etc...

THINK OF IT AS DESSERT

So there were the patrons at Cassie's, a restaurant in Cody, Wyo., tucking into their meals one night last week when the place erupted - in music. No, the performers weren't singing waiters. It seems vacationing 14-time Grammy-winner Vince Gill had asked at a local guest ranch where a good steak could be found. Reservations were duly made, and, after eating, he was persuaded to join the house band for an impromptu jam session. When it ended 90 minutes later, he'd sung six of his own songs.

Does it strike you as odd that a community of 47,000 people doesn't have its own ZIP code? Or that, to get one, it will have to change its name? Yet, that's the case in Washington Township, N.J. - at least, the Washington Township in Gloucester County. Officials there want one of the new codes under consideration by the US Postal Service, since the place currently is served by letter-carriers from five surrounding towns. Alas, there's already a Washington Township, N.J. (in Warren County), with its own ZIP, so the other folks must agree to call to their community something else just to become eligible.