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The skinny

By TIMES WIRES
Published April 7, 2007

TRAVELING IN STYLE

COMRADES IN SPACE, I COME BEARING CONFIT

Quail roasted in Madiran wine, duck breast confit with capers, shredded chicken parmentier, apple fondant pieces, rice pudding with candied fruit and semolina cake with dried apricots. That's what going aboard today with billionaire software engineer Charles Simonyi on his $20-million to $25-million flight to the international space station. Why? Because his special friend is Martha Stewart. She trekked all the way to Baikonur, Kazakhstan, Friday -across the endless Kazakh steppes to a bleak space town of worn concrete buildings - just to say goodbye. And that was through a plate glass window. Rumor had it that the two would announce their engagement before liftoff. And the feast? It will be served up Thursday, which Russia observes as Cosmonauts' Day.

TWO-TIMING EAGLE

And she's barely cold in the aerie

Martha is scarcely cold in the grave, and George has already shacked up with another bald eagle. Worse: It's the nest wrecker who tried to peck to death Martha, George's longtime mate and mother of his 16 eaglets. Construction workers on the Woodrow Wilson Bridge project in Washington, near where the eagles are nesting, find it shocking. "Since January, they've gotten closer and closer, first hanging out on the same branch, one in the nest, the other right beside it, then in the same nest," said manager Michael Baker. The only thing the two new lovebirds don't seem to have done yet is produce eaglets.

BIRDS 2: NOT IN THE PARK

Bring on the geese police

If you're a Canada goose, don't expect Central Park to roll out the welcome mat. It'll sic border collies on you. Some 300 unsuspecting honkers that had taken up residence were chased away from the park Thursday. Officials had tried to stop people from feeding them, but they ended up relying on two black-and-white collies, who work for Geese Police Inc., to do the deed.

WAIT TILL YEAR'S END

Oh dear, we can't report to class

Forget being glued to their seats: Kids at a suburban San Diego high school couldn't even get through the school doors Friday. With a day to go before spring break, vandals plugged locks on all the exterior gates and doors on campus - about 100 of them - with super-strength adhesive. Workers quickly unsealed the lock on a building with 27 classrooms, but the rest of the school's 3,000 students were sent to the gym until their classrooms were opened, one by one.

[Last modified April 7, 2007, 01:58:56]