News In Brief

SO ... IT'S ALL IN THE FAMILY

In political news, it turns out that George W. Bush and his Democratic rival for the presidency, Al Gore, are cousins! Or, so maintains the world-famous guide to British aristocracy, Burke's Peerage. The publication announced its researchers have probed the ancestry of the two candidates and found that both can be traced back to history's greatest European crowned heads. Among other links, Gore and Bush appear to be descendants of Charlemagne, who led the Holy Roman Empire from 800 to 814 AD.

HOLD THE CRANBERRY SAUCE

Thanksgiving still is five weeks away, but if word from a Midwestern restaurant chain is correct, maybe you should be placing your takeout pizza order now. Pizza? Yup. According to Willard, Ohio-based East of Chicago Pizza Co., the night before turkey day is its highest-volume Wednesday of the year. In fact, just under half of its customers, a company survey found, eat the leftovers for breakfast.

Toys that retailers think your kids will want for Christmas

Granted, it isn't Halloween yet, but you can be sure businesses already are revving up for the end-of-year holiday season. PlayDate Inc., a marketing services company, conducted a poll of a dozen retailers to gauge what the hottest toys will be. Its alphabetical list of items that could be "sleeper" hits, and the company marketing each:

Air Hogs "Aftershock" SpinMaster

AirMaze Haystack Toys

Baby I Know Toy Biz

C-Book Reader Trendmasters

Clifford, the Big Red Dog CD-ROMs Scholastic Interactive

Computer Sound Morpher Intel

Dragonfly TOYmax

eKids Internet Silvertech

Freddy Fetch Rumpus Toys

Insector DSI Toys

LEGO Studios Steven Spielberg MovieMaker Set LEGO

Lincoln Logs K'NEX

MLB Showdown 2000 Hasbro

Piano Stepper Imagiix

The Babbler Neurosmith

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