Etc...

It was either that or green

In the name of art, people have wrapped some of the world's great landmarks in fabric and planted thousands of giant umbrellas in the soil of Japan and Southern California. Now comes Marco Evaristti, a Chilean-Danish artist who has made news by coating the exposed surface of an iceberg off Greenland with red paint ... working in minus 9 degree F. temperatures. Why? So it will stand out among the others. "We all," he said, "have a need to decorate Mother Nature."

Stock-car racing, once the most Southern of spectator sports, isn't so Southern anymore. The NASCAR circuit, based in Daytona Beach, Fla., still sells out such traditional Dixie tracks as Darlington, S.C.; Talladega, Ala.; and Richmond, Va. But after a decade or more of aggressive expansion, there are a slew of non-Southern races on the 2004 Nextel Cup schedule - although most of them aren't held until after warm weather arrives. The sport's growing appeal also helps to explain why "NASCAR dads" now rival "soccer moms" as a highly prized voting bloc in this year's presidential election. The venues for NASCAR races north and west of the Mason-Dixon line:

Las Vegas
Fontana, Calif.
Dover, Del.
Long Pond, Pa.
Brooklyn, Mich.
Sonoma, Calif.
Joliet, Ill.
Loudon, N.H.
Indianapolis
Watkins Glen, N.Y.
Kansas City, Kan.
Phoenix - National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing