Laugh

Actress, writer and comedienne Betty White had thousands of library workers roaring with laughter Saturday afternoon at an appearance ending the national conference of the Public Library Association. Turning her sharp wit toward herself, the 90-year-old White poked fun at her own long acting career. As to why she got cast in the "Mary Tyler Moore Show": "They wanted a sickeningly sweet Betty White type," she said of Sue Ann Nivens, her character. "Guess they couldn't find anyone sickeningly sweet enough.

In Tower Heist, Eddie Murphy seems energized and pumped and poised for a comeback. In A Thousand Words, the actor smashes all those hopes to bits. Forget it. The dream is dead. The only reason this dumb, insulting movie won't permanently derail Murphy's career is that few people will ever be forced to sit through it outside of trans-Atlantic flights. Why has this gifted comedian repeatedly squandered his talents on such crummy pictures? Even Adam Sandler hasn't amassed as many bad movies as Murphy.

By Michel Houellebecq Translated from the French by Gavin Browd Alfred A. Knopf. 288 pp. $26.95 Reviewed by Frank Wilson In 2010, Michel Houellebecq's The Map and the Territory won the Prix Goncourt, France's prize for "the best and most imaginative prose work of the year. " Well, his novel is certainly imaginative enough. You may think that an award-winning French novel would be cerebral and static, long on description and even longer on introspection, but The Map and the Territory is neither, and actually serves up along its ambling way quite a few laughs.

DARRYL CHANEY was dedicated to helping his fellow vets at the Veterans Administration Medical Center in Coatesville. He was the kind of guy who would do anything for you, and he made himself so useful to his fellow patients that when he was taken to Brandywine Hospital in his final illness, many of them showed up there to give their support. "He cared about people," said his father, Hall of Fame retired Temple basketball coach John Chaney. "He was always involved in situations where he could help people.

There was a clown in the net at the Flyers' practice facility Wednesday afternoon. Before you add your own punch line, it was a real clown. Someone from the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey circus named Mike Richter (no relation to the former Rangers great with the same name) took shots from a handful of Flyers after their practice. Maybe the Flyers should see whether he is available in shootouts. The Flyers are 1-5 in shootouts this season and an NHL-worst 20-39 in franchise history.

So an ex-senator walks into a comedy club . . . That's not the setup to a joke - it's what happened Tuesday night when Arlen Specter took the stage at the Helium Comedy Club's open-mike night in Center City. "I've been in comedy now for 30 years," the former senator explained. Taking a try at stand-up was a natural step after spending so many years in the "sit-down comedy" of Congress - and, Specter noted, it was considerably less expensive. While some of his jokes are unprintable in a family newspaper - don't ask about the paraplegic who wanted to date the battered woman - Specter spent much of his three minutes on stage ribbing prominent local and national politicians.

Funny or Die, the comedy website founded by Will Ferrell, is pointing the way for Web-based entertainment companies by combining the scrappiness of an Internet start-up with A-list talent that attracts viewers. What started as a lark for Ferrell and writing partner Adam McKay has become a profitable company, with revenue approaching $30 million this year, according to a person with knowledge of the Los Angeles-based business. Funny or Die's third show on cable TV, Billy on the Street , started Thursday on Madison Square Garden Co.'s Fuse network.

By Glenn Garvin I knew 2011 was going to be one of those years when I wrote a column saying that $80 billion of proposed federal bailout money to the U.S. Postal Service was a useless subsidy to "a dying ink-on-paper technology in an electronic world. " I got more than 100 bitter complaints from postal workers ... every single one of them delivered by e-mail. At least the postal workers were mostly civil. The hundreds of complaints I got from lawyers after I wrote about frivolous lawsuits in pursuit of jackpot justice were so scatological that I'm now pretty certain law schools must offer elective courses in biology, because I have never heard so many richly descriptive references to such obscure corners of the digestive tract, nor such detailed instructions for how to insert my head into them.

Ryan Lindley's third touchdown pass to Colin Lockett came just a few seconds too soon. San Diego State celebrated the 12-yard scoring strike with 35 seconds left, only to watch an even bigger celebration when Louisiana-Lafayette kicker Brett Baer hit a 50-yard field goal as time expired, sending the Aztecs to a 32-30 loss in the New Orleans Bowl on Saturday night. "Thirty seconds on the clock? You'd like to think [the game was over]," Lindley said. "It was a hard-fought game and you have to tip your caps to them.