1.  Although his words are shaded in bitterness when he talks about the movie business, Penn spoke quietly and with some humor.

2.  Defensive tackle Leon Lett spoke briefly to the news media while his teammates meowed behind him, stunned that the normally reclusive Big Cat was going public.

3.  Deputy Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers, who also spoke at the Japan Society, reiterated that Japan should spur recovery by boosting domestic demand rather than exports.

4.  Dennett said EMI's Bach reminded him of the pseudo-French spoken in Garrison Keillor's parody about the restaurant called Cafe Boeuf.

5.  Dennis Moore, the deputy managing editor of the paper's Life section, where King's column appears each Monday, wasn't laughing when I spoke to him.

6.  Dennis Rodman is playing with a cool head, and Michael Jordan is speaking in almost condescending terms about Payton.

7.  Cuban prisons routinely withhold care from inmates who complain or speak out.

8.  Cuban scholars, he said, did not think Machado should be barred from speaking at the meeting, but questioned its sponsorship of his trip.

9.  Cuevas decided to seek help at Austin's Mexican Consulate after he heard Consul Roberto Gamboa speaking on the radio.

10.  Culinarily speaking, it was a night when good taste prevailed.