From the weekend papers

Videogame Barbie?": Designers at El Segundo-based Mattel are focusing more of their attention on technology in response to growing demand by even young children. There's not much choice: second-quarter sales for Barbie and Hot Wheels were down, though overall sales at ther toymaker were up. Mattel recently announced plans to buy Radica Games, maker of electronic toys, for about $230 million.

Is anyone watching?: When AOL published the searches of 658,000 AOL users on a public Web site, it revealed some pretty intimate glimpses. Consider a few samples gleaned by the San Jose Mercury News:

On March 1, AOL User 310416 looked for ``how to self induce your own labor.'' A few days later she searched on ``true contractions,'' then she did an ``inmate search,'' which took her to the Illinois Department of Corrections. Later in the month, she searched for ``bedbugs'' and ``matress sets in illinois.'' AOL User 792334 looked for ``aol privacy guard,'' before progressing to ``tan ropey bowel movements'' and ``symptoms of parasites.'' Some users looked for child pornography and sex partners. Others sought the ``best way to avoid jury duty'' and ``misdamenor extradition to alaska.''

An analysis by the Electronic Frontier Foundation found that 106 users typed in what appeared to be Social Security numbers. More than 3,700 users typed in what appeared to be phone numbers and more than 4,000 users entered what appeared to be a street address. "All of which," said the newspaper, "showed how easy it would be to track a person down through their searches."

KZLA follos: The New York Times considered the unexpected end of L.A.'s only country music station to be worthy of a Saturday piece. The Los Angeles Times, which buried the news in the back of the Calendar section on Friday (what were they thinking?), came back Sunday with a P.1 piece about how the shift away from country music is part of a national trend. New York and San Francisco are among the other major markets without a country station. Just a reminder that Franklin Avenue first reported the news on Thursday (quickly picked up by LA Observed).

Hollywood discomfort: There is no whiner like a show business whiner. Several studio executives moan to the New York Times about the cost pressures coming from their corporate parents - as well as the changing tastes and habits of American moviegoers. Every few years, the fear factor creeps into the consciousness of entertainments executives - and perhaps this time is different, as some are claiming. But NYT reporter Laura Holson points out that L.A. County had more show biz jobs in the first hald of 2006 than a year earlier. Also, there was this:

There are few economic indicators that reflect Hollywood’s apparent unease. Art dealers who cater to studio executives, actors and producers said buying had not slowed. Nor have sales of homes that cost $5 million to $10 million, several real estate agents said.

Pizza scam: AT&T is unkowningly re-routing pizza orders to a fraduster's phone line. The fraudster says that payment must be made in advance by credit card. AT&T is now on the lookout for requests to re-route pizza phone numbers.