Casting the role with the uninym-ed Ariane, a model taking her first shot at acting, is not what you'd call damage control.

President Chen Shui-bian said Wednesday that the annual Erhlung dragon boat race at Chiaohsi, in the northeastern Taiwan county of Ilan, deserves to be preserved as it epitomizes the essence of indigenous culture. Chen, who arrived in Chiaohsi early in the morning to attend the opening ceremony for the dragon boat race on the Erhlung River, said the event is a unique cultural activity.

It was an almost endless-looking letter, typewritten on several pages of second-sheet yellow paper, and he was having some little trouble keeping it propped up... .

I put a down payment on it with money from a publishing deal. Man, I'll tell ya: I felt like King Shit of Fuck Mountain!