Bent

I won't dispute the fact that from the floor to the roof much of "Bent," a rom-com sitcom debuting Wednesday on NBC, is made from parts stripped from several ages of earlier romantic comedies. But I would also argue that it doesn't matter much. Formula does not always betoken a lack of imagination; sometimes it just betokens an active embrace of formula. And "Bent" (a bad title, I think, not sufficiently justified by one character's description of himself as "bent, not bowed") builds a nice little shelter in a classic style.

Muddy Leek is in kind of an odd location, just a block or two away from the restaurants in Culver City's Helms complex yet seemingly well outside of the area. It's part of a building that briefly served as a design museum before it was converted into architects' offices, in an awkwardly proportioned space that runs through restaurant identities like Spinal Tap goes through drummers. The neighborhood is rich enough in gelaterias and boutique art galleries that it is nearly impossible to find a parking space on Saturday nights, and the big windows face out onto a panorama that includes two liquor stores, the ice cream sandwich shop Coolhaus, and a shop that flashes slides of sleekly designed kitchens on its exterior as if they were movies at a drive-in.

American Mike Colandro, who had a share of the lead for a while, got so angry at himself for missing a birdie putt that he bent his putter over his knee and was disqualified from the $1 million Palm Meadows Cup on Saturday. Colandro's troubles began with a double bogey on the sixth hole. He then bogeyed the seventh, and when he missed the birdie putt on the ninth, he vented his frustration by bending the club over his knee.

OUAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso - The film festival crowd had filled the last seats in the Cine Neerwaya and, when there was no room left, sat four abreast in the aisles. The opening credits hardly dimmed the buzz in the theater; for those who missed a crucial plot twist, a neighbor was always eager to offer a running commentary. Whatever pieties had been observed for more solemn films at the Fespaco festival, which ended this month, there was a sense that "Congé de Mariage" (Marriage Holiday)

Algorephobic: Someone who stays inside and can't watch debates. CAROLYN DOVER BENT Lake Forest

The financially based competitiveness of entrepreneurs who sell arms of grotesque power and destructiveness to nations bent on conquering themselves or others is indescribably cynical. CHARLES G. CRADDOCK Pacific Palisades

My favorite and safest technique for crossing the street is to walk with my eyes downcast and head slightly bent. I find that eye contact with the driver gives him/her the impression that I will yield. PAT HUBLEY Culver City

Three of the five teenagers accused of setting a Deerfield Beach teen on fire will be charged as adults, said the State Attorney's Office in Broward County. Denver Jarvis and Matthew Bent, both 15, and Jesus Mendez, 16, were charged with one count of second-degree attempted murder in the Oct. 12 attack on Michael Brewer, 15. Adult charges have not been filed against Steven Shelton, 15, and Jeremy Jarvis, 13, who were released from custody, but prosecutors have not ruled that out. The five are accused of dousing Brewer with rubbing alcohol and setting him aflame.

Earl Gustkey's story on Howard Jones [Dec. 24] was very interesting. I enjoyed it, particularly since I did not know my husband, Joe, when he played football at USC, nor did I ever know Howard Jones. However, I can attest to the fact that not all of Howard Jones' players are "bent by the weight of their years." Here is a picture I took of my husband, Joe, and Amby Schindler in late December. I think they're in pretty good shape and certainly not bent over! Joe is engaged in regular combat with a punching bag, and I understand Amby's routine includes surfing.

Re "Governor Considers a Power Play," Dec. 13: Am I alone in fearing Arnold Schwarzenegger's attempt at a rule change enabling him to consolidate his gubernatorial powers? His efforts in this direction are, to me, an alarming dictatorial bent in his personality that should be resisted at all costs. To extrapolate this thinking to his fantasy of being president further terrifies me. Russell Blinick Chatsworth

Fans of the old Art Bell Coast to Coast radio show - a call-in program about alien encounters that was a staple of Southern late nights in the '90s - might find a lot to like about Shooter Jennings' new album, "The Other Life. " There's a bit of a rural-futurist bent (see "Flying Saucer Song" and "15 Million Light-Years Away"), but more importantly, the album shows how quiet, open spaces can lead to great flights of imagination. "The Other Life" is a showpiece for Jennings' familial knack for outlaw-country hell-raising.

"Escape From Planet Earth" - an animated adventure that's more down-to-earth than earth-shattering - builds a family-friendly sci-fi constellation out of fresh chuckles and recycled parts, a number of them from Planet Pixar. Feel-good but not cloying, zippy but not frenetic, and refreshingly free of snark, the default setting for a lot of kids' fare these days, the feature takes a pleasingly retro-futuristic stance on matters of décor and attitude. Fueling the ride is an outstanding voice cast that includes Rob Corddry, Brendan Fraser, Sarah Jessica Parker, Sofia Vergara and, in irresistibly hammy villain mode, William Shatner.

On the day Christopher Dorner was fired from the Los Angeles Police Department, officials took the unusual step of summoning armed guards to stand watch at his disciplinary hearing downtown. Those present were nervous that Dorner might do something rash when he learned that he was being stripped of his badge. He was a hulking, muscled man and his body language left no doubt about the anger seething out of him. "It was clear… that he was wound way too tight," said a police official who attended Dorner's termination hearing and requested anonymity because of safety concerns.

Hell Bent Obsession, Pain, and the Search for Something Like Transcendence in Competitive Yoga Benjamin Lorr St. Martin's Press: 312 pp., $25.99 The sweaty, two-year odyssey Benjamin Lorr chronicles in his new memoir, "Hell Bent: Obsession, Pain, and the Search for Something Like Transcendence in Competitive Yoga," begins as so many great journeys do: with a drunken, late-night slip on a patch of ice that results in a separated rib....

A whole lot stranger than fiction, "The Imposter"is a documentary that's disturbing in ways only reality can manage. This is a train wreck you think you see coming, but no matter how prepared you are the nature and extent of the damage will overwhelm you. As directed by British documentarian Bart Layton, "The Imposter" tells the story of a dark-skinned French Algerian man, a world-class deceiver and manipulator, who managed to convince members of...

I won't dispute the fact that from the floor to the roof much of "Bent," a rom-com sitcom debuting Wednesday on NBC, is made from parts stripped from several ages of earlier romantic comedies. But I would also argue that it doesn't matter much. Formula does not always betoken a lack of imagination; sometimes it just betokens an active embrace of formula. And "Bent" (a bad title, I think, not sufficiently justified by one character's description of himself as "bent, not bowed") builds a nice little shelter in a classic style.

It has become clear to me that the only marriage that should be banned is the marriage of religion and politics. The results of such a union seem only to produce an ugly child whose knee-jerk reactions are based solely on shrill emotions, and who lacks any sort of intellectual bent. All I can say at this point to the religionists: "Do freedom-loving people everywhere a favor and keep your light under a bushel." Dennis Marquardt Santa Ana

ANYONE who thinks that the Spartans in "300" resemble American forces in Iraq may be getting his combatants confused ["The Few, the Proud Among Fans of '300,' " by Tony Perry and Robert W. Welkos, March 14]. The Spartans in the movie are zealous fanatics willing to commit virtual suicide for a beautiful death, against a vastly more powerful invading enemy bent on expanding its empire and headed by a dangerously deranged megalomaniac. Does that make things a little clearer about who is who?

Add an element of balance to a strength move like this bent-over row to kick up the intensity level. You'll work the muscles in your back, arms, abdominals, buttocks and legs all at once. You may need to use lighter weights to get started. Hold an 8- to 10-pound dumbbell in each hand. Stand on your left leg, knees bent, with your right toe pointed behind you. Lean slightly forward, maintaining a straight, long back with your arms hanging directly below your shoulders. Inhale as you find your balance.

Living in the farther reaches of basic cable are a growing number of television series about what might be called "ordinary people" at work in what most of us would consider extraordinary jobs. It is lazily tempting, though not quite right, to describe these shows as redneck or blue-collar or rural, but they are mostly set away from big cities in places that -- apart from these shows -- you don't often see on TV: Southern places and prairie places and backwoods places. You can link their titles into a kind of poetical associative chain: "Ice Road Truckers," "American Joggers," "Lady Joggers," "Ax Men," "American Loggers," "Swamp Loggers," "Swamp Brothers," "Swamp People," "Swamp Wars" -- do you see a pattern emerging?