August 10, 2005

Anthropologists of the stage take note: Kevin Cahoon may be the missing link that separates the Hilton Theater and CBGB.

SUPERMARKETS devote so much square footage to ice creams and sorbets these days that churning your own at home can seem as pointless as whittling your own fork. But many of the flavors filling store freezers -- with their peanut-butter-filled pretzels, cookie-dough pellets and stripes of marshmallow goo added in -- spring from a very limited source of culinary creativity, as if they were proposed by an overcaffeinated 8-year-old. Most skew toward buttery, chocolaty flavors that can grow dull day after day. Inventing an exciting, enticing new flavor of your own is among the best reasons to make ice creams and sorbets at home. (Freshness is another.)

Chen Xianzhong, proprietor of Baghdad's first authentic Chinese restaurant in new Iraq, explains that since recent suicide bombing outside he is doing takeout only for few loyal customers; Chen, who studied Arabic in China, has worked at various ventures in region, for Chinese government and for himself, eventually opening two restaurants and hotel; photo; business thrived until kidnapping and carjacking attacks on his workers and himself; Chen says he is trying to recoup his money and still likes Iraq, where he earned his first US dollar (M)

Delaware Chancellor William B Chandler III rules that Walt Disney Company and chief executive Michael D Eisner were within their rights to dismiss Michael S Ovitz with $140-million severance package after just 14 months as president; ruling in shareholder lawsuit also says directors fell short of highest standards of corporate governance and harshly criticizes Eisner for enthroning himself as 'infallible monarch,' but concludes that his actions on Ovitz were in good faith; Eisner has since been stripped of chairmanship after investor revolt led by Roy E Disney; trial's soap opera revelations recounted (M)

José Contreras wore his 2003 Yankees ring in the Chicago White Sox clubhouse after last night's game. It was a reminder that Contreras had played a role in the Yankees' success, helping them reach the World Series that season. Contreras's Yankees legacy will never be that simple. He was a pawn in the Yankees' can-you-top-this rivalry with the Boston Red Sox, signed as much because the Red Sox were after him as he was for his talent. He was not an utter failure (he won 15 of 22 decisions for the Yankees), but his inconsistency was maddening.