So, you were wondering, where has Cincinnati plastic surgeon Dr. Lawrence Kurtzman been these past two weeks? Nicaragua, that's where, with 12 other Cincinnati medical types. Working on smiles.

        Turns out Dr. Kurtzman and colleagues were there on a mission from OperationSmile, a non-profit group that provides reconstructive surgery for needy children worldwide. The team is the first full mission from Cincinnati.

        They were there, says Zell Schulman, who met the group at a party and has been talking about them ever since, to correct facial deformities on 150 patients, most of them cleft lip, cleft pallet and facial tumors.

        “It changes their lives with one procedure,” Schulman says. “In this country, we take it for granted, but in Nicaragua, if OperationSmile didn't do it, they'd go through life uncorrected.”

        And without Reds souvenirs and T-shirts: Schulman arranged for the medical team to take them along, sort of as ice-breakers for the kids.

        The team — nurses, pediatrician, anesthesiologist, oral surgeon, working under less than perfect conditions — left town Jan. 24. They returned Saturday to, what else?, a round of applause and a reception honoring their volunteer work.

        Heard around town: “Oh yeah, all the good Queens turned out. Some really good ones, too.”

        That would be author Jill Conner Browne, Boss Queen of the Sweet Potato Queens, eight Jackson, Miss., women who dress outrageously (pink majorette boots, padded and sequined bathing suits, pink capes, red wigs, way too much hot pink lipstick) and go out to have fun.

        She was here recently sign God Save the Sweet Potato Queens (Three Rivers Press; $12.95; ) at Joseph-Beth, then turned up at a Heart Association benefit at Matt Bradley's way glitzy — and way large — Hyde Park salon.

        As did some Queen wannabes, some in the official T-shirt and rhinestoney sunglasses, cheap tiaras, sashes, sequins and one massive pink beehive — “Did you flunk color class?” one guest asked Bradley.

        “I just love it that people here all get it,” Browne said, pulling off her wig and announcing it was her “travel hair. Mine's a Southern voice with a universal message. I'm thrilled to see it embraced.”

        Ready to work: Here's how they treat the new president on his first week at work. Slap him in a cubicle — not even by a window — and put him to work.

        And then tell him that's the way it's going to be for a month?

        Turns out Michael Fisher, Greater Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce president succeeding John Williams, reported to work last Monday and got a cubicle because Williams is still there. And will be for a month.

        So here he is, out there in the trenches, working elbow to adams apple with the troops.

        “He likes the idea because it's a great way to get to know everybody and find out who's doing what,” says Chamber public relations manager Buz Buse.

        And if he doesn't have an office, it means he can't be throwing impromptu meetings.

        Contact Jim Knippenberg at (513) 768-8513; fax: 768-8330.

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