Dan Webster

It was a dark and stormy night when Whitworth English professor Laura Bloxham left town. Actually, it might have been a bright and sunny day for all we know. The fact remains that Bloxham, noted connoisseur of literature and founder of the popular Bronson Alcott Bad Prose Contest, is spending this term in Atlanta reading up on Southern writers.

"Natural Born Killers" stars Juliette Lewis and Woody Harrelson.

There have been some pretty hard women featured in films over the years. About the hardest one recently was Kathy Bates' character in "Misery." She so reveled in torturing James Caan that you suspected she once might have been married to him.

"Boys on the Side" stars Whoopi Goldberg, Mary-Louise Parker and Drew Barrymore.

Though it ended up being the title of his book, the question "What Do Women Want From Men?" (Blue Dolphin Press, 224 pages, $13 paperback) actually started out as a means for New Mexico author Dan True to discover what went wrong with his marriage. He ended up asking 100 women 110 questions concerning every aspect of man-woman relations from money to sex. Examples include:

Wilma the waitress (Patrika Darbo) and Corrina (Whoopi Goldberg) coax Molly (Tina Majorino) into selecting a meal in "Corrina, Corrina."

Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke

William Gates goes up for an easy lay-in.

"Highlander: The Final Dimension" stars Christopher Lambert.

Harrison Ford stars as Jack Ryan and Willem Dafoe is a CIA field contractor in "Clear and Present Danger."

"Higher Learning," starring Laurence Fishburne, rear, and Omar Epps, finished at No. 2.

'Death and the Maiden' *** 1/2 Theaters: Magic Lantern and Lyons Ave. Cast: Directed by Roman Polanski, it stars Sigourney Weaver, Ben Kingsley and Stuart Wilson Running time: 102 minutes Rated R The setting of "Death and the Maiden" is a nameless South American country. But the screenwriter is Chilean, so it's easy to imagine Chile as the setting. The film features only three characters. But since the events dramatized have occurred in reality to hundreds of thousands of people, the characters seem universal. The story is fiction.

Jack Nicholson in "Wolf," being released on video Tuesday.

Spokane poet Terry Trueman, author of "Sheehan," is going to do something unusual tonight. He's going to resurrect Charles Bukowski. Check that. He's going to become Charles Bukowski. Bukowski died a couple of years ago at age 65. His was a lifetime of drinking hard and writing well, with several collections of poetry, short stories and novels such as "Women" and "Post Office" to show for his efforts.

Rush Limbaugh

Julie Delpy ans Zbigniew Zamachowski star in Krysztof Kieslowski's "White." The movie followed "Blue" and procedes "Red." File/Miramax

For your enjoyment, here are a few of the top-rated books on tape as recommended by AudioFile magazine: "Four Decades With Studs Terkel" (Highbridge, six hours, $25). Includes excerpts from interviewer Terkel's radio programs, 1955-1989.

Tobias Wolff: In a battle with inner demons. Photo by Jerry Bauer

Michael Conner Humphreys played the young Forrest Gump.