Bye bye, Mr. Soviet Pie!

Though he still  hangs on in Russia, the country he brutalized for thirty years, Josef Stalin got the boot this week in his home town in Georgia--formerly a Soviet republic, now a more or less independent nation. (I say "more or less" because officials removed Uncle Joe in the dead of night, to avoid protests by those who still regard him fondly--and not just in Hollywood.) Stalin will be replaced by a statue commemorating Georgia's resistance to a Russian invasion two years ago, provided Moscow doesn't finish the job in the near future.  Blue skies! -- Dan Ford