Cartoon Characters

So Mickey Mouse is Jewish?Albert Einstein we know was Jewish. Isaac Stern and Itzhak Perlman, of course, are Jewish. Barbra Streisand, a Yentl if not a yenta. Bob Dylan, now and again Jewish. Manischewitz wine and Hebrew National salami, absolutely kosher.Mickey Mouse? Who knew?But with Hanukkah starting tomorrow night, there he is on the cover of a catalog called "The Source for Everything Jewish," decorating a menorah, spinning a dreidel with Minnie. That's a traditional Hanukkah game: You spin the dreidel -- a four-sided top -- and you win or lose Hanukkah gelt (money)

Network television is in the midst of a major toon-up. There are already more cartoons in prime time than ever before, and the number will double by the time the season ends in May.Last week, we saw the successful launch of "Dilbert" on UPN. Tonight, after the Super Bowl in one of the great showcases of network TV, Fox will debut yet another animated series, "Family Guy." Earlier in the month, Fox premiered "The PJs" from Eddie Murphy, which quickly became one of the most-talked-about shows of the year.

Sugar. Spice. Everything nice. These are the ingredients used to create the hottest, hippest cartoon show for girls since, since -- well, since maybe ever. You can keep your Transformers, your X-Men and your Pokemon. At the Fullerton home of Chelsea and Tess Larichiuta, ages 8 and 9, the only must-watch TV show features three kindergartners with peculiarly large eyes who thwart evil-doers during recess. Namely, "The Powerpuff Girls." The show's main characters, Blossom, Buttercup and Bubbles, were created in a lab by the kind-hearted Professor Utonium in a quest to create the perfect little girls.

Is a second Golden Age of animation upon us?In a year when "The Iron Giant" was tragically overlooked by family audiences and "Pokemon: The First Movie" was giving Japanese animation a bad name, here come two movies that prove once again how ingenious, artful and flat-out entertaining animation can be. In radically different ways, "Toy Story 2" and "Princess Mononoke" bring the art form back to its roots as a medium meant for for general audiences, not...

Think for a moment of a rabbit.Not just any rabbit. Think of a tall, gray rabbit who wears white gloves and walks around on his hind legs. He is a cocky creature who chomps a carrot the way W. C. Fields bit into his cigars: confidently. He opens every encounter with these smart-alecky words:"What's up, Doc?"Now imagine this cheeky rabbit on a 32-cent U.S. States postage stamp. Does that thought cheer you? Does it make you sick? Do you ask yourself what kind of abomination the U.S. Postal Service will contrive next?

For her chance to walk down the red carpet at Sunday night's Academy Awards, best actress Oscar winner Charlize Theron had to first drive down a dirt road in rural Michigan, out past Flint to where the blacktop narrows and the broken-down towns shrink. Theron had to go see Dawn Botkins, the woman who knew serial killer Aileen Wuornos best. Botkins owns everything Wuornos left in this world: boxes of court documents. The jailhouse flip-flops she wore to her execution. The sneakers she signed because they might be worth something one day. Her ashes.

Kayla DesPortes, Atholton Sport Basketball GIRLS STATS -- The senior forward is a team captain and two-year starter for the Raiders. DesPortes brings quickness and smart play to the Raiders, averaging just under 10 points a game. Coach Maureen Shacreaw called her the team's best defensive player, as she's always asked to guard the opponent's top offensive threat. SIDELINES -- DesPortes also has played soccer and lacrosse and she ran track at Atholton. DesPortes has a 3.9 grade point average and is considering the University of Pennsylvania with plans of studying pre-law.

Picture this: Daffy Duck goes on vacation and finds out just how fast his favorite marshes are being developed, degraded or despoiled in America.What is Daffy's take on disappearing wetlands? "This is des-picable!" says the cartoon world's angriest bird in a series of TV, radio and print ads called Support Fowl Play. The ads are an urgent call to action on wetlands by a partnership of Daffy's creators, an environmental organization and the federal government.By Monday, 700 TV stations across the country had received the video.

On The Weekend Watch:A FAMILIAR VOICE -- One of the clever reasons for the success of "The Simpsons" is the use of well-known actors to give voice to the cartoon characters. And tonight's scheduled edition (at 8, Channel 45), brings an interesting return. The voice of Bart's elderly neighbor is that of Cloris Leachman, last seen on the tube in the 1989-90 season (as in photo below) with Harvey Korman in Mel Brooks' unfortunately underappreciated "Nutt House." Leachman, of course, was Phyllis Lyndstrom on "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" and then continued the character in her own spin-off, "Phyllis."

Ever hear this one? Kids just won't eat vegetables. According to a survey released by Produce for Kids (produceforkids.org), maybe parents should ask their kids what fruit and veggies to toss into the grocery cart before making decisions about what to purchase. A survey conducted with about 1,500 moms and children - either online or in the grocery store - revealed that kids voted broccoli as one of their three most-favorite vegetables, yet moms did not rank it in their top five most-purchased.