SCRAMBLE THAT TOFU, GALLEY SLAVE: If I could lift one-third of my body weight (after four hernia operations I can barely lift a box of Kleenex) and had $10,000 (which I don’t, of course, and never will) I would sail the sun-kissed waters of the romantic, garbage-filled North Pacific gyre this summer with a bunch of Greenies from the Algalita Marine Research Foundation, a non-profit based in Long Beach, Calif.

Legendary burlesque performer Gypsy Rose Lee was not easy to categorize. The former vaudevillian—who became a big star in New York during the Depression after being discovered by burlesque impresario Billy Minsky—befriended such gangsters as bootlegger Waxy Gordon.

FOLLOWING SUIT: Two Alabama environmental groups, Black Warrior Riverkeeper and Friends of Locust Fork River, are appealing an administrative law judge’s approval of a permit for Rosa Mine, a 3,255-acre strip and underground coal mine in Blount County.

When you think of old pulp magazines or racy detective stories, you may not think of long-dead American writer Henry Miller, but I can’t help making that connection because of a passage from his book Black Spring.

PROGRESS IN GREEN: There’s no better place to find a review of Alabama’s eco-year than the new 2010 Green Progress Report, published by the Green Resource Center for Alabama. The report highlights some of the steps taken last year to make Alabama a more environmentally friendly place.

When I arrived at Bare Hands Gallery downtown on a recent Saturday to talk to artistic director Wendy Jarvis, I came bearing tape recorder, notebook and list of questions. In return, Jarvis and Rachel Staggs, an artist and volunteer, offered me a cup of strong tea, refreshing on a cold afternoon.

A Birmingham jazz trio that is also the house band for a Tuscaloosa burlesque troupe will play a gig at Marty’s Sunday night, and some of the burlesque performers will attend the show in costume.

Singer-songwriter Clare Burson first heard about the Holocaust as an 8-year-old in her hometown of Memphis. For Burson, who is Jewish, these horrible events were more than the dry stuff of history. They would have a deep personal significance, wrapped as they were around an unsolved family mystery.

Convicted mass murderer Charles Manson probably shouldn’t have access to a cell phone as he rots away in prison in California, right? But he got one.

ONLY IN ALABAMA: The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has taken another step to protect the habitat of the vermilion darter, a small, multi-colored fish found only in Alabama. The FWS has designated a little over 13 stream miles of the Turkey Creek watershed in or near Pinson in Jefferson County as critical habitat for the fish.