Last updated 12/5/02

12/4/02 - Todd is back! The official barber of Barracuda has returned to Los Angeles and is back working at Andy's barbershop in Los Feliz. Todd was featured in Barracuda #5 in an article called "The Vanishing Barbershop." Visit Todd at 4639 Hollywood Blvd. and tip heavily!

12/4/02 - **Shameless plug** -- Speaking of Fox TV, check out the new season of Andy Richter Controls The Universe, which has just begun airing on Fox, Sunday nights after Malcolm In The Middle. Richter is a knee-slappingly funny show, but it also happens to co-star Paget Brewster, Barracuda's own ace Barracuda Girl photographer! Paget plays Andy's boss Jessica and she's funny as all hell.

11/29/02 - Watch the Fox TV sci-fi show Firefly for the episode entitled "War Stories," which is supposed to air December 6th in prime time. Inside sources tell us that in this episode, an elite security force guard is in his booth reading a copy of Barracuda when the Serenity (the hero's ship) bashes right into some mega-skyplex. In come the heroes, wielding weapons and shooting at the innocent Barracuda reader! Whether or not this scene has made it into the final cut is unknown, but that's reportedly how it was shot.

11/28/02 Happy Thanksgiving!

11/5/02 -- Congratulations to Barracuda #8 cover girl Dita Von Teese! Dita appears on the cover of the Christmas Gala issue of Playboy Magazine and also inside in a pictorial entitled, "The Return Of Fetish." The spread includes the lovely Dita in many of the poses that make up her live burlesque act.

10/18/02 -- Actor Kam Fong (real name Kam Fong Chun) died today. Chun was best known as Chin Ho Kelly, the pipe-smoking, wise-cracking underling to Steve McGarrett on TV's Hawaii Five-0.

Chun appeared on the show from its inception in 1968 until 1978, when he left the show, saying that the scripts had become stale. Chin Ho was killed off in an episode called "A Death In The Family" in 1978. Although the character had died, Chin Ho inexplicably appeared in a pilot for a (mercifully) never-released Hawaii Five-0 remake in the 1990s.

Chun died of inoperable lung cancer. He was 84 years old.

7/30/02 -- Subscriber copies of issue #14 are bulk mailed. Should be received in 2-4 weeks depending on where you are located geographically.

7/24/02 -- Barracuda #14 on sale.

4/28/02 --The new, "improved" Barracuda website goes online -- finally!

4/18/02

Thor Heyerdahl, Norwegian scientist and explorer passed away today at the age of 87. Heyerdahl was best known for his Kon-Tiki expedition where he sailed from Peru to Polynesia in an ancient-styled balsa wood raft. The story was told in the book Kon-Tiki, which was a worldwide best seller and translated into dozens of languages. The documentary of the voyage won an Oscar for the best documentary film in 1951. The popularity of the book and voyage was responsible for sparking the creation of tropical-themed "Kon-Tiki" restaurants and bars all over the world.

Heyerdahl went on to excavate Easter Island and was the first person to do an archaeological dig on the islands. His adventures and literary accomplishments are too many to list here.

Heyerdahl was featured in a Real-Man Revisited profile in Barracuda #10. We were lucky enough to interview Heyerdahl for that issue via phone to his house in the Canary Islands. He was witty and gracious with his time. Large portions of the interview were printed verbatim in issue #10.