for pulling off another bit of oddball genius. it weren't perfect or "best of the year," like the new york times claimed, but it was pure brain-chewing pleasure. i'm sure many will hate it as much as i hated vanilla sky, but it was a refreshing jaunt for the imagination.

sure, it could have been improved with a cinching of the belt when it came to editing, but the writing was clever, the acting terrific (especially gene hackman and angelica huston and the curly-headed, warm-up-suited grandson not named uzi). i took exception to one tired punchline of a character named dudley (and it's too bad bill murray wasn't given much to do), but otherwise i enjoyed the funhouse world and diverting characters anderson and his writing partner owen wilson created.

oh, and i loved how they included the charlie brown christmas music in the movie soundtrack. it was the perfect theme song for gwyneth's character. plus, an exquisite use of a nick drake number. yessss!

i read a terrific los angeles magazine article about anderson which touches on the fact that he has very a structured, detailed vision of the world he wants to create in his life and in his work. let me just say, wes, i wanna live in your dollhouse!

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as the credits rolled, i noticed that the name of one of the actors was donal. that's kinda a cool name. it would be great to name a kid that. i can imagine the hijinks that would ensue when he had to explain it throughout his life when meeting strangers for the first time:

"my name is donal."

"donald?"

"no, like 'donald' without the 'd, see?"

"wha-...donald without the 'd'? but that's 'onald.'"

"no, without the second 'd.'"

"oh...wha-...wait..."

what a great way to go through life, i tell ya.

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and one more time for mama...

happy 2002 to you, precious fanny-whistlers!!! happy trails to you as 2001 rides off into the friscalating dusklight.

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