The Californian from Salinas, California • 29

central coast DRY CLEANERS For those who appreciate the difference 1 MainS 7R-ni1S- SATURDAY August 9 2003 COMING MONDAY New ways to keep your children safe 1 Hour Service Available Professional Dry Cleaning 6 Days A nee (I tp NJ '-nrrrmn nlMiir'- Californian www.thecalifornian.com SIERRA RENDON, FEATURES EDITOR Phone: 7544270; Fax: 754-4293; E-mail: newsroomsalinas.gannett.com V't'f' La people places some events lawna Diaic inisww.rvn even more, see Thursday's 41 1 section: 87-9 1'PINOCCHICv" ARIEL p.ra Thursday and Friday. 2 and 7 p.m. Saturday, Sherwood Hall, 940 N.Main St, Salinas. $6- 5 fth 4 Qoqfc 87-10 1 23RD ANNUAL STEINBECK FESTIVAL, "Collaborators and Connections," National Steinbeck Center, 1 Main St, Salinas. 775-4725.

RAIN OF GOLD. Western Staae. Main Stage, Hart- 88-24 1 UVJV. nell College, 156 Homestead 755-6816. SAT.

89 1 THE HEBL FAMILY SINGERS, 6 pjn, California State University, Monterey Bay, World Theater. Free. 582-3653. SAT. 89 1 WINEMAKERS' CELEBRATION, noon to 4 p.m, Custom House Plaza, Monterey.

$1 5-S35. 375-9400, SAT. 89 1 MOONLIGHT TRAIN PARTY, Roaring Camp Railroads, Felton, 1 p.m. Reserve (888) 253-8368, 89 1 CENTRAL COAST SUMMER FEST 2003, Spector Dance, 3343 Paul Davis Dr, Marina. Performances 8 p.m.

Sunday, Moving Arts Dance; Saturday, Stacey Prints. 384-1050, www.SpectorDance.org. uue If JM bp! -j- HOBBIES Hang a stamp on your wall Ever on the lookout for ways to stem the flow of red ink, the US. Postal Service has come up with a way to get more philatelic payback from its postage. Enlarged reproductions of some of its most popular stamps are available through a Web site launched in June: www.postalartganery.corn.

Think blowups of the iconic "Love" stamps, state birds, 20th-century trains, wildflowers, heroes of 2001, Kwanzaa, carnivorous plants and Old Glory matted, framed and hanging on your living room walL Images of 325 stamps from Postal Service archives of illustrations, engravings and photographs dating back to 1847 are available in a range of sizes. Some are as small as 8 by 10 inches, some as large as 20 by 26 inches and priced from $39.95 to $500 depending on frame and mat At least 40 more images will be added in September. "People have been asking us to turn stamp images into decor art for years, and now we have," said Pam York, the postal service's manager of licensing. The USPS is hoping the venture will net a couple of million dollars a year, she said. So far, the best-seller is a five-center a 1963 Norman Rockwell depiction of a mail carrier.

Many images are also available as stand-alone art, without the stamp's printed price and perforations, which according to York opens up even more marketing possibilities. "You're going to be seeing us on home furnishings," she said, "dishes, wallpaper, curtains and fabric" People may soon be sleeping on stamp images. "We have big plans," she said. "Our Victorian Lace stamp, a heart in lace with roses and ribbons, would make beautiful sheets." The Washington Post SCOTT MACDONALDTHE CAUFORNIAN Bette Winthers, 80, who recently completed a 500-mile bike trek across Iowa, stands in the front yard of her south Salinas home Tuesday with congratulatory signs from family members. more 80-year-old Salinas woman makes 500-mile bike journey for 14th time VALLEY VIEWS -l i DaveNordstrand Information For more information about RAGBRAI, the annual great bicycle ride across Iowa, call (800) 474-3342, fax to (5 1 5) 284-8287 or e-mail inforagbrai.org.

You can also see the Web site at www.ragbrai.org; or write to RO. Box 622, Des Moines, Iowa, 50303-0622. ESSENTIALS: Dave Barry, Dear Abby, horoscope and soap opera summaries2E CELEBRATIONS: Engagement anniversary3E COMICS: All your favorite strips4E COMMUNITY CALENDAR: Find out what's going on in Salinas and Monterey County5E MOVIES: What's playing in theaters this week6E celebs Compiled from wire reports NEW YORK nature's power as it kicked up vicious tailwind. "If there's a huge lightening storm, you go stand on some farmer's porch," Winthers said. Seeing all that farmland beauty, meeting so many good people and just having the satisfaction of completing such a journey keeps Winthers going back.

"Plus riding in that event makes me feel better and gives me energy," she said. "It makes me feel restored." Through slashing rains and the furnace-like intensity of heartland America, Bette Winthers, 80, pedaled. Through towns and counties and rows of summer com, she went This year, for the 14th time, the Salinas woman rode her bicycle 500 miles across Iowa. "We start with our back wheel in the Missouri River," she said. "We end with our front wheel in the Mississippi River." Winthers rides as one of 10,000 in RAGBRAI, the Register's Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa.

In 1973, two columnists from the Des Moines Register started it all They bicycled the back roads and visited rural towns in a quest to better know their state. Winthers' husband, Henry, is from Iowa, and he and Bette go back to visit family. That's how she connected with RAGBRAI "She enjoys it That's the main thing," Henry said. The race was the last week in July. Bette Winthers celebrated her 80th birthday July 31st Winthers stands 5 feet tall and weighs 100 pounds.

She rides a green 20-speed road bike cus- i tom-made to fit her size. "I was a puny kid," she said. "Then a neighbor gave me a bicycle. That brought me out of it" The route the riders follow varies year-to-year. It takes them past tidy silos and red-and-wbite barns, over hills and along streambeds.

In every town, each church and 4-H club sets up a food booth to raise money. The natives sell homemade pies. One man makes 100 gallons of ice cream a day for the riders. Another barbecues pork chops over burning corncob "coals." "Thick and tender," Winthers said. "He's got a following.

"They say this is the only 500-. mile ride where you can still gain weight I was afraid to step on the scale." School bands, tap dancers and church choirs turn out to entertain. Town folk pour lemonade out of iced pitchers and cool the riders with spray from their garden hoses. The riders Tour de France great Greg LeMond was in the pack started daily at 7 a.m. and rode to 4 p.m., Winthers said.

They slept in tents pitched in parks or on school grounds. Such a long ride can pose risks. Organizers asked farmers to leash their dogs, and they did. Midwestern weather, though, sets its own agenda. It turns the sky black at will and rumbles and flashes.

One year, the mercury climbed to 103 degrees and the heat rose in blistering sheets. "Then you have hail storms," Winthers said. "I've seen a tornado, too. You get in a ditch." The twister touched ground in the distance, but the riders heard its rumble and felt Jay Leno turns to 'Queer Eye's' Fab 5 for a makeover Aug. 1 4 "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy" is turning its gaze toward Jay Leno.

The host of NBC's "The Tonight Show" will undergo a makeover at the hands of the "Fab 5" the five gay stylists who give a straight man a new look each week on the hit reality show. They're scheduled to appear on Leno's late-night talk show Aug. 14 the same night NBC will re-air the second installment of the Bravo series. Then they'll come back the next night to show off the results of their work. The trade paper Variety reported that Leno's set also will get a new look.

The New York-based cast is expected to travel to Los Angeles next week to begin shopping for furniture and other fashionable goodies. SANTA MONICA DAVE NORDSTRAND is a staff writer for The Californian. His column appears Wednesdays and Saturdays. If you have a comment or an idea for a column, call him at 424-2221, Ext. 268.

Write to him at The Californian, RO. Box 81091, Salinas 9391 2. Diaz wins privacy suit over photos EDUCATION Teachers bring Hawaiian hula to California A judge ordered that photographs of Cameron Diaz taken at a private modeling Online www.pbs.orgpovpov2003 americanaloha 5 session about a decade ago, before she was a star, should be sealed. Judge Alan Haber ordered the photos and a videotape sealed Monday, saying Diaz has a right to privacy of her own body. He set a jfH '-mill 1 By Ron Staton The Associated Press HONOLULU One teaches hula in a very traditional style.

Another is innovative, putting his own stamp on Hawaii's dance tradition. The other falls somewhere in between. But what Sissy Kaio, Mark Hoomalu and Patrick Makuakane have in common is this they are native Hawaiians who are continuing one of Hawaii's best-known cultural traditions in California, the place they now call home. The three are featured in the documentary film "American Aloha: Hula Beyond Hawaii," which debuted Tuesday night on PBS as part of its P.O.V. series.

"This film captures the heart of what we do away from home," said Makuakane, who teaches in San Francisco and was at Honolulu's Bishop Museum to help introduce the film at a recent preview showing. "If we didn't have hula, we would have a hard time staying connected with home." Kaio, who teaches in the Los Angeles suburb of Carson, said she feels a responsibility to her heritage. "Nothing can replace the land Sept 12 hearing in Superior Court on her request for an injunction against photographer John Rutter. Diaz, who co-starred in the two "Charlie's Angels" movies, wasn't present at the hearing. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS 1 i Patrick Makuakane, left director of a hula school in San Francisco, is shown with producer Lisette Marie Flanary of New York on July 24 at the Bishop Museum in Honolulu, before the preview showing of the documentary, 'American Aloha: Hula Beyond See HULA, Page 3E.