February is one of my favorite months, not only because of my birthday, but because it has one of the few holidays that I actually enjoy. That special holiday of happiness, inspiration and caring... there's really no other day of the year quite like Groundhog Day.

Call me a cynic but that other major holiday in February, V-Day, just rubs me raw. Probably because I think, like the J. Geils Band stated so succinctly some 18-or-so years ago, love stinks [yeah, yeah]. Mediocre minds think alike... I wonder whatever happened to Peter Wolf and Magic Dick and the rest of those boys in the band...

Starting off this month on the cover is Miss Exotica NW '98, Geni from Sassy's [she's sooooo money, baby]. Never has a sweeter girl deserved it more. She killed 'em at the finals down at the Silver Dollar Club in Eugene. My old friend (we went to Millicoma Jr. High together) Shawn Weishaar captured her personality in the photo, Sunshine from Stars Cabaret did the styling, Brandon donated his bed [as he's so apt to do], I art directed, Scottie and I did some computer work and Jay from Cathie's set up the shoot. It was quite the team effort. We have a piece on strip club etiquette [with a really fucking cool accompanying photo which is really the only reason we ran the piece...] because a lot of people in this town seem to need to learn some manners. We have another piece on strip clubs and the Oregon Liquor Control Commission. "A Tale of Two Strip Clubs" details the two similar yet very different fights that Club

Coco II and Stars Cabaret have had (and are still having) with the OLCC. And then there's a review of Herotica 3, called "Chick Porn something something" by Darklady which I haven't read yet, but I've heard rumors it's up for a Pulitzer... Finally we have a new column that I [brilliantly] thought up debuting this month called Girl Trouble. Each month we will write about famous people's troubles caused by illicit affairs, etc., etc., blah, blah, blah. Because god knows Jerry Springer and the mainstream media can't get it right. This month Rex Breathes covers [of course] the Bill and Monica story. Which leads me to my favorite quote of the last two weeks from a friend of supertramp Monica Lewinsky recalling how she talked of a chance meeting with former presidential adviser George Stephanopoulos: "She said, 'He looked into my eyes and there was a real connection. You know the greatest thing about it? I wasn't wearing my bra.'" I think that about sums it up right there...

Happy Groundhog Day.