Sidelights.

Before administering a journalism admissions test to his undergraduate students at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, professor David Brackes gave it to his own children, ages 11 and 17. Both did well, with his 17-year-old daughter scoring 67 out of 68 points. By contrast, fully 80 percent of Brackes' students failed to reach the minimum passing score of 54. ?? Message left on a White House answering machine: "This is Al Gore's office. Due to a constitutional crisis, I will be out of the office for four years." ... Departing Clinton administration staffers trashed White House offices, but the new administration &dined to prosecute the vandals, leading Washington Post columnist William Raspberry to observe, "If this is class warfare, then it's the Bush people who are displaying all the class." ?? Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Patrick B. Murphy faces a disciplinary hearing after taking upwards of 400 sick days over the last four years. Witnesses claim Judge Murphy was attending a Caribbean medical school during a portion of his "sick leave." ?? As of January 1, 2001, all toy guns bought, sold, or manufactured in California must be painted bright orange and/or bright green. Violators may be fined up to $10,000.... Several weeks after the California law took effect, Disneyland was still selling illegal toy guns. Disney CEO Michael Eisner sits on an advisory panel for CeaseFire, an anti-gun group. ?? British schoolchildren are now encouraged to use the "internationally standardized" spellings of scientific terms, such as sulfate, not sulphate. One teacher told the Daily Telegraph, "It's more to do with cultural imperialism by America than wanting to standardize ... next they'll be telling us to drop the i in aluminium because Americans can't pronounce it." ?? Richard and Toni Goldsmith saved every catalogue they received in the mail last year. The San Antonio Express-News reports it took 12 boxes to hold 1,800 catalogues from 375 companies, weighing in at nearly 500 pounds.

The U.S. Treasury expects to tax over 48,000 estates in 2001, a 78 percent increase over the 1991 figure, the Wall Street Journal reports. ?? The World Health Organization (WHO) seeks a global ban on cigarette machines. The Japan Times reports that Japanese tobacco companies, which rely on machines for their profits, are fighting the WHO plan: ...