Whoa, here's something you don't see every day: A local soul nominated for an Edgar Award.

        The Edgars, Oscars of the mystery industry, are named after Edgar Allen Poe and handed out by Mystery Writers of America.

        So Jeff Marks should be feeling good right now. His Who Was That Lady? Craig Rice: The Queen of Screwball Mystery (Delphi; $21.95) is a nominee for Best Critical/Biographical Work.

        Heaven knows, Marks worked hard enough to get it. The book took three years research into a woman who kept everything a mystery. Including her real name and date of birth.

        It didn't help that she, well, enjoyed her cocktails and tended to disappear now and then.

        But back in the '40s, Rice sold as well as Agatha Christie, made the cover of Time magazineand was the darling of New York and Hollywood.

        Marks, it seems, had to spend his time crawling around in dusty basements, interviewing relatives, friends and friends of friends. But did it well enough for a nomination.

        Rice has been out of print for 38 years, but that's about to change. Marks just finished editing a volume of her short stories. Murder Mystery and Malone is due from publishers Crippen and Landru later this month.

        As for the Edgar, Marks finds out May 2.

        Calling who???: And something else you don't see too often: Lawyers giggling. Actually laughing out loud.

        What has them tickled ever so pink is a mailer from the Cincinnati Bar Association soliciting information for the new CBA Legal Directory, due in July.

        The form asks the usual questions: Name, phone, fax, e-mail, law schools, that stuff.

        But then at the bottom, it asks for a TDD (Telecommunications Device for the Deaf) number and goes on in parentheses to call it “Telecommunications Device for the Death.”

        “We're expensive, but even we couldn't afford that long distance bill,” said one of several law office employees who called in. None was willing to be identified.

        “At first, we all laughed like crazy that someone would actually think we didn't know what TDD was,” she added. “Then we saw the typo and started wondering about the area code.”

        Getting artsy: One more thing that doesn't happen everyday: A ton of local arts leaders all partying together. That would be Wednesday at the Cincinnati Art Museum.

        Occasion is to celebrate — and send-off — eight reps from four arts organizations that won grants from American Express National Arts Marketing Project (NAMP). They're off to Chicago for eight days of advanced marketing and audience development training.

        They are Cincinnati Shakespeare Festival, Contemporary Arts Center, Enjoy the Arts and Kentucky Symphony Orchestra.

        Among the party-goers: Staff from all the winning groups, plus CAM marketing director Jackie Reau, city councilmen David Pepper and Jim Tarbell, Mary McCullough-Hudson and Kathy DeLaura from Cincinnati Institute of Fine Arts, Nancy Donovan, founder of the Cincinnati Arts Festival, Opera board member Maureen Dillon and heaven only knows who else.

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