• Abducted ‘07. Sarah Wynter. The wife of a prison warden learns about the ulterior motives of her kidnapper. (NR) (2:00) LIFE: Sat. 3 P.M. (CC)
• Abel Gance: The Charm of Dynamite ‘68. The silent films of French director Abel Gance include the epic “Napoleon.” (NR) (1:00) TCM: Sun. 7 P.M.
‘06. Justin Long. After trying and failing to get into college, a high-school senior and his friends fool parents and peers by creating their own university. (PG-13) (1:45) HBO: Thu. 9:15 A.M., 7:15 P.M. (CC)
• The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland
‘99. Voices of Kevin Clash. After a game of tug-of-war causes him to lose his favorite blanket, Elmo must venture into Grouchland to get it back. (G) (1:15) HBO: Mon. 6 A.M. (CC)
• The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
‘38. Tommy Kelly. Mark Twain’s boy hero watches his own funeral with Huck Finn and enters a cave with Becky, chased by Injun Joe. (NR) (2:00) TCM: Wed. 6 A.M. (CC)
‘05. Charlize Theron. In the last city on Earth, underground rebels dispatch their top assassin to kill a government leader. (PG-13) (1:45) TMC: Tue. 1 A.M. (CC)
• After the Sunset
‘04. Pierce Brosnan. An FBI agent thinks a master thief and his girlfriend will try to steal a valuable diamond from a cruise ship. (PG-13) (2:00) TBS: Sat. 8:10 A.M. (CC)
• Airplane II: The Sequel
‘82. Robert Hays. The first commercial space shuttle has loony Ted and his former girlfriend bound for the moon. (PG) (1:30) MAX: Mon. 7:30 A.M. (CC)
• Akeelah and the Bee
‘06. Laurence Fishburne. Akeelah, an 11-year-old girl living in South Los Angeles, discovers she has a talent for spelling, which she hopes will take her to the National Spelling Bee. (PG) (2:00) SHO: Wed. 6 A.M., 3:30 P.M., TMC: Sat. 10:45 A.M., 7 P.M. (CC)

post-gazette.com

The Associated Press
GRASS VALLEY, Calif.—A canine resident of the Sierra Nevada town of Grass Valley is set to star in an hour-long British documentary about the "world’s tallest dog."
Gibson is a harlequin great Dane who is nearly 3 1/2-feet tall at the shoulder and more than 7 feet tall when he stands on his hind legs.
He’s been certified the world’s tallest dog by the Guinness Book of World Records.
Gibson is set to be filmed by a crew from London’s Firefly Film and Television Production on St. Patrick’s Day in downtown Grass Valley.
His owner, Sandy Hall, says the crew is particularly interested in recording children’s reactions.
Gibson previously appeared on "The Tonight Show," "The Oprah Show" and"The Ellen DeGeneres Show," and on Japanese television in 2006.
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kvue.com

An Ankeny-based group is one step closer to bringing a dog park to the city.
The City Council officially recognized the organization last month with the formation of the Ankeny Dog Park Task Force. The move means organizers can begin formally working with the Ankeny Park Board to put together a detailed proposal.
The task force consists of members of the Ankeny Dog Park Initiative, the group that brought the idea to city officials. Ankeny resident Diana Baratta will serve as the liaison between the Ankeny Park Board and the dog park group.
Todd Redenius, director of the Parks and Recreation Department, said the council’s move is the first step in bringing the park to the city.
Redenius said the park board is currently helping the dog park group collect data to decide what features might be needed, what type of land would be best and what the cost might be. Organizers are also studying what has been successful at other dog parks.
Redenius said a dog park is a great project because they are becoming common in Iowa communities and elsewhere.
“We’d like to see one in Ankeny in the future,” he said.
The group will be working over the next few months to put together a proposal for the City Council. Redenius said the biggest issue for the group is time because “these projects don’t move forward that quickly.”
“It’s a relatively long process,” he said. “It won’t be built overnight.”
Jacquie Holm-Smith, president of the Ankeny Dog Park Initiative, originally hoped to have a proposal to city officials this June and have the park ready to open in June 2009.
“It’s a moving target,” Holm-Smith said. “We’re moving as aggressively as we can but these things take time.”
The members of the initiative are dedicated to the project, she said.

desmoinesregister.com

Wednesday morning in Times Square a small crowd gathered in the cool shadow of ABC Studios to watch Michael Strahan, defensive end for the Super Bowl champion New York Giants, drive a car.
Not just any car: Mr. Strahan had squeezed his 6’5” frame behind the wheel of the new Mini Wienermobile, a smaller, sportier version of Oscar Mayer’s somewhat famous Wienermobile, also in attendance. Several news photographers — one of whom later told me he had left the vigil outside Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s Fifth Avenue apartment to be here — aimed their cameras in expectation. Behind them, a pack of tourists had begun to assemble and gawk. The tourists had come to the Crossroads of the World for excitement and spectacle; this would do.
Mr. Strahan, his knees wedged beneath the dashboard, flashed his broad gap-toothed smile as he eased the car into gear, moving through the cordoned-off lane at about the same speed at which one might walk back to the huddle after an incomplete pass. A young woman in an official Oscar Mayer windbreaker ushered him forward with hand signals, gesturing him to a stop approximately one foot from the front bun of the larger Wienermobile. All told, the vehicle moved about forty feet. And that was that.
Afterward, as the ever-affable Mr. Strahan posed for photographs alongside the Mini Wienermobile, I spoke to Bill Blansett, an Oscar Mayer Wienermobile representative. Mr. Blansett, wearing a windbreaker that matched his colleague’s, was a Hotdogger, he told me — member of a team of Hotdoggers who toured the country with the six full-sized Wienermobiles and their newer, nimbler sidekick. Being head of his team of Hotdoggers, he suggested I call him Big Dog Bill.
I asked Big Dog Bill a few questions about the Wienermobiles. The Mini Wiener was built on a Mini Cooper S chassis, he told me, while beneath the bun of the full-size Wienermobile roared the essence of a Chevy W-4 series truck. This larger model was 27 feet long and 11 feet high, while the new Mini Wiener was a mere 15 feet by 8. Over Big Dog Bill’s shoulder I watched as Mr. Strahan poked his head through the Mini Weiner’s sunroof, Dukakis-style.

wheels.blogs.nytimes.com