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I flew down south to Montgomery on a mission to download from my elderly aunts decades of family history. I packed my suitcase with the tools I thought I'd need: a dress for church, a tape recorder, and a pair of hiking shoes for the trek to our family's backwoods cemetery. And I was ready to roll up my sleeves. I wanted to take them shopping, do their yardwork or whatever they could cram into three days with me. But what they wanted slowed me down and taught me something new about family.

Re "True austerity," Opinion, May 18 Fiscal conservatives will always claim that the real problem is that the austerity measures undertaken in Europe didn't go far enough. Similarly, there's the claim that the reasonGeorge W. Bush, through his tax cuts and anti-regulatory stance, presided over the worst economic performance of any president in modern history was because he wasn't a true conservative. We have an obvious historical parallel. How did we finally exit the Depression?

People suffering from depression usually can find an antidepressant that works for them -- even if they have to try more than one. But how long will the drug continue to work? Here's an online discussion about the long-term effects and other aspects of these drugs. A panel at a live Web chat Thursday (noon EST, 11 a.m. CST, 9 a.m. PST) is to include Dr. John Goethe, director of the IOL Research and Depression Initiative at Hartford Hospital; Dr. Surita Rao, department head for behavioral health at St. Francis Hospital; and Andrew Winokur, director of the Neuropsychopharmacology Treatment, Research and Training Center at the University of Connecticut.

Andrew Bynum and Pau Gasol were in the Lakers' training facility on the same day, possibly for the last time. They arrived several hours apart for their exit interviews Wednesday and then stepped into the sunshine afterward, though nothing looked overly bright about the Lakers' future. "There will be some change," said Lakers General Manager Mitch Kupchak, the sting still fresh from another ouster in the Western Conference semifinals. "When you lose before you think you should have lost, you have to open up all opportunities.

Los Angeles City Councilman Bill Rosendahl received some answers to his questions about plans to build a downtown football stadium and the effect it would have on the nearby Convention Center. But many of those answers, provided by the city's top two policy analysts in a 13-page letter, boil down to two words: Stay tuned. Chief Legislative Analyst Gerry Miller and City Administrative Officer Miguel Santana told Rosendahl that many of the questions — sent by the councilman in three separate letters — cannot be answered until negotiations on the $1-billion stadium are completed.

It's an all-too-familiar situation: You're driving along, slightly distracted, and then a bump in the road brings that sickening feeling. So begins "The Headless Woman," the third feature from Argentine writer-director Lucrecia Martel, opening in New York City on Wednesday and in Los Angeles on Sept. 4. A woman (played with masterful opacity by Maria Onetto) just keeps driving, and as the film unfolds it becomes increasingly unclear as to whether she hit something (a dog? A young boy?).

I'd like to go on record agreeing with the headline of your Oct. 19 editorial, "Sick Veterans Deserve Better." However, I disagree with much of what followed. Your editorial called for federal funding of a specific research project targeted at the health complaints of Gulf War veterans. That particular research project has not been endorsed by the independent panel of scientists that reviews all proposals from researchers seeking federal funds for their work on Gulf War illnesses. Giving research dollars to the best lobbyist with the most successful PR machine isn't the way the scientific process is supposed to work.

Fred (I Don't) Claire is a mess. MIKE THOMAS Canoga Park

Of the six sample questions from the INS Citizenship Examination ("How Well Would You Do?" July 18), two have incorrect answers. There are now 27 amendments to the United States Constitution, and while the House of Representatives has 435 seats, Congress, which includes the House and the Senate, has 535 (plus five non-voting delegates, one each from the District of Columbia and four American territories). I hope the people teaching the citizenship classes are doing a better job than the people writing the INS examination.

If you write about the Oscars for a living -- which is what everyone at the L.A. Times seems to be doing this time of the year -- people expect you to have the answers, to know who's who, what's what, and, most important, which films are going to win. This year, however, feels different. This year, to my mind at least, the questions are as interesting as the answers. The one that interests me most is whether Kathryn Bigelow will become the first woman in the Oscar's 82 episodes to win best director.

The Clippers don't view this situation as a mountain they can't climb, despite the San Antonio Spurs' owning a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven Western Conference semifinals series. Despite losing the two games by an average of 16.5 points, the Clippers still see an opportunity to get back into the series. They cling to the hope that they will play better, that being home for Game 3 Saturday afternoon and Game 4 Sunday night at Staples Center will be an impetus for them. "We're not completely out of this," Blake Griffin, who has a sprained left knee, said after practice Friday.

The Phoenix Coyotes finally had a chance to exhale after taking it in the solar plexus the first two games of the Western Conference finals. That giddy feeling, and a 1-0 lead, lasted 2 minutes 7 seconds for those counting. Dustin Brown spotted Anze Kopitar cruising up ice and a moment later the Kings had tied the score, 1-1. It was somewhat redundant. Brown, Kopitar and linemate Justin Williams have consistently done what the Kings ask of them - play like their top line.

With Francois Hollande's election as France's first Socialist president in 17 years, Europe now must deal with a major leader who has promised to push a different approach to resolving the continent's debt crisis. Hollande's message, that the German insistence on austerity must be tempered with plans to stimulate economic growth, helped propel him to a decisive win Sunday over incumbent President Nicolas Sarkozy, with nearly 52% of the vote. Hollande, 57, is expected to take over May 15 from Sarkozy, who became the first sitting French leader to lose a reelection bid in more than 30 years.

Louis Watson, Dwight Taylor and Gregory Davis Jr. were the first casualties of the L.A. riots, mortally wounded in a volley of gunfire early on the evening of April 29, 1992. Over the last 20 years, police detectives and family members have tried to imagine what exactly happened near Vernon and Vermont avenues. They know it was a chaotic moment. Police believe all three were innocent victims, but they were surrounded by a mob looting a large swap meet at the corner. They can replay so much of the scene -- but not who pulled the trigger.

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Two days later and Chris Paul still couldn't explain how the Clippers came from 27 points down in Game 1 on Sunday to defeat the Memphis Grizzlies in the first round of the Western Conference playoffs. "I don't know. I don't have any answers for what happened in that game — in all seriousness," Paul said Tuesday at practice. "It was just fighting and never giving up. We just played as hard as we could. I can't say I knew that was going to happen. It was just one of those crazy situations.

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Reggie Evans "changed the game," Chris Paul said Sunday night after the Clippers' improbable, come-from-27-points-behind victory over Memphis. It was the Clippers' bench, with Evans, Nick Young, Eric Bledsoe and Kenyon Martin "stepping up," Paul said at practice Monday about the Clippers' victory over the Grizzlies in Game 1 of the Western Conference first-round playoff series. "The bench was amazing," Paul said about his teammates who did a lot of the heavy lifting in the victory that gave the Clippers the confidence they seemed to be lacking early in the contest.

Answer: Matt Greene, Dustin Penner and Jonathan Quick. Question: Who happened to be three stars -- in no particular order -- in the Kings' 3-1 victory over the Blues on Saturday in Game 1 of the Western Conference semifinals? Serious questions demand serious answers. Seriously. This isn't some strange hockey quiz with Quick's name thrown in for a whiff of credibility. Indeed, Quick was his usual (nearly) impenetrable self in making 28 saves in the series opener and keeping the Kings from losing a grip under early Blues pressure.

Invoking his right against self-incrimination, the former finance director of the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum declined to testify before a grand jury about alleged corruption at the stadium, then answered questions after a judge granted him limited immunity, transcripts of the proceedings show. Ronald Lederkramer, once the Coliseum's No. 2 executive, left the Coliseum late last year after The Times reported that he used his personal credit card to buy hundreds of thousands of dollars in stadium equipment to pocket valuable reward points.