Quick Takes: Ryman Auditorium wood reinstalled at Grand Ole Opry House

As it turns out, the circle will be unbroken.

Brad Paisley and Little Jimmy Dickens helped install the circle in the center of the Grand Ole Opry House stage Wednesday after floodwaters nearly destroyed it.

The circle, made from a part of the old stage from the Opry’s former home at Ryman Auditorium, was submerged under 46 inches of water during the May flood that damaged the Opry House and the Gaylord Opryland Hotel and Resort in Nashville.

Many musicians and fans consider the circle the heart of country music. The wood proved to be sturdier than the modern Opry stage, and it has been painstakingly refurbished.

Grand Ole Opry shows will resume Sept. 28.

—Associated Press

Band pays for grief counseling

The Swell Season is paying for grief counseling sessions for music fans who watched in horror as a man jumped to his death during the band’s concert at the Mountain Winery in Saratoga, Calif., last week.

As the band finished performing a song, 32-year-old Michael Pickels jumped from a roof covering the outdoor stage in an apparent suicide. Pickels landed near lead singer Glen Hansard, who’s known for his role in the 2006 movie “Once.”

A spokeswoman for Palo Alto-based Kara counseling center, Stephanie Demof, said Wednesday that the band has promised to pay an undisclosed amount of money to help pay for four group counseling sessions. Those services will be free to any audience members.

—Associated Press

‘Mummies’ sinks ‘Titanic’ draw

“Mummies of the World” has become one of the most popular exhibitions ever at the California Science Center, having recently surpassed 100,000 admissions in 50 days.

Other top draws at the museum in L.A.’s Exhibition Park include the 2004 “Body Worlds” exhibition, which saw 102,525 admissions during its first 50 days. The total number for the “Titanic” exhibition, which the center hosted in 2003, was 66,412 during its first 50 days.

“Mummies of the World,” which features 150 preserved objects, continues through Nov. 28.

—David Ng

Smithsonian gets the first Kermit

The original Kermit the Frog, his body created with an old dull-green coat and his eyes made of pingpong balls, has returned home to the nation’s capital, where the puppet got his start.

The first Kermit creation from Jim Henson’s Muppets collection appeared in 1955 on the early TV show “Sam and Friends,” produced at Washington’s WRC. Henson’s widow, Jane Henson, on Wednesday donated 10 characters from the show to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History.

The Hensons attended the University of Maryland and got into the TV business with Willard Scott and other pioneers while in college. Their connection to the area makes the Smithsonian a perfect home for Henson’s original puppets, friends said.

The Smithsonian already has a familiar Kermit the Frog puppet made famous on “Sesame Street” and “The Muppet Show.” But the original Kermit was more lizard-like and a duller green. His body was made from an old coat thrown out by Henson’s mother.

Some of the other early Muppets donated to the museum include the puppets that inspired Cookie Monster and Oscar the Grouch, as well as Sam from “Sam and Friends.” The puppets mostly mimed and would lip-sync to popular music.

—Associated Press

Archives given Nuremberg Laws

The Nuremberg Laws — a set of Nazi documents from 1935 that bears the signature of Adolf Hitler — is moving to a new home.

The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens said Wednesday that the papers are being transferred to the National Archives in Washington, where they will permanently reside.

The Huntington has housed the documents since 1945, when Gen. George S. Patton Jr. gave them to the San Marino museum, which happened to be near the Army leader’s residence.

Consisting of four typewritten pages — and signed by Hitler and dated Sept. 15, 1935 — the papers are the only Nuremberg Laws thought to exist in the United States, the Huntington said. The transfer of the documents, of which there are two copies, is effective immediately.

—David Ng

Finally

All that jazz: Lawrence Tanter, a radio veteran who is perhaps better known as the public-address announcer for the Lakers, has been named director of programming at KKJZ-FM (88.1), the area’s only full-time jazz station.

Back to print: Major Garrett, Fox News Channel’s chief White House correspondent, says he’s leaving the network after eight years to return to print journalism as congressional correspondent for the National Journal.

Band fined: Barcelona City Hall says rock band U2 has paid a fine of $22,000 for playing too long and too loudly during rehearsals in the Spanish city last year.