Drain

Sometimes it's the simplest things that are the most confounding. Last year, right before Easter, I blogged about how to make a perfect hard-boiled egg. Basic? Yes. Popular? Very. This seemingly simple task received tens of thousands of page views. And, it seemed, almost as many complaints: "But how do you peel them?" Mea culpa. while my method ensures that hard-boiled eggs are never overdone (at last: the cure for the dreaded copper-green ring!), it also can make them harder to shell, because perfectly cooked eggs turn out to be stickier than ones that have been overcooked.

This post has been updated, as indicated below. Six-term Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, announced Tuesday that he won't run for reelection in 2014. You may now kiss any hope of a sweeping tax reform bill goodbye. I'm not saying this out of any particular fandom for Baucus, although I think he's a good guy. I just believe it will be too hard to overhaul the tax code with a lame-duck chairman of the Senate's tax-writing committee.

In an accident at a Chivas Brothers bottling plant in Dumbarton, Scotland, workers flushed thousands of gallons of Scotch whiskey down the drain, the smell of it so strong that sewage workers reported the incident, the BBC reports . Workers who had intended to drain waste water unintentionally dumped the Scotch instead. The Epoch Times says it was 6,000 gallons of "high-quality, top-dollar Scotch. " The spirit was released to the local water treatment plant. In a statement Chivas Brothers said that the Tuesday accident at the plant, which employs 600 workers, is under investigation.

NBC sent out five episodes of its "Silence of the Lambs" prequel "Hannibal," and although the reasons to stop watching (when in doubt, impale a woman!) too often outweighed the reasons to continue (Hugh Dancy, tracked by a dangerous dream deer), I swallowed my bile and soldiered on. And indeed, Episode 5 proved an epiphany. No spoilers here, but it costars Eddie Izzard, whose natural gift for twinkling malice threw everything into perspective. The problem with "Hannibal" is not the graphic violence or the absurd back-story tweaks - Dancy's Will Graham is no longer just a super-great FBI profiler with a photographic memory, he's a shivering, night-sweating, natural-born empath, whatever the heck that is - or even the fact that it is rather late to a very crowded serial-killer crime scene.

I was surprised and delighted to read on the front page of the View section an article about such a practical and essential aspect of our society as the maintenance of the nation's largest sewer system here in Los Angeles ("Down the Drain," Jan. 24). It was a pleasure, too, to have View call attention to the men and women who do the requisite work, which is often dangerous. It is a small step toward recognizing that it is not only lawyers, doctors and professors who should be respected for their contributions to our lives.

I find it outrageous that developers, having destroyed the historic La Reina Theatre to build yet another redundant shopping center, are now being allowed to deplete our precious water table because it interferes with their parking structure. The Times reports (Oct. 3) that the developers will be fined for the amount of water they pump daily into storm drains, where it goes off to sea, wasted and useless to this parched city. What is money to these people, who spend it wantonly in their own self-interest?

"What do you think?" It was the enigmatic, emphatic question that answered a question. It was Kobe Bryant's response to The Times' Brad Turner last week when Turner wondered whether the Lakers' consecutive postseason horrors against the Phoenix Suns burdened Bryant. "What do you think?" Bryant said, glaring. Well, Monday night, after watching a golden rage pour out of him like pure lava from jagged and smoldering rocks, here's what I think. This is Kobe with a bigger chip on his shoulder than in his knee.

More than three years after heavy rain from fierce winter storms flooded streets, overflowed inadequate storm drains and swamped several businesses and homes, the downtown is getting a new storm drain system. But the long-awaited project, which will run under the heart of the business district and will replace a decades-old system, comes at an awkward time: the beginning of the lucrative tourist season at one of the South Bay's most popular beaches.

Representatives from the city engineer's office will attend a special meeting to discuss proposed improvements to Deer Canyon on June 28, from 7 to 10 p.m. at Canyon Hills Library, 400 Scout Trail. Topics will include information on a proposed storm drain and recreational improvements to Deer Canyon. The meeting is sponsored by the city Parks, Recreation and Community Services Department. For information, contact Chris Jarvi, the department's director, at 999-5160.

Re "Immigration a factor in budget math," Column, Feb. 2 Finally a sensible, insightful article about the drain that illegal immigrants place on the state budget. California residents and government officials need to face the facts -- we can no longer afford illegal immigration. For every illegal immigrant hired as a nanny, maid, gardener, meat cutter, driver or agricultural worker, the public is paying for the education and medical needs of their families, to the tune of billions of dollars.

For movie musical lovers in general and gay men of a certain age in particular, Judy Garland represents the alpha and omega of stardom. So it was with some trepidation that I knocked on the apartment door of Tracie Bennett, the English actress who has been uncannily transforming herself into Garland in "End of the Rainbow," Peter Quilter's musical drama about the final chapter of Garland's life. Garland died tragically in 1969 at age 47. Bennett, just over the half-century mark yet still vibrating with pixieish vitality, is the next best thing to a fantasy meeting with the icon.

In an accident at a Chivas Brothers bottling plant in Dumbarton, Scotland, workers flushed thousands of gallons of Scotch whiskey down the drain, the smell of it so strong that sewage workers reported the incident, the BBC reports . Workers who had intended to drain waste water unintentionally dumped the Scotch instead. The Epoch Times says it was 6,000 gallons of "high-quality, top-dollar Scotch. " The spirit was released to the local water treatment plant. In a statement Chivas Brothers said that the Tuesday accident at the plant, which employs 600 workers, is under investigation.

The season finale of NBC's “Parenthood” brings more than a little relief for Monica Potter. The 41-year-old actress has seen her character, Kristina Braverman, through an emotionally grueling season, complete with everything from a newborn baby and a breast cancer diagnosis to hair loss and navigating the puberty talk tight-rope with a son who has Asperger's syndrome. “It has been quite a ride,” Potter said recently by phone. “I'm glad we're almost done with it because it's been some of the most draining and challenging work I've ever done....

SACRAMENTO - Washington's avoidance of the so-called "fiscal cliff" is generally good news for California's finances. But the deal approved by President Obama on Wednesday will still take a bite out of the state budget. The legislation won't allow California and other states to keep a portion of revenue from the federal estate tax, a levy on wealth inheritance. California hasn't received any revenue from the tax since 2004, and analysts doubted that Congress would reverse course and restore the money.

Next week, voters in San Francisco, one of the nation's most progressive and environmentally aware cities, will be asked to decide just how green they want to be. For nearly 80 years, the city has been getting pristine Sierra Nevada water piped from behind a dam it erected in a majestic glacial valley in Yosemite National Park. The 1913 passage of the Raker Act, which allowed the city to turn Hetch Hetchy Valley into a 300-foot-deep reservoir, was one of the biggest defeats in America's youthful conservation movement.

Just over 8.5 billion recyclable cans were sold in California last year. The number redeemed for a nickel under California's recycling law: 8.3 billion. That's a return rate of nearly 100%. That kind of success isn't just impressive, it's unbelievable. But the recycling rate for certain plastic containers was even higher: 104%. California's generous recycling redemption program has led to rampant fraud. Crafty entrepreneurs are driving semi-trailers full of cans from Nevada or Arizona, which don't have deposit laws, across the border and transforming their cargo into truckfuls of nickels.

"Runoff Rules Get Tougher" (Dec. 14) did not fully explore the impact that new storm drain regulations will have on local communities. The article states that "city and county officials will also, for the first time, be required to clean up after parades and other special events." After every public event, cities clean up trash and debris. In Bellflower, the city removes more than 900 tons of debris every year resulting from community events and everyday activities. We sweep every street every week, some twice a week.

The brain drain situation at the U.S. Geological Survey is perhaps worse than Lee Dye suggests ("Talk of Killing U.S. Quake Agency Rattles Geologists," Sept. 13). All those official pronouncements about "senior scientists sitting at their desks" and "getting scientists back into the field" camouflage the loss of the young scientists who would have been the future super-achievers. Dr. Tom Heaton can move on into academia as many Geological Survey luminaries have in the past and continue to contribute.

There are few issues that Republicans and Democrats agree on involving immigration, but the need for more visas for foreign students who earn advanced science and math degrees from American universities is one of them. Both parties recognize that it's in our national interest to try and keep the best and brightest students in this country after they have earned a master's or doctorate in math or science. The reason is simple: If the U.S. wants to remain competitive in a global economy, it must be able to attract and retain talent.

KOLKATA, India - The dusty files, manual typewriter, aging books and film reels in metal tins languish in Satyajit Ray's study, largely the way the filmmaker left them on his death two decades ago. Among the most creative Bengalis of modern times, Ray directed 37 films and wrote 75 short stories when he wasn't publishing, illustrating, composing and writing critiques. A few weeks before his death, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences paid tribute to his life with an honorary Oscar.