Butcher

To the little girl, going to work with her father felt like visiting a petting zoo, with chickens, ducks, doves and rabbits in cages in the back of the shop. Even as she fed the animals, she knew about the other part of Al Salam Polleria. The part with things like the boiler, the de-featherer and the cutting station. "But I guess, yeah, if you think of it as a butcher shop then that might be weird," said Iman Elrabat-Gabr, now 37. "But the memories I have of it are not a butcher shop, more of a farm.

Ernest Borgnine seemed born to play the heavy when he burst onto the Hollywood scene as "Fatso" Judson, a sadistic stockade sergeant who viciously beats a private to death in the 1953 movie "From Here to Eternity. " But two years later came the title role in "Marty," where the stocky, gap-toothed Borgnine defied typecasting and earned recognition as a versatile actor by inhabiting the part of a lonely Bronx butcher looking for love. He went on to a prolific seven-decade career in film and television, moving easily from scoundrels and serious portrayals to a comedic role on the 1960s TV sitcom "McHale's Navy" and a spate of grandfatherly parts.

NEW DELHI - Brahmeshwar Singh, a wealthy landlord known as the "Butcher of Bihar," was killed in a hail of bullets Friday while taking his morning walk, ending a notorious chapter in Indian history. Singh, 67, the leader of a banned militia of upper-caste members known as Ranvir Sena, hit the headlines in the 1990s after he and fellow landlords were accused of the massacre of scores of lower-caste Dalits, or so-called untouchables, in central Bihar state. As news of his killing spread, supporters gathered in Singh's hometown of Arrah, yelling antigovernment slogans, burning vehicles and chasing away police who sought to recover his body for an autopsy.

Alexander's Prime Meats and Catering: Inside Howie's Market, 6580 N. San Gabriel Blvd., San Gabriel, (626) 286-6767, alexandersprimemeats.com Bristol Farms: http://www.bristolfarms.com The Corner Butcher Shop: 2359 Foothill Blvd., La Verne, (909) 596-6345, cornerbutchershop.com Gelson's: http://www.gelsons.com Harvey's Guss Meat Co.: 949 S. Ogden Drive, Los Angeles, (323) 937-4622, http://www.harveysgussmeat.com The Huntington Meats: 6333 W. 3rd St., Los Angeles, (323)

It's after-hours at the Huntington Meats in the Farmers Market and the canvas curtains are drawn. A dozen students sit on folding chairs circled around the worktable. On it lies splayed a whole hog, fresh from the farm, shaved naked, an apple stuffed in its mouth. Its nose is still a little bloody. Want to know where your meat really comes from? Take a butchery class. Over the next two hours, butchers Jim Cascone, Bob Ore and John Escobedo will take this whole animal and, using just a couple of knives and a band saw, reduce it to the cuts of meat you might recognize from the supermarket meat counter.

The butcher is back. After decades of laboring in obscurity, seeing their craft slip away to the point it was practically extinct, butchers — real meat cutters, not guys who repackage steaks from Cryovac bags — are regaining their respected place in the food chain. You can see it in the crowds at Lindy & Grundy on Fairfax Avenue and at McCall's Meat & Fish Co. in Los Feliz, where customers line up outside when word comes in that a whole pig has been delivered. Southern California meat market standbys, including the Huntington Meats and Marconda's Meats in the original Farmers Market, high-end supermarket chains Bristol Farms, Gelson's and Whole Foods, are seeing business pick up. There's even a MEAT club at UCLA — the Meat Education and Appreciation Team — that sponsors meat cooking events, including trips to butcher shops for private lessons.

Want to learn more about meat? There are several recent good books. "Whole Beast Butchery" by Ryan Farr with Brigit Binns (Chronicle, $40). Do you really like cutting meat? I mean, really like it? This book, from the owner of San Francisco's 4505 Meats, is packed with very detailed, somewhat graphic photos of that being done. Granted, most of us will never be in a position to break down a whole short loin of beef, but there is a certain reassurance in knowing how it's done.

"Conan the Barbarian," starring the excellent rippling chisel of Jason Momoa, is brutal, bloody beyond belief, and has no socially redeeming value. So it is with a certain amount of guilt that I say it's kind of a wicked blast to watch, especially if you're in the mood for some righteous revenge. For those who decry gratuitous violence, this is not a flick for you. For the rest of you bloodthirsty lot, it's not like the filmmakers were attempting a bait and switch. The movie is set in the fictional Hyborian Age, roughly post-Atlantis and pre-Facebook by my calculations, where monsters and sorcery were ever a threat and humans weren't exactly civilized.

When thrillers work best they not only generate tremendous momentum and create indelible characters worthy of emotional attachment, they also assume the reader is smart. Smart enough to deduce conclusions a little earlier than the characters, to learn details in an entertaining manner, and to know that thrills without meaning are like the empty calories of junk food: pleasure-inducing at the time, but eminently forgettable five minutes later. What I've always liked about Thomas Perry is that he respects his readership, and has done so in the nearly 30 years he's been in this business.

For years, Chinese films shown in U.S. theaters have fallen into two distinct camps, both driven by largely white patrons: martial-arts movies for young men, such as Jet Li's "Hero," or critically acclaimed art-house fare, such as Kaige Chen's "Farewell My Concubine. " Only rarely has a movie conquered both blocs, as did Ang Lee's "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. " "The Butcher, the Chef and the Swordsman," a Mandarin-language action comedy that hit U.S. screens this weekend, is a bit of a different animal — it has sword fights but also a music video, hand-drawn animation, slapstick jokes, split screens, black-and-white photography, opera, a video game and even a point-of-view shot from the eyes of a decapitated warrior.