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Features

Forward thinking

By COLETTE BANCROFT
Published May 1, 2006

CAUSE AND EFFECT

Augusten Burroughs won a wide audience with his three acerbic memoirs, Running With Scissors soon to be a major motion picture, Dry and Magical Thinking. He mines his own improbably dysfunctional life for laughs again with Possible Side Effects, published today. In this collection of essays, Burroughs riffs on his endless neuroses about everything from the Tooth Fairy to Nicorette gum addiction, to often hilarious effect.

GIVING A HOOT

Hoot flaps into theaters on Friday, with Florida looking lovely - and threatened - on the big screen. Based on a children's book by author, columnist and all-around good guy Carl Hiaasen, Hoot is the tale of a group of kids who take big risks to defend a little bird against the onslaught of development. The kids are adorable, Luke Wilson plays a bumbling cop and Sunshine State icon Jimmy Buffett puts in an appearance as a science teacher.

THANK GOD FOR TAX BREAKS

The Florida Legislature is scheduled to wrap up its regular session Friday. Among the wacky bills moving through the system is one designed to give tax breaks to tourist attractions that feature biblical events. If that one makes it into law, can we expect an animatronic Moses at Disney World? Or maybe the staff at the Mons Venus will start handing out temporary Scripture tattoos.

MUSIC MASTERS

Three grand old men of American music celebrate birthdays this week. On Wednesday, folk patriarch Pete Seeger turns 87, and R&B's James Brown feels good at 73. On Thursday, jazz trumpeter and band leader Maynard Ferguson is 78.

- COLETTE BANCROFT, Times staff writer (727) 893-8435 or bancroft@sptimes.com

[Last modified May 1, 2006, 08:07:24]