So long, Al

Readers of the BeloJo's regional editions may have been taken aback by a brief announcement in Monday's Lifebleat section. "Beat Generation poet Allen Ginsberg has been diagnosed with incurable liver cancer and is expected to live only four to 12 more months," it said. Considering the paper had run a front-page obituary for Ginsberg the day before, this was not exactly a prime example of "getting it fresh every day."

As expected, television news botched the obit as well. Channel 10 noted Ginsberg's passing on Sunday evening with a line about his being "one of the beat writers, along with Jack Kerouac, Ken Kesey, and William S. Burroughs." Kesey, of course, had come at least a decade later, and the connection there was Neal Cassady. Then again, you can't expect television news to know anything about American literary history.

One of the statements that rang true in the New York Times obituary for Ginsberg was from that other old beat literary lion, William S. Burroughs. "He was a pioneer of openness and a lifelong model of candor," Burroughs said.

Phillipe & Jorge's only firsthand Ginsberg moment was a couple of decades ago, when the Rolling Thunder Revue performed at the Civic Center. During the intermission, we were strolling around the concourse with painter Dan Gosch when we passed the bard. Dan blurted out, "Hey, Al!" Ginsberg turned and greeted us with a friendly hello and a quizzical look.

About five years ago, another Providence friend, Charles Sawicki, wrote Ginsberg a letter and received a phone call from the poet.

Ginsberg was honest and open and wrote some memorable poetry. In the process of becoming a major social force, he inspired and influenced generations of artists and truth seekers. Those who are not fans of his writing may be surprised to know that he worked hard at his craft and had a vast knowledge of poetry.

All this can be gleaned from Barry Miles's 1989 biography, a book that gave your superior correspondents a profound appreciation of Ginsberg's work and his life.

Through the prism of celebrity, he tried to live honestly, a process that sometimes drew embarrassment and ridicule, because no one is always right about everything.

But Allen Ginsberg was right more than he was wrong, and we especially thank him as an inspiration to superior behaviorists around the world. He was out and open in a time when being queer was vastly more dangerous. God bless Allen Ginsberg.

Spiritual transaction

While the BeloJo's Lifebleat did miss the deadline with Ginsberg, we greatly enjoyed their item derived from the current issue of Spy magazine. The item describes movie director Spike Lee's momentary and apparently bogus conversion to Islam in order to smooth the way for some location shooting in Mecca for his epic Malcolm X film.

This isn't the first time a movie director has undergone a miraculous religious conversion to finish a motion picture. Many years earlier and on a much smaller budget, the legendary Edward D. Wood Jr. had himself and members of his cast (including the monosyllabic Swedish wrestler Tor Johnson and the astonishing John "Bunny" Breckinridge) baptized into a Baptist congregation to wrench a few thousand bucks out of them. He was trying to finish his grand masterpiece, Plan 9 from Outer Space. Hollywood sincerity doesn't seem to have changed much over the years.

Ethics on parade

Fair's fair, and we realize that if the circumstances were different, Phillipe and Jorge might well be raising holy hell.

We refer to Common Cause's decision to use former state senator Robin Porter as a lobbyist at the State House.

Porter, who stepped down last session to seek higher office, will now be employed to push the nonprofit's agenda at his former workplace.

At least Common Cause sought the opinion of the Ethics Commission in retaining Porter, who will work for no pay. And that body did rule that Porter could lobby only members of the House, not his former colleagues in the Senate.

Still, anyone who has spent time at the State House knows there are no lines separating the two chambers. A walk down the corridors presents myriad opportunities to grab the ear of all sorts of political ramrods, and it is virtually impossible to tell whether informal conversations are about the Red Sox team's fortunes or a key piece of legislation.

Phillipe and Jorge saw Porter in action when he was a senator. He always seemed thoughtful and knowledgeable -- rare commodities at Halitosis Hall. We are sure his heart is in the right place, as his free work for an organization we greatly admire indicates.

Still, imagine the likes of Rubbers Ruggierio working as a union lobbyist under the same advisory as Porter. After Rubbers's far-from-admirable days on Smith Street, you have to believe this is not the cleanest way to operate, particularly in the ethically-challenged political mosh pit we Vo Dislunders elect to office every two years.

We would hope that for perception's sake, Common Cause and Porter will reconsider their actions. They need to set a precedent for future revolving-door tricks involving far less reputable legislators.

Missing the point

In the same arena of possible conflicts of interest, we are baffled to see that Governor Bigfoot seems to understand ethics about as well as noted reformers (sic) House Speaker Pucky Harwood and his Rasputin, Majority Leader "George of the Jungle" Caruolo. (Note to Phil West of Common Cause and Tom Heslin of ACCESS-RI: When can we expect to see the "Would-Be Reformer" lapel pins surface during this legislative session?)

First The Missing Linc appoints a lieutenant governor, Bernie-Bernie-Bo-Bernie Jackvony, who thinks it's okay to keep up his law practice while serving as the ostensible number-two politician in the state. Nice thinking, big guy.

Now Almond follows up by appointing

Thomas Ahern as the head honcho of the Division of Public Utilities and Carriers. Ahern is a former NYNEX lobbyist who still owns stock in NYNEX and gets reduced rates for his phone calls. What's more, his wife still works at that phone giant. Whattsamatta, Linc, was Bob McCabe of Narragansett Electric too busy to take the job?

You might as well appoint fiscal expert Dante Buffoon to the Department of Administration. Whoops, time for a better analogy; he's done that already! Start over -- You might as well name pig farmer Louis Vinagro as the head of the Department of Environmental Management. No conflict there either, and you'd probably get to go to the next Super Bowl as well. Hey Linc, you're missing the point again.

Finally, congrats to Ethics Commission director Martin Healey, who was found innocent of any violations in the publicity-stunt suit brought by Thomas "Conan" DiLuglio.

DiLuglio had accused Healey of using state time to pursue other work. His cheap nuisance action was one of the sillier antics we've seen. One would think that Big Tom would be too busy talking on his radio show, The Deadly Experiment, and keeping his son out of jail to waste time on such a b.s. trick.

Overheard in the boysÕ room

If we clone Ed "Gerber Baby" DiPrete and his son, Dennis the Menace, can we retry them? . . . Which came first, the trailer park or the tornado? . . . Al "Two-by-Four" Gore claims "mission accomplished" after his trip to China. Gosh, we weren't aware that the trip's goal was for Mr. Two-by-Four to return with his nose brown from having it between the buttocks of Li Peng for hours at a time. Gore did nothing to even slightly dissuade China's leaders from continuing their flagrant abuse of human rights. Perhaps he was just pleased with how the fundraising went. Thumbs up (your freckle), Al! . . . Who is that Urinal reporter putting a down payment on a Porsche and booking two weeks in Barbados? It should be sportswriter Bill Reynolds, who has co-authored (read: Bill did 90 percent of the heavy lifting) a motivational book with Kentucky basketball coach and former PC

Friar mentor Rick Pitino. Success is a Choice hit the market only days after Pitino led his injury-plagued Wildcats to the NCAA Finals and lost to Arizona in a hands-on demonstration of sheer motivation. Can we borrow a twenty, Bill? . . . Speaking of Reynolds, let's steal his movie-review trick and say that we have one word to describe the much-ballyhooed, auto-wreck and erotica film Crash -- pedestrian.

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