Of all things to show up in Rolling Stone: It's Oktoberfest Zinzinnati's Chicken Dance. In the "Random Notes" section of the Oct. 28 issue with Jon Stewart on the cover, there's a picture of former Motley Crue singer Vince Neil leading the dance. Neil was Oktoberfest's grand marshal and is now involved in the Remaking of Vince Neil, an MTV reality show documenting his career/life makeover.

Pumping politics

Talk about a picture being worth 1,000 words, C.F. Payne's illustration on the back cover of this month's Reader's Digest speaks volumes.

Payne, recall, has a multiyear deal with RD to do an original illustration every month for the back cover.

This month's - "Fuel for Thought" - of two guys pumping gas is classic. The guy on the right has a Bush-Cheney bumper sticker and he's dressed conservatively in shirt, tie and dress slacks while filling a big old gas guzzler. The guy on the left has a Kerry-

Edwards sticker and is dressed in a polo shirt, rumpled khakis and is pumping gas into a compact.

The Bush backer is modeled after Loren Long, the local artist who illustrated Madonna's Mr. Peabody's Apples, and his left-leaning companion is based on Dave Wendt, the local photographer known for his calendars.

"I swear this is true, but I have no clue where they stand politically and neither of them brought it up. And I also wasn't trying to make a partisan statement. As I keep telling people, all I'm trying to do is hold a mirror up to society."

Locals make good

Two locals are making a reality TV splash: Ray Brune, a 1980 Elder grad, and Dan Sackenheim, a 1979 Fairfield High School grad.

Brune is an executive producer of Second Verdict (10 p.m. Mondays), a newish show on cable's PAX. Sackenheim is a segment producer on same.

The show digs up an old crime where the suspect has already gone through trial and sentencing, then they re-try it in front of a mock jury that doesn't know the original verdict to see if it arrives at the same conclusion.

Jim Knippenberg