Cute

Our children are slaughtering each other in our schools and on our streets; more and more Americans are expressing hate and intolerance for other Americans who belong to different ethnic, religious, gender or lifestyle groups; and every day, this society becomes more and more enmeshed in the self-righteousness of narrow beliefs and interests. So how does a professor of literature respond to the situation? With a little tome about categorizing appearances. Of all the things that tyrannize us, "cute" is not near the top of the list.

When we think of predators, we don't usually think of sea otters, those cute, furry creatures seen in televised nature specials or on visits to aquariums. But that's what they are, situated near the top of the marine food chain, and their story illustrates the conflict between mankind and all top-level predators, as well as the need to expand our view of the financial and environmental benefits these creatures confer. Sea otters once abounded in coastal waters around the North Pacific Coast from Russia to Mexico.

Robert Hilburn's review of the Paul McCartney concert ("McCartney: A Lot More Than Nostalgia," May 6) was right on. I was lucky enough to have seen the Beatles perform at the Hollywood Bowl in '65 and again in '66 at Dodger Stadium. McCartney has not changed one bit. He is still "the cute one" even though he is almost 60. The concert at Staples Center was the best of the best. I have never heard so many fans singing along and knowing all the words. It didn't matter if you had front-row seats or the last seat of the top row. After all that has happened in the last few months, it was wonderful to step back into my youth, even if only for 21/2 hours.

Like lovers in Paris, San Joaquin kit foxes will always have Bakersfield. The rare little foxes come out mostly at night. They find fabulous food everywhere: chunks of cheeseburger from dumpsters, shreds of taco on windblown wrappers. And the accommodations: What can beat a cozy den in the student quarter — specifically, beneath portable classrooms in the Panama-Buena Vista Union School District? The 17,000-student district isn't crazy about the foxes, especially when about one-third of its 23 elementary and junior high schools have to deal with them on a regular basis.

Re "Crazy for Cute" (Nov. 18): The first time I saw an Anne Geddes book with photos of infants dressed up as animals, etc., I almost dropped the book. If this isn't exploitation of helpless, beautiful infants, I don't know what is. And as for Geddes dressing up a little baby in a bird costume, it seems a bit sick to me. ELINOR LYNCH Palm Desert

It occurs to me that Samantha Bonar's difficulties with "Blake the Flake" have as much to do with her choices as his personality -- or lack thereof ("Men's Brains: Unplugged?" May 15). She describes him as "kind of dimwitted but really cute" -- the "really cute" part apparently being the operative reason she decided to give him another chance despite his cavalier treatment of her. It's been a long time since I've been single and I doubt I ever set any records on anybody's "cute" meter.

Although I concur with Bob Oates' pro football column ("When They're Telling Us the Story, Why Can't They Tell Us the Score?"), I feel he did not go far enough. He should ask the same question of The Times sportswriters. One must often wade through paragraph after cute paragraph before getting to the facts. JERRY SEGAL, Woodland Hills

You can tell by a cute title like "Ollie Hopnoodle's Haven of Bliss" that you're going to get a lot of cute. And "Ollie etc." delivers 90 minutes of cute tonight on PBS' "American Playhouse" (9 p.m. on Channels 28 and 15). It's from the pen of humorist Jean Shepherd, whose "A Christmas Story" feature film is something of a cult favorite. As a chronicler of Americana, Shepherd, who also plays a couple of characters in this adventure, must be drawing on his old family vacations from back home in Indiana.

Lately I've noticed a lot of news stories that seem to focus on someone's age, and I'm not sure I like it: A 90-year-old woman votes, a couple with a combined age of 181 get married, two men in their 80s get in a fistfight on a tennis court, a 92-year-old goes to the World Series and a 101-year-old man buys a new Camaro (I wonder if he got the extended warranty). I guess what's annoying me is that the only thing that seems to make these stories newsworthy is the person's age. What's next -- a 91-year-old man eats a Big Mac?

Re "Struggling Valley Greens Are Proud of Their Votes for Nader," Nov. 20. This article had a slightly superior air. For me, a between-the-lines read was "aren't all these old folks cute?" Cute, perhaps--but a growing force in politics! LES COLE Ventura

The toughest, bluntest postgame words did not come from the captain (Ryan Getzlaf) or the revered veteran (Teemu Selanne). Ducks goaltender Jonas Hiller … unplugged. Hiller unloaded — or should that be unburdened? — after the Ducks squandered a two-goal lead, drifted through an aimless second period and showed up for the third. It added up to a 5-3 win by the Minnesota Wild on Sunday night at Honda Center. Scoring for the Ducks were Getzlaf, Saku Koivu and defenseman Cam Fowler.

Something didn't seem quite right to Rupy as she and Grandpa drove along the country road. Grandpa had a slight smile on his face. "Hmmm, I wonder what he is thinking! Oh, well," she shrugged, "I can hardly wait to get my little chickie. " Rupy would not have to wait very long because she could already see Tom's farmhouse just up the road. Tom was one of Grandpa's best friends and always welcomed visitors. As they approached the turn that led up to the farm, Rupy could see a small group of chickens gathered on the dirt road.

The most, and almost the only, surprising thing about "Bucket & Skinner's Epic Adventures," a new tweencom debuting Friday on Nickelodeon before taking up its regular Sunday post, is that the character called Skinner is the one you'd expect, given a certain emptiness of head, to be called Bucket. Nickelodeon has been in its time a place where marvelous, strange and poetic things have happened — yes, "The Adventures of Pete & Pete," I'm talking to you, but also to "Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide" and "The Secret World of Alex Mack," the last of which was co-created by Thomas W. Lynch, who developed "Bucket & Skinner.

The engagingly quirky "Dear Lemon Lima" is a trifle, for sure, but it packs surprising resonance and boasts a sweet and memorable visual style. If writer-director Suzi Yoonessi gets a bit too precious at times as she tells the wistful tale of Vanessa (Savanah Wiltfong), a 13-year-old outsider at a Fairbanks, Alaska, prep school, the filmmaker knows how to gently skew reality just enough to offset the excess cuteness. The title refers to Vanessa's diary entries addressed to an imaginary friend.

Animated features have long been the favored medium for telling kid-friendly stories about princesses and cuddly creatures. But if New York-based animator Bill Plympton were to have his way, moviegoers would also see more hand-drawn offerings depicting hard drinking, fooling around, murder and deception. "As a kid, I loved kids animation, but now I'm an adult," Plympton, 64, said by phone. "Idiots and Angels," Plympton's fifth independent animated feature, follows a bitter, lonely man named Angel who discovers he is growing wings.

Rather than merely being paid to insert products into their shows, TV networks are moving into the clothing business themselves. Bravo tested the waters last year, partnering with Kooba to introduce four exclusive handbags worn by the lead characters on the show "NYC Prep" and sold at the same time through Bravo.com. Now, networks are taking it a step further, getting involved on the front end in designing product to be incorporated into story lines and selling it at the same time it appears on-air.

In my review of "The Golden Gate" (The Book Review, April 6), I quoted Vikram Seth on babies: Some think them cuddly, cute, and curvative. Keep them, I say. Good luck to you; No doubt you used to be one too. The Times printed: Some think them cuddly, cute, and curvative. Keep them, I say. Good luck to you; No doubt you need to be one too. The integrity of Seth's text aside, this is the last thing your readers need. X. J. KENNEDY Bedford, Mass.

To many an outsider, Los Angeles is a stage set. It's a city constantly pretending to be something it's not. "L.A. is a stand-in for the rest of the world," said historian William David Estrada. "Our local mountains have been the Alps. Our deserts have been North Africa and China. That's one of the reasons people think of L.A. as a plastic, superficial place." Estrada made this observation as we stood in the old plaza downtown, a place officially known as El Pueblo de Los Angeles Historical Monument.

Lately I've noticed a lot of news stories that seem to focus on someone's age, and I'm not sure I like it: A 90-year-old woman votes, a couple with a combined age of 181 get married, two men in their 80s get in a fistfight on a tennis court, a 92-year-old goes to the World Series and a 101-year-old man buys a new Camaro (I wonder if he got the extended warranty). I guess what's annoying me is that the only thing that seems to make these stories newsworthy is the person's age. What's next -- a 91-year-old man eats a Big Mac?