So then, you were wondering how Jonathan Winters spent his time here last weekend when he was in for the annual Niehoff Lecture Series the Mercantile Library throws.

        Saturday was the 15th annual lecture in a series that has brought in such heavyweights as John Updike, Joyce Carol Oates, Saul Bellow and Tom Wolfe. Winters delivered the first one in 1987, so it was fitting that he do the 15th anniversary.

        When he wasn't at the lecture, he was, well, shopping. “He stayed in Hyde Park,” says series patron Buck Niehoff, “and on his way in Friday he saw all the antique shops in O'Bryonville. So when I went to see him Saturday morning, he wanted to walk down for a look.

        “It's amazing. Everybody recognizes him. One lady, driving by, stopped her car, got out, yelled "I love you,' then jumped back in and drove off.”

        One of Winters' stops was particularly memorable for Jack Wood, owner of Jack Wood Gallery. “I saw him outside the shop and ran out to say hello and tell him I was a fan and fellow Kenyon College grad,” Wood says. “He's a big fan of patriotic World War I posters, and I have a few. One of them, he just kept going back to for another look.

        “Finally, I said, "Jonathan, I'm such a big fan, I want to give that to you.”

        In exchange, Winters, a trained artist, sat down and drew Wood a cartoon of a chicken sitting next to a basketball saying, “Boy, these things are hard to pass.” Wood plans to hang it in the gallery.

        At the lecture, Niehoff says, Winters doodled a WWI doughboy on the tablecloth. The Mercantile bought it from the caterer and plans to hang that, too.

        Oh, and one thing Niehoff didn't report because he's not the type to brag: During the lecture, Winters resurrected a 15-year-old character that he once did on Johnny Carson's show: Buck Niedelhoffer, vegetarian cowboy, a little gem he developed after his first session with Niehoff in '87. “It's odd, but really a lot of fun to see yourself parodied like that,” Niehoff says.

        Paw party: Elsewhere on the party circuit, they really put on the dog in Union, Ky., last week.

        Turns out Melissa Delaney, owner of Maw and Paws Doggie Daycare, a boarding and day-care outfit for dogs, threw a Halloween party for her regulars. All dogs.

        About 35 costumed dogs and uncostumed owners showed up for the Sunday afternoon do in all manner of outfits. Like Skinny, the chocolate lab who came as a lion, complete with mane, and won first prize in the costume contest.

        And Daisy, the Westie, who came as, you guessed it, a daisy, complete with flower petals surrounding her face.

        “We had doggie vampires, one in a dress with little Barbara Bush pearls, another lab in a tutu,” Delaney says.

        Uh, yeah, but why? “It was a good reason for a party. I have the best clients, and wanted to do something nice for them,” she says.

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