As usual, George Carlin had plenty to say Monday night.

The grand old sage of off-color humor covered everything from recent history to campus events --and supplied a smattering of his classic material.

Characteristically relaxed and sporting a gray T-shirt to go with his thinning hair and pony tail, he dished out his wit and wisdom with spry pantomime, showing energy that would be envied by much younger comics.

The crowd in the sold-out Eisenhower Auditorium was receptive to most of the act, seeming to laugh in appreciation and respect at even his most radical ideas. Among the juicier bits of his performance were these diatribes:

-- The Persian Gulf War The conflict between Iraq and Kuwait last year proved that "our hobby is bombing brown people," Carlin said. "We've dropped bombs on Libya and Iraq and Panama . . . the last white people we bombed were the Germans. Why? Because they wanted to dominate the world. We said, 'Bullshit! that's our job!' "

-- Airlines "Whenever they talk about two planes getting close to each other, they call it a 'near miss.' I say it's a near hit," he said. "A collision is a near miss."

Carlin talked for more than 20 minutes about the "semantic nightmare" of the airline industry, noting the irony of terms like "final approach," "supplemental oxygen supply" and "terminal snack bar."

-- Eating Disorders "I can't believe that in this country there are people diving into dumpsters for a peach pit and others are purposely pukin' up dinner," he said.

-- Auto Racing Carlin said he likes to watch bad news on television -- "shit blowing up and bodies flying around" -- and that his fetish includes watching car races "for the crashes."

"I'm not impressed by a bunch of redneck assholes driving around in a circle for 500 miles," he said excitedly.

-- Local Current Events Carlin customarily requests local newspapers to read before each show. He got right to the heart of a recent campus controversy.

"I really like Chino Wilson's Daily Collegian opinion column. I think he's right on," he said without sarcasm to the grumbling audience.

"I hope the column gets out beyond the local area," he said about the piece, which was published last Tuesday.

To the delight of the crowd, Carlin also dusted off some old favorites, including his classic comparison of baseball and football, a hilarious account of the sexual habits of his pets and some of his 2,443 "forbidden" words.

Carlin's new material was a little less goofy and scatological than his 1970s and 1980s performances (he didn't mention dentists with blood in their hair or a "nun with a bull whip and a bottle of gin").

Politics have always been an integral segment of Carlin's act and Monday night's relied more on satire than schtick -- but in the end it seemed that language surfaced as his dearest focus.

He commented on political correctness, explaining why he prefers terms like "black" over "African American" and "Indian" over "Native American."

True tolerance "is in your heart, not on your lips," he said.

The warm-up act, comic Dennis Blair, made the crowd laugh often, even with a few tired Dan Quayle jokes. His best pieces were imitations of rock 'n roll stars, including a Bon Jovi who gets "shot through the heart" and a mumbling Bob Dylan.