SAN NARCISO, Calif. -- Today begins The Tank Players’ original production of “Miracle on State Street.” The musical play, which runs through December 19 at the Buffum Plaza Arts Center in Santa Calcetines, re-imagines the holiday classic “Miracle on 34th Street,” but told from the perspective of a group of damaged people in contemporary Chicago. The McDonald’s Thanksgiving Parade, formerly The State Street Holiday Parade, provides the backdrop of the story, just as the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade propels the events that unfold in “Miracle on 34th Street,” the inferior and now cliché basis of The Tank Players’ new show. Performance times and ticket prices can be found at the venue box office, the Tank Players’ Web site, and on our Community Events Calendar.

“Miracle on State Street” parallels the core character and plot elements of its predecessor, but there the similarities end. The underlying themes of State Street are much grittier and morally ambiguous. In the 1947 film, the acceptance of blind faith might be the epiphany that startles Maureen O’Hara’s pragmatic and independent character, Doris Walker, back into line with the subservient and unquestioning role of the ideal post-war woman, but State Street’s Doris Walkerinski learns that existential dread and apathy are the tools of survival in a corrupt and impoverished 21st century city that finds itself inching closer to ruin with each passing hour.

The action in State Street is often narrated in the style of a Greek chorus by a group of postal workers who carry muted bugles.

WASHINGTON, D.C -- Americans are still too fat, but obesity rates in the United States appear to be slowing, according to newly released research. Government data show that 68 percent of U.S. adults are considered overweight, having a body mass index of 25 or higher. A third are obese, having a body mass index of 30 or higher.

“Obesity continues to be a significant health concern,” Marge Blomquat of the National Center for Health Statistics at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a telephone interview. Weighing in at a biscuit shy of 300 pounds, Blomquat can no longer travel outside her bedroom for in-person press briefings.

She added, “Around 17 percent of young people aged two to 19 are considered obese. But that’s an improvement.”

Blomquat’s studies show that the government under President George W. Bush had taken aggressive action to remedy the situation, with the benefits just now being realized. According to reports by the nation’s governors, as many as 27 states witnessed substantial decreases in food consumption and weight gain, especially in children, single mothers and African Americans.

SAN NARCISO, Calif. -- The editors of The Bennington Vale Evening Transcript sincerely apologize for a typographical error caused by the auto-correcting feature of our content management software. Yesterday, in our print edition, we posted a recipe from Julia Child for a roasted pepper sidedish to accompany your Thanksgiving Butterball turkey. For some reason, which remains inexplicable to us, the word “pepper” was replaced by the software with “actor Michael Brea.” Brea, you’ll recall, was the character actor on the ABC show “Ugly Betty” who was arrested for stabbing his mother to death with a sword in her New York home while screaming, “Repent! Repent!” He claims that he was merely listening to the Pixies' song “Caribou,” which contains this chant as its chorus. Brea also testified that his senile mother had tripped and impaled herself on the sword, which she mistook for the broom.

SAN NARCISO, Calif. -- Toward the end of World War II in 1945, the Stueve family of California founded Alta Dena Dairy. Throughout the 1950s, it earned a reputation as one of the most innovative farms with its line of healthy choices in dairy products. Today, thousands of consumers in Southern California continue to have milk and other products delivered directly to their homes by Alta Dena. The heritage and ongoing presence of the “milkman” is something the dairy honors and proudly promotes:

Chances are, you’ve never seen him. In fact, you may think he’s no more than a quaint myth from a simpler time. But the truth is, the good, old-fashioned milkman still exists.


We’ve been delivering tasty, healthy foods to homes just like yours for over 50 years. With just a phone call, you can join our 30,000 satisfied customers and make your life a little easier.

But today, Alta Dena’s public relations team faced an unexpected backlash of community outrage for which it has spent more time milking forgiveness than cows. The issue stems from a typographical error that appeared in the logo on 20 milk trucks in Alta Dena’s new fleet and on the company’s Web site.

SEOUL, South Korea -- Fourteen South Korean Marines and two South Korean civilians were injured after North Korea fired dozens of shells at a South Korean border island today. The attack comes only days after it was discovered that North Korea was pressing ahead with its illegal nuclear program.

South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak scrambled jet fighters, moved civilians into shelters and called an emergency security meeting with his advisors, a presidential spokesman told reporters. In light of North Korea's admission of having built a new uranium enrichment facility, which violates its international obligations, tensions have escalated across the globe.