Closets

Companies in the closet business are finding a growing market overseas, where they occasionally get hung up on language problems. Clairson International in Ocala, Fla., for years has been manufacturing the Closet Maid brand of organizers, made of coated steel rods and wire and sold in 30 countries. But when the company began marketing its product in England, a name change was in order. To the British, after all, closet means bathroom.

Jaclyn Shanfeld moves from garment to garment with the unbridled joy of a little girl rummaging in her mother's closet. From the "wall of Chanel" Shanfeld retrieves a light pink and lavender jacket that once fetched $3,200 but was priced for resale at $750. She shows off the unmarked soles of a pair Nicholas Kirkwood boots, originally purchased for $1,500 that are now offered for $700. She unveils a sheer black, sleeveless Alaia gown bought for a special occasion - but never worn.

It seems that advertisers are pandering to the most reactionary sector in our population by not having the courage to back quality programming simply because it may portray non-traditional relationships. Had ABC disclosed advertisers that pulled out of the tastefully done episode of "thirtysomething" in question, I would have boycotted those manufacturers. ANGELA MASLUK Long Beach

When I was 7 years old, my friends and I would play football in my backyard for hours, often with my mother watching through the kitchen window. One of the games we played was called "smear the queer. " At the time I didn't know what "queer" meant. I only knew if you were brave enough to pick up the ball, you were "the queer" and would get creamed. As I got older, I learned what that term meant, and then, in high school, I realized that I was gay. But that image of how "the queer" got "smeared" stayed with me. I ultimately realized my goal of becoming a professional football player, but being open about my sexuality while I was a player seemed far too dangerous to consider.

RE "Walk-In? More Like Live-In" [Sept. 8]: While I'm sure there are many readers out there who are intrigued by the thought of apartment-sized closets, there's nonetheless something truly troubling about a 450-square-foot clothing shrine juxtaposed not that many pages from photographs chronicling the shattering loss experienced by those who endured Hurricane Katrina. How about devoting a segment of your Home section not to those who have everything but to those who don't? In other words, how about a segment devoted to rebuilding, replenishing and starting fresh with the help of others?

Adrienne Weitzman doesn't realize just how much she has in common with Dolly Parton. Both women recently invited total strangers from California Closet Co. to invade that most intimate corner of a woman's castle to try to make sense of where they hang their hats--and dresses, blouses, slacks and blazers. "They put them in order," Weitzman said of the two redesigned and rebuilt bedroom closets in her Beverly Hills home. "I can find all my shoes now." Parton's needs were more extravagant.

Web sites have a long way to go to match the old-fashioned service and personal touch that some bricks-and-mortar stores still offer. After all, how does a commercial Web site, usually with no live presence, provide online customers with anything beyond mere listings of products and prices? Well, it can provide plenty by making the most of the medium. While trying to get organized a few months ago, I came across Containerstore.com (http://www.containerstore.

Dirk Wray, a 37-year-old financier from San Juan Capistrano, has a clothes closet that looks like a fashion boutique. Inside his elegantly appointed wardrobe, which is roughly the size of a small bedroom, Wray's suits, shirts and ties are filed according to a numeric system. Every article of clothing and accessory has been neatly organized, right down to the meticulously folded socks.

We've all had them. Bad closet days. You're late for the Gibralsky meeting and you can't find your left navy pump. You pull out a wire hanger to find that it has mated with its neighbor and spawned a wiry nest of tangled offspring. That evening you come home exhausted, hoist a load of dry-cleaning onto the bowing closet rod and the whole pole and shelf collapse. Enough days like this and you reach the end of your closet pole.

The rich and famous really are different from you and I — they have better closets. O, the Oprah Magazine took on the seasonal chore of cleaning out the closet this year with a cover commanding readers to "De-Clutter Your Life!" It sure looked appealing: The cover photo showed the talk show doyenne inside her apparently endlessly spacious and well-appointed closet, with television-friendly, softly colored dresses lined up on matching wood hangers behind her and a sleek island cabinet bursting with fancy shoes in the foreground.

Ryan Gosling took his mom, Donna, to the world premiere of his new film, "Gangster Squad," at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood on Monday night. When she was asked on the red carpet who she was wearing, Mom came back with "Eva Mendes," having raided the closet of Ryan's girlfriend. [E!] Beyonce and Solange Knowles are talented and famous ... and nice enough to return borrowed clothes they've worn clean and pressed. Designer Rubin Singer, who dressed Beyonce for a New Year's Eve performance in Las Vegas, said the sisters are the only celebrities who "always dry clean and send clothes back in a box, with a handwritten thank you note.

NEWTOWN, Conn. - A gunman massacred 20 children and six adults at a suburban elementary school here Friday morning before killing himself in what appeared to be the second-deadliest school shooting in U.S. history, authorities said. Sources said Adam Lanza, 20, earlier killed his mother at home and then drove her Honda to Sandy Hook Elementary School equipped with firearms that were registered to one or both of his divorced parents. Clad in military fatigues and carrying two semiautomatic pistols, he entered the school, argued with someone in the hallway and then opened fire on staff members and children around 9:30 a.m., a law enforcement source said.

Click here to download TV listings for the week Nov. 18 - 24 in PDF format This week's TV Movies     SERIES Killer Karaoke:  In the premiere of this new singing competition contestants sing songs while enduring body waxing, tanks full of snakes, and more (9 p.m. TRU). Crossroads:   Folk rock band the Avett Brothers and Randy Travis perform together in this new episode(11 p.m. CMT). SPECIALS Jingle & Bell's Christmas Star:   This new animated special - done in the style of the classic Rankin/Bass specials -   tells the story a husky puppy (Jingle)

R&B singer R. Kelly's zany and wildly popular "hip hopera," "Trapped in the Closet,” might be heading to the Broadway stage. Kelly revealed the latest chapters of his operatic, serial narrative of songs and music videos -- which he's worked on for the last five years and which debut on IFC Friday -- to a live audience Monday at Landmark's Sunshine Cinema in Manhattan. He also dropped the B-bomb: an offer to bring the narrative to the stage in a performance he may even appear in, according to the Associated Press.

A neighbor found their bodies a week ago. Gladys Del Carmen Sierra, 29, had been stuffed into a closet in her Miami home with her two daughters, aged 4 and 6. They'd all been suffocated to death. More days went by without an arrest. Miami-Dade County Police now think they know what happened, because they think they've found the killer, and they say he's confessed. Alberto Sierra, Gladys' estranged 28-year-old husband, stands a slender 6 feet tall and bears the name "Eleggua" on his left arm -- a powerful Santeria demigod and a messenger known among adherents for playing tricks and making trouble.

The opening of Regen Projects' impressive 20,000-square-foot building on an unlikely block of Santa Monica Boulevard in Hollywood tilts the city's always peripatetic gallery scene eastward a notch. The new space, beautifully designed by architect Michael Maltzan, provides a large, light-filled main gallery and several smaller auxiliary spaces that can accommodate a wide range of work. That range is on full display in the inaugural exhibition, which surveys recent paintings, sculptures and installations by 32 of the 36 artists in the gallery's stable, from Doug Aitken to Andrea Zittel.

Each year the arrival of fall brings with it the urge to start over and get our house and routine in order. No one wants to be the one who is perpetually scrambling to come up with a healthy dinner, find a clean outfit, track down our belongings or line up childcare for those forgotten school holidays. However, many of our best efforts at organization fail because there's not a good backup system. Here are five apps that can help you meet your goals. Astrid (Free for Android and iPhone)