Big Chill

The next to last step before bottling Bourbon is chill filtering, which removes certain compounds that settle out at low temperatures. These compounds don't spoil the flavor at all (Booker's is an example of a Bourbon that isn't chill-filtered), but the process is done because some drinkers object to the hazy look that unfiltered whiskey gets on ice.

It had been a surreal two weeks, the Lakers looking just fine without Kobe Bryant, winning four games without their leader and beating back some pretty good teams in the process. But their luck ended abruptly against the Boston Celtics, in front of a suddenly hushed Staples Center crowd that witnessed an incredibly tight fourth quarter fall the way of the Celtics. Derek Fisher missed an off-balance 21-footer as time expired, giving Kevin Garnett reason to exuberantly throw his wristband into the crowd.

I am an active, professional real estate broker and work hard to meet my clients' needs and provide accurate information on the marketplace. Your reporting in "The Big Chill" (Jan. 14) by David W. Myers has erroneously created a perception that we are not selling homes. According to you, if homes do sell, they sell for $100,000 less than asking price, and every seller has to give a trip to Tahiti to get the home sold. This is not correct. In our board in Glendale we had more sales in the last quarter of 1989 than we had in the same quarter in prior years.

Times NFL writer Sam Farmer looks at the 10 most memorable and pivotal games from the 2009 season: Like Old Times 10Think Brett Favre magic is a thing of the past? Not so fast. In a Week 3 game against San Francisco, Minnesota's Favre fired a 32-yard touchdown pass to Greg Lewis with two seconds to play for a 27-24 victory at the Metrodome. It was Favre's 42nd career comeback from fourth-quarter deficits or ties. "It's hard to even recall all of 'em," he said. "This one was pretty special."

In 1983, director and writer Lawrence Kasdan opened the New York Film Festival with his movie "The Big Chill"--and in his moment of excitement and pride forgot to mention many of the film's cast and crew. On Monday night, Kasdan--still excited, still proud--made amends at the premiere of the Columbia Pictures re-release, acknowledging everyone, even a camera assistant who told the director and actor Kevin Kline at the time that "in a few years this movie will be another blip."

Thank you for Paul Ciotti's article, "Why Has L.A. Lost Its Sense of Community?" (Dec. 9). I come from Chicago, where you hear someone's life story by sitting next to them on the bus. When my relatives visit me from Chicago, they see the house worth almost half a million dollars and the gorgeous weather. They're jealous until they feel that coldness that makes you feel like you aren't there. People just do not care to even know you here. When you're used to friendly places like Chicago, living in L.A. is chilling to the soul.

I am a real estate broker and president of the Orange County Broker Council for ERA Real Estate. I take issue with the article "The Big Chill" (Jan. 14). First of all, your title does not reflect what is happening in the marketplace, which is a slowdown from the fast-paced market of last year, not a "chill." Your subhead stating that owners are being forced to slash prices to sell their properties is extremely misleading. What really is happening is that sellers are having to price their properties realistically in order to sell, and they are reducing asking prices, not selling prices.

Wearing a faded blue denim jacket, Chris Townsend walks across the patio at San Juan Capistrano's El Adobe restaurant to make sure there are enough quesadillas and tostadas for the 350 people who are filing in. It's Friday night, and the start of a "Big Chill" party with a theme taken from the 1983 movie of the same title.

A cold snap that broke a record in Los Angeles and put a big chill on the rest of Southern California took the mercury below freezing in several Orange County locations early Saturday, threatening crops and nursery products, agriculture officials reported. At one location, the University of California Extension Agricultural Station in Irvine, an overnight low of 30 degrees was reported.

When film director Lawrence Kasdan chose the title "The Big Chill" for his 1983 movie about the reunion of old pals from the 1960s, he must have been thinking about the frigid winters he spent here, as a student on the University of Michigan campus. Fortunately, the Big Chill does not last forever . . . except on the silver screen. Once the summer weather arrives, Ann Arbor emerges from its winter doldrums and blossoms into a warm, wonderful, walkable city with lively outdoor cafes, pleasant tree-shaded parks and a pseudo-Ivy League atmosphere.

Don Galloway, an actor best known for portraying a detective on the television series "Ironside" who later became a law enforcement officer off-screen, has died. He was 71. Galloway died Thursday at Renown Regional Medical Center in Reno after having a stroke, said a daughter, Jennifer. He had lived in Reno for about a year. On the NBC drama, Galloway played Det. Sgt. Ed Brown, the primary sidekick of Raymond Burr's Ironside character, from 1967 to 1975.

The $330-billion auction-rate securities market will "cease to exist" after it collapsed in February because Wall Street firms stopped using their own capital to buy bonds when demand fell short, a Citigroup Inc. analyst said. If the frozen market doesn't thaw soon, a large number of angry investors could abandon the brokerages that sold them the now-illiquid securities, Citigroup analyst Prashant Bhatia wrote in a report. Auction-rate bonds allowed issuers such as local governments, hospitals and closed-end mutual funds to issue long-term debt at short-term rates that were reset in auctions of the debt every 7, 28 or 35 days.

Mary Kay Place could have made an entire career of playing country-quirky mothers. Her first big break came in 1976 as Loretta Haggers, a would-be country-western singer who yearned to be a mother, on the groundbreaking soap satire "Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman." There was also the role of Reese Witherspoon's mother in "Sweet Home Alabama." Currently on HBO's "Big Love," Place plays polygamist Adaleen Grant, mother of Nicolette (Chloë Sevigny).

A friend of mine, a journalist who may have spent too long living in and being obsessed with Russia, holds Vladimir Putin responsible for many atrocities, including the death of Russian satire.

Punxsutawney Phil, the groundhog who fans claim is never wrong, predicted six more weeks of winter Thursday, matching the forecast of professional meteorologists. "Phil is incapable of error. If he says six more weeks of winter, you can take it to the bank," said Mike Johnston of the Groundhog Club Inner Circle. According to legend, when the rodent emerges from hibernation Feb. 2 and sees his shadow, it means six more weeks of winter. Otherwise, warmer weather is near.

Mamadou Diene, a 7-foot redshirt freshman center for Baylor, would seem to be a shoo-in for most improved college basketball player. Consider, for example: * Before he arrived last January, he suffered from malaria and malnutrition in his homeland of Senegal in West Africa. * After one semester at Baylor, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports, a much bulkier Diene has a 3.2 grade-point average, highest on the team.

Surfers at Huntington Beach had to wade barefoot through a winter wonderland to reach the water Wednesday morning and there was a skier on Pacific Coast Highway as a chilly Arctic air mass staged a rear-guard action to cover its departure from Southern California. While the white blanket thrown over Huntington Beach was actually hail, said weather forecasters, there was real snow Wednesday afternoon in such unlikely places as Tarzana, Northridge, Torrance, Fontana and Redlands.

Saying that it has fallen victim to a "big chill" in the housing market, the Hammond Co. said Tuesday that its second-quarter net income dropped 89% and it is unlikely that it will end the year with a profit. The mortgage banking company said it had net earnings of $103,000 on revenues of $4.6 million during the three months ending Sept. 30, contrasted with net income of $935,000 on revenues of $6.6 million in the same period last year.

SUNRISE, Fla. -- Instead of stars in their eyes, players gathered for today's NHL All-Star game saw dollar signs, reflecting concern for the league's future as it combats financial crises in Ottawa and Buffalo and tries to bolster struggling Canadian franchises. However, players say it's not up to them to correct owners' business mistakes, even though some agreed with a recent assertion by outspoken Detroit forward Brett Hull that 75% of the league's players are overpaid.

With less than two weeks remaining until the Las Vegas Bowl, the USC coaches gave their players a taste of what's in store against Utah. The Trojans treated their Friday evening session, marked by chilly winds and a rain-soaked field, as the first day of game week preparations. "We made some mistakes on both sides of the ball like you do when you install a game plan," Coach Pete Carroll said. Players said they weren't given anything too unusual.