Stuff we heard when we were slurpin' ice cream.

[August 17th, 2005] EDITOR-A-GO-GO: In at Portland Monthly? New style editor Jill Spitznass (fresh from a layoff at Portland Tribune) . Out? Louise Lague , the former People editor who took over as editor-in-chief in April. And Stella Farina , the whiz behind Portland's Fashion Incubator project, has already signed off after signing on as the Monthly' s marketing director in June.

TIME OUT: Introducing cutting-edge art to Portland audiences can be a challenge, but imagine explaining it to the feds. Post-9/11 security regs have mucked up the process of securing work visas for artists, requiring a laundry list of official testimonials plus additional processing fees. The Portland Institute for Contemporary Art has spent $10,000 on the visa process for five performers and groups performing at the Time-Based Art fest (Sept. 8-17; for tickets, call 224-7422), matched with $15,000 worth of immigration lawyer Brent Renison 's pro bono work. Groups like Lone Twin , a British troupe who walked around the city talking to people and gathering water during TBA:04, aren't easily described on visa forms, says PICA's Erin Boberg . "The rules are written for artists like Pavarotti or the Moscow Ballet."

PO-BIZ: While it's no spy-naming scandal, PCC-Sylvania research librarian Alan Cordle says he's something of a national poetry whistleblower. Cordle charges that many poetry contests are crooked because judges hand out cash prizes to lovers and former students. He named names at foetry.com-paying some $36 extra to Domains by Proxy to keep his name under wraps. Cordle claims he needed anonymity to protect the career of his wife, a poet. In April he was outed on another website, and news of the po-biz feud grabbed national and even international headlines. Last week, Cordle took on GoDaddy.com, the parent company of the domain registry that leaked his name without his permission, by launching fauxdaddy.org. On Tuesday, Cordle said he has agreed to turn the website over to the company. Terms of the settlement are, naturally, undisclosed.