Bonanza

For 14 seasons, viewers turned in every week to "Bonanza," the first prime-time network western in color. Fans tapped their toes to the now-classic theme song by Jay Livingston and Ray Evans, and the Cartwrights -- Ben, Adam, Hoss and Little Joe -- were as familiar to audiences as their own families. And now the series, which was No. 1 in the ratings from 1964-67, is celebrating its 50th anniversary in style. Earlier this week, CBS Home Entertainment released the first season of the NBC show complete with pristine transfers and fun extras such as an alternate ending to the pilot episode, which features the Cartwrights singing the title tune.

Catcher Tim Federowicz was impressed with everything John Smoltz had to offer in his minor league rehab assignment. The All-Star ace brought a lot to the plate: fastball and slider -- steak, ribs and fixin's, too. Federowicz twice was called on this spring by the Class A Greenville Drive as Smoltz worked his way up to the Boston Red Sox. The second-year catcher discovered a patient, friendly and accommodating star, plus a generous, heaping postgame...

The Lincoln Continental with leather seats, the shiny gray Mercedes-Benz, the immaculate Lexus ES 300 and the impeccable Cadillac DeVille seem out of place in this San Fernando Valley junkyard, where wrecks of VW bugs and pickup trucks bare their smashed hoods like fangs at the pretentious newcomers. They may be luxury cars in name, but now they're just like the other clunkers surrendered for car-buying cash in the government's Car Allowance Rebate System, or CARS. It might seem like a waste.

We aren't sure whether to call them dual shows or dueling shows, but together the annual Dwell on Design and CA Boom exhibitions will give visitors an abundance of contemporary architecture and furniture this weekend. The Dwell event's exhibitors include Hometta, a just-launched service offering architectural plans for what it calls small, sustainable houses designed by more than two dozen firms nationwide.

Her fingers ran over the smooth red buttons with flecks of gold and the wavy sea-green buttons and the black buttons with ridges that made them look like miniature fans. Yoshini Kondo admired them all -- buttons sewn in lots of 12 on yellowing cards, buttons in every color and size, buttons in Bakelite, casein, ceramic, shell, wood, even silk thread. But did she need old buttons in her life?

They speak in accents acquired in locales from Britain to California. They boast degrees and work experience from elite overseas institutions. And now they're coming home. Nigerians who went abroad to seek riches are increasingly returning as Africa's biggest oil producer rides an energy bonanza that is creating unprecedented opportunities. Abiola Lawal, 41, is part of this "brain gain." He was earning a six-figure salary with business software giant SAP in Southern California before he returned to Nigeria in 2005 after 17 years abroad, joining a major Nigerian energy firm, Oando, as chief strategy officer.

Beijing Li Qiang can't wait for the Olympics to end Sunday. He had expected his Sichuan restaurant, a couple of miles from the Olympic village, to be packed with tourists during the Games. But it's been unusually quiet. One day this week, business was so slow that Li let two of his seven staff members go home in the middle of the lunch hour. Three others sat in the corner watching television. "Everybody thought the Olympics would be great for business," he said. "It turned out differently."

The top two executives of beleaguered Countrywide Financial Corp. will pocket $19 million in stock next week, according to a regulatory filing. It's the start of a series of multimillion-dollar payments expected to go to the pair before and after the company's pending takeover by Bank of America Corp. The largesse for Countrywide Chief Executive Angelo Mozilo and President David Sambol drew immediate fire from Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.

Homeowners deluged mortgage brokers with calls Wednesday, hoping to take advantage of sharply lower interest rates to refinance into cheaper loans. Countrywide Financial Corp., the nation's biggest mortgage lender, said call volume jumped by at least 50% over last week. Independent brokers such as John West of Orange County also said their phones didn't stop ringing. "In 20 years in the business, I have never seen rates fall this far this fast," West said.

Wearing fireproof coveralls, Ilya Dmitriyev plods past a smelter that belches smoke and gushes molten metal, the chief product of this gritty patch of Arctic tundra where the air tastes of sulfur and concrete apartment blocks crumble on the shifting permafrost. This is the home of Norilsk Nickel, a former slave labor camp -- once part of the dictator Josef Stalin's infamous Gulag -- that is now the gray capital of Russia's glittering new metals empire. Since President Vladimir V.