brouhaha:
* Write-in mayoral candidate Ellis Ivory, who now has the blessing of the county GOP's central committee, is founder of Ivory Homes, whose logo is an elephant.
* The comment by a Merrill Cook advocate that supporting a write-in would in effect elect Peter Corroon and bring in "an army of gay rights activists" was reminiscent of Cook's campaign for Congress in 1996 against Rocky Anderson. Pink fliers mysteriously appeared in downtown Salt Lake City with the message that Anderson was too friendly with the gay and lesbian community. The irony was that Cook later was seen passing out campaign literature in gay bars, realizing, of course, that every vote counts.
* Not only is Ellis Ivory on Nancy Workman's campaign letterhead as one of the honorary co-chairmen of her campaign, but the county Republican Party, which on Tuesday withdrew its support of Workman in favor of Ivory, shares office space with her campaign - office space that she arranged for the party to use free of charge.
Dress code codes? Several parents of Judge Memorial Catholic High School students are firing off letters this week to church officials, demanding that principal Jim Hamburge stop "verbally abusing the students."
According to the parents, Hamburge allegedly called the girls "skanky sluts" and the boys "vulgar hobo bums," a charge Hamburge adamantly denies.
He says that following the school's homecoming dance Sept. 16, the student council expressed concern about the inappropriateness of some of the students' formal wear. So, in an assembly following Mass on Friday, Hamburge warned the student body of the looser values shown through the entertainment media.
"We want you to dress modestly and behave properly," he told the students. "We don't want our boys dancing in vulgar, suggestive ways and we don't want our girls dressing like skanky sluts."
According to the parents, several teachers apologized to the students for Hamburge's remarks, but the parents still are complaining to Sister Catherine Kamphaus, the superintendent of Catholic schools for the Salt Lake Diocese.
Jailhouse rock: Some of the 170 defendants named in a federal defamation suit filed by the polygamous Kingston clan are holding a "free speech and justice" party today at 5:30 p.m. at the Utah Progressive Network, 1115 S. 900 East.
The BYOB party is a fund-raiser to help defray legal expenses of the defendants, which include community activist groups, labor organizations and the news media.
The suit alleges the defendants defamed the Kingstons when discussing and reporting on alleged mistreatment of mostly Latino workers at a Kingston-owned mine.
Conspiracy theory? One might wonder why Rep. Jim Matheson's Washington, D.C., telephone number shows up on digital caller ID screens as "Merrill Cook."
Congress maintains the same telephone number for each congressional district, no matter who occupies the office. When Congress converted to a new digital system, Cook held the seat and his name has not been deleted.
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Paul Rolly and JoAnn Jacobsen-Wells welcome e-mail at rolly_wells@sltrib.com.
