There's lots of benefits to having a friend of the opposite sex. The best perk is obvious. There's one thing you and a friend of the opposite gender can do together that can't always comfortably be done with same-sex friends. You can bring each other to weddings. You have to be careful though. Weddings are romantic, and strange and magical things sometimes happen. A woman I know was at a reception with one of her dearest male friends, and over the course of the night, something unusual happened: Fingers tangled together, arms wrapped themselves around one another's waists, and the next thing they knew, she and her friend had become...closer. "I don't know what happened," she wailed. "It should be illegal to play I Just Died In Your Arms Tonight anywhere there's an open bar." "I'm the same way about She's Like The Wind," I admit. "Or The Logical Song. Did you guys actually kiss?" "No. I panicked. I hid in the bathroom until it was time for him to drive me home." "Well, there you go. There were no lips involved, so you're still okay." "But we cuddled. We Looked. There was mutual pre-kiss eye contact." "It doesn't matter how cuddlesome you get. The rules are very clear: No kiss, no foul," I explain. "Eye contact and unspoken tension is fine. Ask anybody." "Unspoken romantic tension is OK among friends?" she says hopefully. I leer at her and wink. "I sure hope so." That's the other great thing about having friends of another gender. It lets you live life like you're in a 1980s teen romantic comedy. I picture myself as John Cusack, but realistically, I'm more like Anthony Michael Hall. There are other positives. Men and women are both supportive of their friends, but they show that support in different ways. On the night before an important comedy showcase, for example, my women friends might take me out for a nice dinner, while my male friends will get me drunk, duct tape me to a chair, and shave off my eyebrows. I'm not judging, simply reporting the facts. Having friends of the opposite sex keeps you from labelling people based on gender. When I was young, I believed all women were all part of some massive conspiracy. I didn't understand the details of this female master plan, except it seemed to involve the movie Grease. But now I understand that each woman is her own person, a shining example of femininity, with her own hopes, dreams, and desires ... and if you doubt that, watch a group of women try to decide what kind of cake to get for a friend's retirement party. A woman friend of mine shares a similar story: "Until I started hanging out with guys, I thought they were all jerks. Now I realize the reason men feel they always have to be right is because you're all little boys, terrified of the slightest threat to your masculinity." "I'm not like that," I insist. "No, not you. You're practically one of the girls." She sees the look on my face, grins, and sticks out her tongue. "See what I mean? Touchdown -- three points for me." "Six points," I mutter. "Ooh, six points. Two touchdowns then."-Dan Brodibb

.President Bush's bad week may yet prove the administration's great turning point.

WASHINGTON - President Bush's bad week may yet prove the administration's great turning point. None of the reverses need be fatal; each of them contains an opportunity to move back on to a more successful path. Everything depends on the wisdom, self-discipline, and perspective of the President himself. Yesterday's indictments of Lewis Libby are one opportunity. For while Mr. Libby now stands in serious legal peril, the broader administration has been exonerated of intentional wrongdoing. From the start, there have been two competing theories of what happened in the CIA leak scandal. Call them the "big" theory and the "little" theory. According to the "big" theory, a sinister cabal of senior administration officials deceived the United States into fighting an unnecessary war in Iraq. When threatened with exposure by Ambassador Joseph Wilson, they attempted to punish him by naming his wife, Valerie Plame, as a CIA secret agent -- compromising the nation's security and the lives of Ms. Plame's contacts. Under the "little" theory, there was no deception, no conspiracy, no punishment, and no compromise of security. All that happened was that Mr. Libby, as chief of staff to Vice-President Dick Cheney, called reporters to contradict a false story that Ambassador Wilson had told about his boss. A New York Times columnist had reported in May, 2003, that it was Cheney who had dispatched Mr. Wilson on his famous mission to Niger in February, 2002. Mr. Libby pointed out that it was Mr. Wilson's wife who had chosen him for the mission -- and that Mr. Wilson had grossly exaggerated his own role in the whole business. The "little" theory agrees that Mr. Libby disclosed that Mr. Wilson's wife worked for the CIA -- but it denies that she was an undercover agent or that any important secrets were compromised. If Mr. Libby had only told the truth about what had happened, there would have been no crime at all. Special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald has now almost formally confirmed the "little" theory. There will be no more indictments -- "I can tell you that the substantial bulk of the work of this investigation is concluded" -- which means there is no evidence of conspiracy. Nor did Mr. Libby betray national security secrets: "We're not saying that Libby knowingly outed a covert agent." That's pretty much the end of the scandal isn't it? And that creates an opportunity for the President to put his administration back to work. Meanwhile, the Harriet Miers fiasco creates opportunities for the President to regenerate his administration -- and rally his supporters. Over the past three weeks, we've learned a great deal about how the Miers appointment happened. A tiny circle inside the White House, led by chief of staff Andrew Card, disregarded its own procedures for vetting judges and encouraged the President to reward a loyal retainer. The result was a breach of faith with the President's political base. Conservatives had loyally bitten their tongues for five years as the President over-spent, proposed amnesty for illegal immigrants, imposed tariffs on foreign steel, repealed the farm reforms of 1990s and created a hugely costly new prescription-drug program for seniors. They kept quiet because the President promised to transform the courts -- and because he by and large honoured his promise.

The Miers appointment violated the President's commitment. Beyond that, the Miers nomination evoked wide-ranging doubts among conservatives about the President himself and the way in which his White House was run. The carelessness with which the decision seemed to have been made, the high-handedness, the apparent indifference to merit, the failure to ask elementary questions: These triggered unhappy spasms of recognition. Similar faults could be seen in the Katrina failure, in the mishandling of Iraq and the larger war on terror, in relations with the allies ... the list goes on. Miers was an important mistake, but it was a mistake that echoed with disturbing familiarity so many other mistakes of the recent past. The Bush presidency has been a presidency of big plans and noble ambitions: the reform of Social Security and the tax system, regime change in the Middle East, cultural change in the United States -- but again and again those grand plans have been entrusted to inadequate hands. The tax overhaul has been presided over by the weakest Secretary of the Treasury in two generations. The general in command of Iraq, Tommy Franks, not only neglected to make plans for the occupation of the country -- but actually resigned to sign a huge book deal within weeks of the fall of Baghdad. As for the administration's often inarticulate public diplomacy, the President assigned that responsibility to Karen Hughes, his top communications aide -- but not a person especially attuned to the world beyond America's shores. In the Miers case, the insularity of the White House decision-making process divided his supporters -- and ended by inflicting a personal defeat on the President himself. Could that shock jolt the President into reinventing his staffing? Second-term White Houses often run into trouble because of staff turnover. Aides leave. They are replaced by their deputies. Then the deputies leave -- and are succeeded by their deputies. Six years on, the administration is being run by fourth-stringers. Presidents, meanwhile, become so consumed with their job that they cannot focus on personnel decisions -- and so end up acquiescing as the quality of their staff slowly deteriorates. A crisis, like Iran-Contra in 1986, can force a President to confront personnel issues and ask himself who truly is the best person to fill the important positions around him. And if ever a failure demanded a personnel rethink, it is the Miers fiasco. The President, any president, needs a staff that will tell him the truth, that will bring him bad news, that is not afraid of him, that is not illusioned about him, that will help him to act on his best instincts and resist his worst. This is a moment for him to do a top-to-bottom renovation -- especially if he does end up having to part with Karl Rove, either because Mr. Rove is consumed by his legal difficulties or because he voluntarily departs to go earn a private-sector salary to pay what must be crushing legal bills. And if the President nominates a truly outstanding conservative jurist in place of Miers, he will energize his conservative supporters. It may be too late to restore their faith in its previous intensity. But enough can be restored to provide him with a huge transfusion of political strength.Political capital can be squandered, and it has been, but it can be recovered as well by wise and timely action. Next week begins the one-year countdown to the 2006 congressional elections. The President's supporters will want to return to him. His Democratic opponents offer only weak and unserious alternatives to his policies. This bad week need not be the beginning of the end for President Bush. It could be the beginning of his next great comeback -- if he is willing to learn from past errors, to reconsider past mistakes, and to act with the decisiveness and energy of this presidency at its best.- D. Froum.

Beatles biography comes out Tuesday

Photo: The Beatles, John Lennon, left, George Harrison, Paul McCartney and rock's most famous cast-off, drummer Pete Best.

NEW YORK- Ten hours, 28 minutes. That was the sum of the music recorded and released by the Beatles before breaking up, a volume of work that changed lives, careers and the course of music history. Eight years, 2,792 pages. That was the effort author Bob Spitz put into telling their story, although editors whittled his manuscript down to 856 pages (minus the end notes). "The Beatles: The Biography," available Nov. 1, is a compulsively readable history that brings the same exhaustive level of scholarship to the Fab Four that Robert Caro brought to Robert Moses and Lyndon Johnson." The Beatles' story is all of our stories," says Spitz, 55, a manager for Bruce Springsteen and others before turning to writing. "It is about how the youth culture emerged, the drug culture emerged, how politics rose to the fore as a universal debate. It's about rebellion, it's about the growth of the British entertainment system, the growth of the rock 'n' roll entertainment system." The Beatles changed music forever. They took rock 'n' roll from a medium that was about cars and girls and gave it context, interesting chord changes and true musicianship." Get the idea he's passionate about the subject? Spitz lived it, writing six days a week for six years, spending six months in Liverpool and retracing the Beatles' steps. He could practically smell the stale cigarette smoke from the old clubs, and even ordered the band's favorite scotch and Coke drinks just to taste what they had tasted.

It almost makes up for the school yard beating that a teenage Spitz suffered for suggesting that the Beatles were no-talent bums who wouldn't last; he was an avid Bob Dylan fan at the time. He feels differently now. But his love and respect for the Beatles doesn't blind him as a writer; he draws a complete portrait of brilliant musicians who were human after all. Several initial reviews have been positive, and his publisher's first printing of nearly 200,000 copies is considered a positive sign of the biography's potential. The New York Times' Janet Maslin called it a "consolidating and newly illuminating work. For the right reader, that combination is irresistible." "As with all great history writing, Spitz both captures a moment in time and humanizes his subjects," wrote Publishers Weekly. "While some will blanch at the unsettling dark sides of the Beatles, most will come to appreciate the band even more for knowing the incredible personal odysseys they endured." Spitz's biography is one of four Beatles-related books in the stores this fall, including one each by both of John Lennon's wives. "I get a new Beatles book submitted almost every month, and sales are varied," said Kim Corradini, a buyer for Barnes & Noble Booksellers. "Books that offer something new — new revelations, new photos, an insider's view — do much better than those that are just rehashings." The project was daunting for more reasons than just the effort it entailed. There have been more Beatles books published than there are actual Beatles songs, and most fans have heard the same stories many times over. Spitz, who has written biographies of Dylan and Bob Marley, was assigned by The New York Times Magazine to write a story about Paul McCartney in 1996. At the time, McCartney was working on the Beatles' anthology project and told Spitz "they might as well call it the mythology, as only about 50 percent of it was true." Lennon, McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr agreed on their version of the Beatles' story, a mix of truth and legend, and it formed the basis of what Spitz considers the band's only other serious biography, written by Hunter Davies four decades ago. Some of the stories were told so often that the lines between truth and fiction had even blurred for the surviving Beatles. Spitz set out to make the record straight. "I interviewed 650 people on this," he says. "I approached this book as if nobody had ever written a biography on the Beatles." McCartney cooperated, and so did Harrison before his death in 2001. Lennon's widow, Yoko Ono did not, and neither did Starr or Neil Aspinall, who used to drive the Beatles to gigs in Liverpool and now runs their business empire.  Almost more important than his recollections was McCartney quietly putting the word out to dozens of former associates, many of whom had never spoken publicly about their roles, that it was OK to speak to Spitz. Spitz also tracked down new sources. In western Canada he found Dot Rohne, who nearly married McCartney and miscarried his baby before being dumped as the Beatles were on the cusp of making it big.  Spitz so doggedly traces the band's family history, and depicts postwar Liverpool, that Lennon doesn't meet McCartney until page 95 of his book.  "My book is not a book of dirty stories," Spitz says. "There are no shocking revelations. I wasn't looking for any and I didn't find any."  Still, there are sublime details and myth-busters that good fans will enjoy, like producer George Martin leaving the recording of "Love Me Do" to an underling while he had a lunch date with his secretary.  One much-repeated story is that future manager Brian Epstein first heard of the Beatles when a customer at his record store requested their recording of "My Bonnie" from Hamburg, Germany. In truth, he was already well aware of them — their posters hung in his store and Epstein, who was gay, secretly liked their rough-boys-in-leather image.  Spitz opens with a detailed scene from Dec. 27, 1960, a Liverpool performance where the Beatles' improvement after a lengthy residence in Germany so startled and thrilled their hometown audience that it presaged the impact they would have on the world three years later. Spitz even reports the brand of popular hairspray whose scent lingered in the air.  He was struck by the extraordinary tight bond the four men created, personally and musically. Even during their unpleasant breakup, they still loved each other, he says. Spitz believes the split was less because of the influence of Ono than the fact that Lennon and Harrison couldn't stand to be in the room with McCartney anymore.  The flip side is how completely, even ruthlessly, the four men would freeze out anyone they no longer had use for, as drummer Pete Best most famously found out.  The project was an intense time in Spitz's life. He and his wife have split and he says his daughter thinks dad has a mop tops obsession.  "It turned my life inside out," he says. "Yet I must say it was the most incredible and pleasurable experience I ever had."  Spitz is involved in one more Beatles-related project: writing a version of his biography for young readers.  "It's sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll," he says, "without the sex and drugs."

Potter's flying car stolen from film studio

LONDON- Harry Potter's flying car has flown. Police said Friday that the Ford Anglia used in the Harry Potter films was reported stolen from South West Film Studios in St. Agnes, Cornwall. Police said the car was not believed to be in driving condition, so the thieves would have needed to tow the car or put it on a trailer. The car apparently was taken on Wednesday or Thursday, police said.

"It was just magic,"

Photo: Donna Renae of Atlantic City, N.J., left, practices along with Glenn Zimmerman, right, of Atlanta and Kelly Thomas, of Roswell, Ga., before performing during a concert on the last day of Camp Jam.

ATLANTA, Georgia- For one moment, plucking out a bluesy version of Lynyrd Skynyrd's Whiskey Rock a Roller beside the man who wrote the song, Kelly Thomas felt like a rock star. The 43-year-old office manager chose a bass guitar over a car as her high school graduation gift. Now she's one of several dozen graduates of Camp Jam - a three-day chance to meet, party and play music with professional rockers. "It was just magic," gushed Thomas. Several rock "fantasy camps" have popped up in the past few years, as baby boomers who traded their electric guitars for golf clubs years ago look to rekindle their rock 'n' roll dreams. "A lot of them are the people who went down the other road," said Liberty Devitto, Billy Joel's drummer and a staff member at Camp Jam. "They were afraid to take that 'dark road' and now they're coming face to face with the people who did and getting to see for a couple of days what it might have been like." Jeff Carlisi, former guitarist with .38 Special and co-founder of the camp, said he came up with the idea in 2003. Last summer, he hosted a camp for teens in Atlanta. This year he'll host weeklong teen camps in Atlanta, Dallas and Houston, as well the adult camp - dubbed Camp Jam EXP - and Camp Jam Kids for younger children. At the first adult camp in February, the youngest participant was 29; the oldest was 63. Among them were lawyers, CEOs and other executives. Carlisi said he originally included sessions on recording techniques and other music industry tips, but soon realized his campers "couldn't have cared less. They wanted to crank it up and play." At the October session in Atlanta, campers from Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, New Jersey and Connecticut were handed laminated badges with the word "artist" printed under their names. About five minutes after Thomas got hers on the first day, she was in one of the studio's soundproofed practice spaces, banging out Jimi Hendrix's Little Wing with three other people. Campers spent most of the second day the same way, jamming with fellow participants and rockers such as Carlisi, Devitto, Lynyrd Skynyrd guitarist Ed King and Mark Rivera, who has played saxophone with Foreigner, Billy Joel, Peter Gabriel, and Hall and Oates. "You're playing with genius," said Glenn Zimmerman, a 52-year-old Atlanta salesman and bass player attending the camp for the second time. "It's a rare treat." The weekend camp costs $1,195 US per person. At Rock 'n' Roll Fantasy Camp, with sessions in Los Angeles and New York City, participants pay $6,000 to $8,500 to spend a week playing with and learning from the likes of Mickey Hart of the Grateful Dead and Roger Daltrey of the Who. "I'm still buzzing; I'm still smiling," Thomas said days after her experience ended. "It was far more than what I expected, it really was."