Ash

There was a time when churches prepared for Ash Wednesday by burning the dried palms from the previous Palm Sunday. Many still do. More and more churches, however, are buying commercially produced ashes online. But there's a catch: Order early. “We just had a call 10 minutes ago,” said Mark Gould, owner of Religious Supply Service in Davenport, Iowa. “We've had them all day long.” Gould was speaking Tuesday, one day before the start of Lent. A few days earlier, Religious Supply Service had posted a note on its website saying, “Sorry, sold out for the season.” That didn't stop churches from calling the company for a last-minute shipment.

The congregation was quiet — teary-eyed but smiling — as Bill Coburn, in a eulogy to his wife of 62 years, spoke of the passions of his beloved Marian. Travel. Walt Disney's Dopey. Elephants, both real and miniature. Reruns of "The Golden Girls. " Her church. And roses. Marian Stanton Coburn loved roses so much she planted 65 rosebushes in the North Hollywood home where she had lived since 1930. On a chilly, sunny Saturday last month, Bill Coburn managed a small smile as, true to her wishes, his wife's ashes were buried beneath roses in a memorial garden outside St. David's Anglican Church.

As drifting ash from the Icelandic volcano played havoc with flight schedules again this week, worried travelers continued to besiege trip insurers with one question: Am I covered? No event in recent memory, not even the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, has disrupted travel like the ash from Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull volcano, which at one point last month grounded nearly 30% of the world's air traffic and stranded millions of fliers for days in northern Europe and elsewhere. For those holding travel-insurance policies, the finer points of terms such as "unforeseen event" can mean the difference between getting thousands of dollars in refunds from deposits on interrupted and cancelled trips or nothing.

Lent 2012 offers observant Catholics and other Christians a unique opportunity to honor the sacrifices of Jesus Christ by first honoring his mother, Mary. Because of a quirky series of calender coincidences, Christians can use this year's Lent to also follow in the footsteps of St. Louis-Marie de Montfort. He was a French priest known for his deep commitment to Mary, and came up with a series of short prayers and spiritual practices to honor her called the Total Consecration . This year, the Catholic calendar lines up so that both Lent and the Total Consecration start on the same day. The next time that happens will be 2075, Father Ryan Wayne Erlenbush told The Times.

Fat Tuesday is your last hurrah, folks, so let the carbo loading begin. Fat Tuesday will give way to a more solemn occasion -- Ash Wednesday -- and then a 40-day period of self-sacrifice known as Lent. Fat Tuesday, the English translation of the French " Mardi Gras ," signals the official end of Carnival season, billed as a hedonistic frenzy of food, booze, parades, masked celebrations and things that can't be printed in a family newspaper. Fat Tuesday is kind of like a hangover helper -- and a way to get ready for what lies ahead.

Qantas and Virgin Australia canceled flights that were scheduled Thursday (Australia time) to New Zealand and the western Australian city of Perth as an ash cloud from a Chilean volcano continued to spread into the area and strand thousands more travelers. The cloud has also wreaked havoc in South America . Disruptions of air travel in various parts of the world could last for months, experts say. The Sydney Morning Herald dubbed the cloud over Perth the "plume of gloom" and explained that levels of ash as low as 15,000 feet posed a safety risk for airlines.

  2008 Penner-Ash Pinot Noir "Dussin Vineyard" It's a beautiful Pinot Noir from Oregon's Willamette Valley and winemaker Lynn Penner. The fruit is dark and ripe, but there's no trace of jam in this elegant and lush wine from the vineyard that surrounds the estate's cellars. But there's more than just fruit ? sweet spices, a hint of vanilla and smoke. Save this bottle for dinner with someone who will appreciate its finesse. I'd serve it with roasted chicken with truffle butter, or even better, truffles slipped under the skin.

Volcano ash can wreck jet engines, poison freshwater lakes and damage lungs. But it helps fertilize oceans, volcano researchers and marine chemists say. "The ocean is gonna be happier" because of the Iceland eruption, said Ken Johnson, senior scientist with the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute. "Plants will grow more" — although how much more, he said, is unclear. About 30% of the oceans are what scientists call iron-limited — rich in many nutrients but missing iron, a crucial trace element for plants.

The British government announced Monday that it would dispatch navy warships to bring home Britons prevented from flying home from the European mainland by the cloud of volcanic ash. Prime Minister Gordon Brown said the navy would send two ships to pick up civilians from ports along the English Channel and a third to Spain bring back British troops trying to return from duty in Afghanistan. It was unclear, however, how quickly the evacuation could be mounted, given the logistics of putting the ships into action and working out arrangements with border authorities in Britain, France and Spain.

A volcanic eruption in southern Chile triggered tremors and spewed ash two miles into the air, prompting evacuation of hundreds of people. Ash fell over the town of Chaiten, about 700 miles south of Santiago and six miles from the volcano. Some schools were closed and hospitals treated people for eye irritation and breathing difficulties. Trucks were sent with clean water.

Each week, the FBI sends reporters an email of "top ten news stories" that it hopes will hit the headlines. The press releases usually highlight crooks nabbed, terrorism plots foiled and convictions notched up by the straight-shooting, gang-busting agents from the world's most famous law enforcement agency. It's doubtful any of the cases the FBI likes to publicize made it into Tim Weiner's absorbing "Enemies: A History of the FBI. " It is a scathing indictment of the FBI as a secret intelligence service that has bent and broken the law for decades in the pursuit of Communists, terrorists and spies.

There was a time when churches prepared for Ash Wednesday by burning the dried palms from the previous Palm Sunday. Many still do. More and more churches, however, are buying commercially produced ashes online. But there's a catch: Order early. “We just had a call 10 minutes ago,” said Mark Gould, owner of Religious Supply Service in Davenport, Iowa. “We've had them all day long.” Gould was speaking Tuesday, one day before the start of Lent. A few days earlier, Religious Supply Service had posted a note on its website saying, “Sorry, sold out for the season.” That didn't stop churches from calling the company for a last-minute shipment.

Fat Tuesday is your last hurrah, folks, so let the carbo loading begin. Fat Tuesday will give way to a more solemn occasion -- Ash Wednesday -- and then a 40-day period of self-sacrifice known as Lent. Fat Tuesday, the English translation of the French " Mardi Gras ," signals the official end of Carnival season, billed as a hedonistic frenzy of food, booze, parades, masked celebrations and things that can't be printed in a family newspaper. Fat Tuesday is kind of like a hangover helper -- and a way to get ready for what lies ahead.

Originally built from 1890 to 1893 by a Bible salesman from Illinois, the Victorian-style Newhall Mansion burned to the ground three decades ago when a fire broke out during a kitchen remodel. Meticulously reconstructed in keeping with its elaborate Queen Anne architecture, the manse is the centerpiece of an estate that includes nearly 10 acres of native flora, lawns, fountains and a manager's house. Location: 829 Park Road, Piru 90340 Asking price: $2.399 million Year built: 1984 House size: Main house: six bedrooms, eight bathrooms, 11,500 square feet; manager's house: two bedrooms, one bathroom, 1,100 square feet Lot size: 9.6 acres Features: Eight fireplaces, den, library, art studio, wine cellar, basement, swimming pool Also available: The adjacent three-bedroom, three-bathroom Warring Stone House, built in 1934, is listed at $499,000.

When Jeon Gyeong-suk lost her husband to cancer three months ago, she agonized over how to keep his remains. Because land is at a premium, burial was out, and she found the idea of a heap of ashes stored in an urn sort of creepy. So the 51-year-old widow paid $900 to transform her husband's ashes into a few handfuls of tiny bluish beads that have the look of beluga caviar. Even though the beads look like pebble-sized gems, they aren't meant to be strung into a necklace.

Roy L. Ash, a co-founder and former president of Litton Industries who served as director of the Office of Management and Budget in the 1970s during the Nixon and Ford administrations, has died. He was 93. Ash, who had Parkinson's disease, died Dec. 14 at his home in Los Angeles, said his wife, Lila. A Los Angeles native, Ash was chief financial officer of Hughes Aircraft Co. in Culver City before partnering with former Hughes colleague Charles B. "Tex" Thornton in 1953 in a new company that soon led to the acquisition of a small microwave tube firm owned by Charles Litton in the Bay Area community of San Carlos.

Strong aftershocks from New Zealand's deadly quake, plus a drifting ash cloud from a volcanic eruption in Chile, disrupted flights, temporarily closed airports and stranded travelers in Australia and New Zealand on Monday. South American travelers also continued to be delayed. New Zealand tourism officials are warning travelers to the Christchurch area to be prepared for more aftershocks after a pair of strong earthquakes Monday caused more damage to the city center, already devastated by the deadly quake in February.

Virgin Australia , JetStar and Qantas airlines Tuesday canceled hundreds of flights in and out of Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Canberra due to the volcanic ash cloud from Chile, which has circled the globe and swirled into airspace in southeastern Australia. Thousands of passengers were stranded. But airlines planned to resume service Wednesday as the plume appears to be heading toward the Tasman Sea and away from Australian air space. Carriers were shooting for 2 p.m. Wednesday for resuming domestic and international flights in and out of Sydney.

Inside a mobile command center parked in the heart of Hollywood, Los Angeles City fire captains huddle around a bank of radios, monitoring six frequencies used by local law enforcement agencies. It was here on Friday night and early Saturday morning that reports of car fires streamed in, one by one. As the firefighters charted the locations on an ever-expanding map pinned to the wall, it quickly became apparent they were following the path of a serial arsonist. "He's here, he's here, now he's here," said Capt.

They are the unidentified, the estranged, those whose loved ones just couldn't afford to bury them. In a simple yet poignant ceremony Wednesday near a busy Boyle Heights intersection, the ashes of more than 1,600 people who had never been identified or whose bodies were never claimed were buried in a single grave. The mass burial has become a custom each December at the Los Angeles County Crematory and Cemetery. This year's ceremony was attended by just a few, none of whom knew the deceased.