Ash

  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.

When Gary Ferguson closed his eyes, he could still hear the roar of the river and see the torrent of water as it crashed through boulders and fallen trees. Jane was in the bow, he was in the stern, and the rapids surrounded them. "Paddle hard!" he remembered yelling, as if paddling might have helped. FOR THE RECORD: Grief journey: In a Nov. 14 article in Section A about writer Gary Ferguson's hike to spread the ashes of his wife in the wilderness, a caption under a photograph of a campfire scene identified the man on the left as Steve Muth.

President Obama will probably cut short his one-day Indonesia visit because volcanic ash is complicating air travel in the region, aides said as Air Force One arrived here Tuesday. The change would be just the latest of several disruptions in the president's trip to the country where he lived for a while as a child. The Tuesday arrival comes after two cancellations earlier in the year, first because of a congressional vote on the president's healthcare plan and then because of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Folks around here simply call it the Big Tree. The towering bur oak surrounded by fields of soybeans needs no other name. It's safe to say it's the only thing in the tiny village of McBaine (population 17) with 6,000 Facebook fans. People look at the Big Tree with respect. They come to north-central Missouri from miles away, even from other states, to sit in its shade and run their fingers over the ridged bark. There's the feeling there must be something special about a tree that sprouted back when English settlers were still establishing their colonies on the East Coast.

A Los Angeles jury ordered the death penalty Monday for a 22-year-old Latino gang member convicted in the hate-crime killing of a 14-year-old black girl and the stabbing death of a potential witness in the Harbor Gateway area. Jonathan Fajardo, who was 18 at the time of the killings, nonchalantly looked around the courtroom as the verdict was read. The jury found that he should receive death for his first-degree murder convictions for the slayings of Cheryl Green and Christopher Ash. Fajardo was eligible for the death penalty because the jury accepted special circumstance allegations including multiple murder, killing a witness, committing a hate crime based on race and committing the crime for a gang.

Pseudonymous novels of crime and detection by authors of literary fiction always are an interesting proposition. A great deal depends on the writer's intentions: Are they simply trying on an alternative — perhaps less freighted — authorial identity, or do they have in mind using the genre to get something off their chest that might compromise their literary "brand"? The former motive can produce superb entertainments, as in the case of Man Booker Prize-winner John Banville's Benjamin Black novels.

Guatemala's capital was under a state of emergency and its airport closed Friday after the Pacaya volcano spewed black ash for miles in the southern part of the country. Television reporter Anibal Archila who had been covering the eruption was found dead by colleagues after being caught in a blizzard of rocks and debris. More than 65 people were injured and hundreds of homes damaged, according to news reports. Officials said three children between the ages of 7 and 12 were missing.

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.

If you're planning an expensive trip, travel insurance might spare you some sleepless nights. Just make sure you know what you're buying. Some tips: --Expect to pay 4% to 8% of your trip cost for premiums on standard "bundled" policies. These cover trip delays, cancellations and interruptions due to illness, weather and other unexpected events. -- Compare different policies on websites such as InsureMyTrip.com, QuoteWright.com and Squaremouth.com. --Read the entire certificate of insurance, not just the summary.

Two things British television does extremely well are period pieces and mysteries. And here come a couple now. "Foyle's War" returns to PBS' "Masterpiece Mystery!" with three new feature-length episodes Sunday night. Though the production was on hiatus for a couple of years, the action — set mainly in and around the English seaside town of Hastings — picks up just where it left off: Previous seasons of "Foyle's" got us through World War II; now we are in its immediate aftermath, a period of settling and resetting, of cleaning up the various bits of nasty business that keep Detective Chief Superintendent Christopher Foyle, played by Michael Kitchen, still doing the job he has for some time been trying to leave.