Ice Cube

FOR MOST imbibers, bourbon is a cool-weather beverage. In the fall, the mixed drinks, like the landscape, turn brown. But in the summer, cocktails are made with gin or vodka. Which was why one sweltering summer day I asked Frederick Booker Noe Jr., the big bubba of the bourbon world, if he ever sipped a little gin. "Gin?" He shuddered. It was no small shudder. Booker is massive in appearance and manner. His frame overflowed the sumptuous chairs in the lobby of Baltimore's Omni Hotel."Gin?"

Had Elmore Leonard written "Showgirls," the result could very well have been "The Players Club," an uneasy mix of raunch and redemption that's far from a great film, but sure is entertaining.Filled with oddball characters and enough street attitude to land a contract with Death Row Records, "The Players Club" ultimately fails because its characters are too stereotyped to be fresh and its heroine gets off way too easy. The result is a film not far removed from the blaxploitation flicks of the '70s, films that reveled in their badness (that applies to whichever meaning of "bad" you use)

LOS ANGELES -- Ice Cube settled into a contemporary leather chair in his spacious Encino office recently and immediately dug into a stack of papers.They were report cards, so to speak, from test audiences who had seen "The Player's Club," a movie Ice Cube wrote, co-produced, directed and appears in."They liked it," he said, letting go of his trademark scowl for just a few second. "All excellents and goods. No poors."He wanted to eyeball the documents before jetting off the following morning to Houston for a couple of gigs with his rap combo, Westside Connection.

Either you like Will's verbalism, or you don'tFred Schock's Feb. 25 letter regarding the befuddlement of George Will's puzzling prose deserves an A-plus.He beat me to the punch on this one, as I had just finished typing my own critique of Mr. Will's manufacture of mental hernias.Mr. Schock and I refer to Mr. Will's Feb. 17 column, "A man of uncommon clay," regarding the filmed biography of Thomas Jefferson produced by Ken Burns.Chris Kaltenbach of the Sun had a much better read on the subject (Feb.

Dangerous GroundMusic from the Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (Jive 41590)Contrary to the line in Ice Cube's "The World Is Mine," in which Mack 10 insists that "you can't get enough of this gangsta [stuff]," the most addictive aspect of the soundtrack to "Dangerous Ground" isn't the tough-talking gangsta raps, but the deep-thumping bass grooves. That's certainly the case with "The World Is Mine," where the growling synth hook is nastier than anything Cube says, but it's just as true of both the simmering malevolence of Spice 1's "2 Hands and a Razor" and the slippery funk of Celly Cel's "The Only Way."

What a squandered chance "Dangerous Ground" represents. How promising it seemed, how ordinary it turned out.Set in post-apartheid South Africa, it chronicles a people as they deal with the aftermath of a shattered dream. The grip of the hated Afrikaners finally broken, a black population no longer subject to white whims must face the predations of beasts its own skin color: dope dealers, shooters and gangsters. Sounds just like East L.A.But the movie, which has a terrific sense of physical reality and equally a feeling of complete freshness, soon comes to stink of the oldest of formulas, the old vigilante justice thing where an aggrieved man finally takes up the automatic weapon, sprays some bad guys, and goes home to live happily ever after, or at least until the next group of bad guys needs to be sprayed.

THIS WEEK,my refrigerator make ice cubes. That may not sound like fun to sophisticated pleasure seekers. But for me, the sound of ice cubes landing in the fridge's ice bucket was sweet music. It meant I had saved about $125. That is what a new automatic ice maker costs.I know, because I bought one. I brought it home, and then realized I didn't need a new ice maker. So I sheepishly took it back to the appliance parts store and got a refund.Although there might be evidence presented here that indicates otherwise, the problem with the fridge was not caused by bad wiring in my brain.

"Friday" sports an ice-cream truck driver who deals a lot more than Nutty Buddies, a character plagued by angel-dust flashbacks and an uncomfortably realistic drive-by shooting.And those are the jokes, folks.The movie is rapper-actor Ice Cube's attempt to inject some humor into the 'hood. The message from the veteran of such gritty dramas as "Boyz N the Hood," "Trespass" and "Higher Learning" is clear: People in South Central Los Angeles, like those anywhere else, depend on laughs to get them through the day. And he's behind this effort full-force, as star, co-writer and co-executive producer.

As if we didn't have enough problems, they're now making a sequel to "Casablanca." Only the most absolutely perfect movie ever made.There are certain things you just don't mess with. The Bill of Rights. Cherry Garcia ice cream. Ellen Barkin's crooked smile.And, of course -- actually way, way beyond, of course -- "Casablanca."We're not discussing "Beethoven 3," folks. Or "Look Who's Talking, Still." This is art. Making a sequel to "Casablanca" is like painting the other moods of the Mona Lisa.

Q: Nutmeg and mace seem similar to me. Are they related, and can they be substituted for each other?A: Nutmeg and mace are similar and are even from the same fruit of the nutmeg tree. Nutmeg is the fruit's oval-shaped pit and mace is the bright red webbing that surrounds the shell of the pit. The pit, nutmeg, can be left whole and freshly grated or packaged already ground. Mace is removed, dried and ground. At that point, it turns a rust color. The two spices can be interchanged but nutmeg does have a sweeter and more delicate aroma and taste than mace.