Goats

‘The Men Who Stare at Goats’’ prompts an obvious question: Will there in fact be any goats stared at in this movie? And, if so, by whom and to what end? The answers - yes; George Clooney; to kill them by remote heart attack as part of a top-secret military initiative - are deliciously absurd even if you don’t know they’re based at least partly in historical truth. You can’t make this stuff up, but you can botch the telling of it, and that’s what sinks this satiric drama based loosely on a 2004 nonfiction book by London-based journalist Jon Ronson.

Serves 6 Goat's milk adds a slight tang to this flan. Long, slow cooking keeps the dessert smooth and creamy. 1½ cups sugar ¼ cup water 1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise 4 whole eggs plus 2 extra yolks 2 cups heavy cream 1 cup goat's milk 1. Set the oven at 250 degrees. Have on hand six 6-ounce ramekins or custard cups. Place a folded dish towel in a large roasting pan. 2. In a skillet, spread ¾ cup of the sugar.

CORINTH, Vt. -- A man who tried to care for more than 300 goats and had some of the animials living in his house with him has had the seized animals returned and won permission to move them out of state. Chris Weathersbee, 64, pleaded guilty last week to animal cruelty and two other charges as part of a plea bargain that also called for the animals' return and removal to eastern Kentucky. Weathersbee said he has hired a livestock trucking company and plans to leave soon for a farm in Kentucky, where he expects the animals to be used on a vegetation-management project.

A Connecticut goat that made headlines in 2006 after visiting the state Capitol on a mission to inform about nuclear radiation is returning for the last time. Katie, a goat that was diagnosed with inoperable cancer after living near the Millstone Nuclear Power station, will be present at a Monday afternoon press conference on the Capitol lawn. Organizers of the event say the news conference will be held in an effort to meet with Gov. Dannel P. Malloy to share results of the goat's milk samples.

Vermont prosecutors say a Hartland man with a grudge against a game warden paid another to kill the warden's pet goats. Court documents say that on Oct. 30, 33-year-old Nick Ashline offered to pay 21-year-old Daniel Parry, of Windsor, to kill the goats of Game Warden Steve Majeski. The warden had investigated Ashline for illegally shooting a deer. Prosecutors say that later that night Parry killed one of Majeski's goats and injured another at his West Windsor home. The Valley News ( http://bit.ly/sVxmGT)

CORINTH, Vt. -- A goat farmer has pleaded not guilty to 15 counts of cruelty to animals. Chris Weathersbee, 64, had originally been cited on 44 counts of cruelty to animals, but Orange County prosecutors reduced the number of charges at his arraignment Monday. Later that night nearly 100 residents gathered with state officials and selectmen to demand they do more than wait for the case to work its way through court. Weathersbee is accused of failing to treat overgrown hooves in 15 of 44 goats seized by police in February.

HELENA, Mont. — Two young goats wandered onto the thin ledge of a railroad bridge and spent nearly two days high above the ground until rescuers in a towering cherry picker plucked them from their perch, hungry but safe. The rescue occurred Wednesday 60 feet above a little-trafficked rural roadway in southern Montana between Billings and Roundup, after a caller told the Rimrock Humane Society the goats were stranded on the 6-inch ledge. The young female animals, weighing 25 and 35 pounds, mostly stayed on the angled ledge, even though there was a wider surface area...

UNCASVILLE, Conn. — Two members of the work detail at a Connecticut state prison are expected to be penned there for life, working on the fence line to remove weeds and poison ivy. They seem to like the work and actually find the poison ivy delicious. Nibbles and Bits, a pair of goats, were taken to the Corrigan-Radgowski Correctional Center in Southeastern Connecticut just over a year ago after being rescued from separate farms that did not want them. Joe Schoonmaker, the corrections officer who oversees landscaping at the 1,500-inmate prison, heard about the goats and...

A Christmas Carol (PG), 6 Severed Ways: The Norse Discovery of America (unrated), 13 Brief Interviews With Hideous Men (unrated), 12 The Horse Boy (unrated), 14 The Men Who Stare at Goats (R), 10 Gentlemen Broncos (PG-13), 8 The Fourth Kind (PG-13), 18 Opened Wednesday American Casino (unrated)

BROWNSVILLE, Vt. -- We've come for a weekend at the Pond House Bed & Breakfast just in time to catch Cow Appreciation Day at a nearby farming museum. It's a testament to Vermont's pastoral history that cows outnumbered people here until the 1960s. Yet in recent years, the state has become a cultural hermaphrodite, a rural throwback battling creeping urbanization and development. The two facets of its personality don't always fit together. We spot a "Don't Jersey Vermont" bumper sticker on an all-terrain vehicle.

What's the big deal about a string quartet playing on a Tuesday night in Boston? Granted, this particular string quartet was anchored by superstar cellist Yo-Yo Ma. And the rest of the lineup was a little unorthodox, not to mention bluegrass: fiddler Stuart Duncan, Nickel Creek and Punch Brothers mandolinist Chris Thile, and double-bassist Edgar Meyer. And they were playing at the House of Blues, where they were joined by vocalist Aoife O'Donovan. And NCM Fathom and Sony Masterworks were cinecasting the first of the evening's two sessions live to more than 400 theaters nationwide, including...

> The title of your latest collaboration, The Goat Rodeo Sessions, may raise a few eyebrows. What significance does the term "goat rodeo" have to the music? It was described as an aviation term where everything is incredibly chaotic and a hundred things must go right in order for there to be a good resolution. We [four string players] come from many different backgrounds. [The music] actually comes together in a way that the four of us really like, and, therefore, we think that Goat Rodeo Sessions is a good title.

A goat that escaped a Minnesota Nativity scene is safe after 25 days on the loose. Curly was found Wednesday afternoon on a farm southwest of Fergus Falls. Tony Loomer came out to feed the horses and goats on his farm and noticed the extra goat. KBRF-AM ( http://bit.ly/r11BGJ) reports Curly appeared hungry, wet and cold and had lost weight. Curly's owner, Jim Aakre (AWK'-ree), came to make sure the goat was his. Aakre thought about going home to get a horse trailer, but Curly was already cold, so he and his wife, Karen, gave Curly her first car ride.

A goat that apparently didn't want to be part of a Minnesota Nativity scene has headed for greener pastures. The 3-year-old Angora goat was supposed to have a supporting role at Bethlehem Church in Fergus Falls. Instead it escaped its leash Saturday afternoon, and remained on the lam Monday. The goat's owner is Jim Aakre of rural Underwood. He says he tried to chase it for about two hours, but the lack of snow made tracking difficult. The wayward goat has been spotted several times since it escaped, but police haven't been able to collar it. A Fergus Falls Journal report...

Vermont prosecutors say a Hartland man with a grudge against a game warden paid another to kill the warden's pet goats. Court documents say that on Oct. 30, 33-year-old Nick Ashline offered to pay 21-year-old Daniel Parry, of Windsor, to kill the goats of Game Warden Steve Majeski. The warden had investigated Ashline for illegally shooting a deer. Prosecutors say that later that night Parry killed one of Majeski's goats and injured another at his West Windsor home. The Valley News ( http://bit.ly/sVxmGT)

THE GOAT RODEO SESSIONS Presented by Celebrity Series of Boston At: House of Blues, Boston. Jan. 31, 7:30 and 10 p.m. 888-693-2583, www.celebrityseries.org Adding a pair of dates to its calendar in mid-season, and taking its programming to an unusual venue, the Celebrity Series of Boston has announced two performances of the Goat Rodeo Sessions, a genre-challenging project that brings together cellist Yo-Yo Ma, mandolinist Chris Thile,...

The Men Who Stare at Goats By Jon Ronson Simon & Schuster, 259 pp., illustrated, $24 We know about the use of dogs and sexual humiliation to break down prisoners at Abu Ghraib but haven't read much about the use of subliminal sounds. Count on Jon Ronson, the talented British journalist, to address this oversight. Journalists who wade into the world of conspiracy theory open themselves up to ridicule for even dignifying weirdos with time and attention. Ronson, however, is making a name for himself by doing exactly that.

UYANGA, Mongolia — Before he can fully tend to his dwindling herd, Demberel has to bury the dead cows, goats, and sheep in earth barely thawed from Mongolia’s worst winter in decades. Fetid and fly-ridden, the carcasses lie stacked by the hundreds around a burial pit dug by Demberel and a dozen fellow herders. A truck brings dozens more carcasses. Others lie in piles or strewn in nearby valleys, potential health hazards for animals and humans alike. “We’re bitter and sad that we’ve lost all our animals.

A nonprofit group whose proposal to create a community farm on town-owned land touched off a two-year debate that continues in Lexington, has acquired a small herd of Nigerian dwarf goats and is housing them next to the town-owned site. The Lexington Community Farm Coalition said the goat yard it opened last month next to the town's Busa Farm property will be used to further its mission of educating people about sustainable land use by teaching about the care of goats, and their relationships with people and farming.