Enraged

Quite a brouhaha, what with enraged letters and long features in Calendar about KFAC's demise. As a former symphony musician, I wonder about the taste of the various enraged nuts. First of all, who wants four--count them, four--commercials after every selection? There is an excellent alternative--KUSC, which offers 21 hours daily of the best in classical music and--heavenly delight--no commercials. JACK H. CHESNER North Hollywood

SAN DIEGO -- The pitch by Zack Greinke that struck Carlos Quentin on the biceps appeared innocent enough. The Dodgers were ahead of the San Diego Padres by only a run. There were no outs in the sixth inning. The count was full. But Quentin charged the mound and sparked a Thursday night melee that could be as costly for the Dodgers as it was temper-igniting. BOX SCORE: Dodgers 3, San Diego 2 Greinke, appeared to be injured in a shoulder-to-shoulder hit from Quentin, was escorted off the field at Petco Park by trainer Sue Falsone.

Thank you, Maratta, for your depiction of the fabrication of life via pixels (Silent Pictures, July 28). I was stunned by the grim reality. That image so enraged me I scanned it and sent it to everyone I know. Parents, wake up. JAMES SPENCER Sun Valley

SAN DIEGO -- As the Dodgers were leaving Petco Park on Thursday, Matt Kemp ran into the player who sent him into a rage earlier in the night: Carlos Quentin. In a hallway between the home and visiting clubhouses, Kemp stood face to face and exchanged angry words with Quentin, who charged the mound and broke Zack Greinke's collarbone in the sixth inning of the Dodgers' 3-2 victory over the San Diego Padres. "If a guy's throwing at your head …" Quentin said. PHOTOS: Dodgers vs. Padres Kemp ordered Quentin not to point his finger at him. Kemp and Quentin were guided away from each other by their respective teammates, with Dodgers shortstop Hanley Ramirez and Padres pitcher Clayton Richard playing the role of the peacemakers.

Would the rioting and looting have taken place if the gang members and poor people had work and were paid for it? Aren't they simply hopeless, desperate and enraged? MANFRED KRUTEIN, Irvine

SAM SHEPARD'S play "The God of Hell," now at the Geffen theater, is a vision into a terrifying future wherein America, under the control of people like Bush and his crowd, has become a fascist society. At the performance I attended, a man jumped up from his seat and screamed at the actors: "Pigs!" "Lefty bastards," and other enraged epithets, continuing his tirade as he stomped out into the night. Although he was clearly one of them, he was exercising a civil right that we and Shepard are trying to protect for him. Irony, thy name is democracy.

I will miss Martin Bernheimer's criticism ("Times Critic Bernheimer to Leave After 30 Years," Feb. 15). He has frequently amused me, occasionally enraged me, often educated me . . . but never bored me. PHIL PETTY Newport Beach We are sorry that Martin Bernheimer is leaving The Times, but we realize that 30 years is a long time to be in such a demanding position. We have enjoyed his definitive reviews and commentaries (sometimes agreeing, and disagreeing at other times)

There is something fundamentally perverse about a society in which one woman needs $320,000 per month for child support ("Child Support Case Lifts Covers on Lifestyle of Rich," Jan. 14) and another is forced to sell a video for $3 to buy macaroni and cheese to eat that day ("Homeless, Helpless, Hopeless," Jan. 12). While millions in L.A. County and the nation struggle to pay for food, shelter and some amenities for themselves and their children, the rich gorge themselves in an orgy of consumption that rivals France in 1789.

Lyle Menendez testified Monday that his mother was "very strange" and frequently violent and that she--like his father--sexually abused him. Until he was 13, his mother would wash his body "everywhere," he said. She also would invite him into bed with her and he would touch her "everywhere," he testified. "I took it to be love," Lyle Menendez said, adding, "She was enjoying it." But he was not enjoying it, he said, so he stopped the activities, which enraged her.

Pleas of not guilty because of insanity are commonplace in courts of law these days, but John Paul Jr. may have a new defense plea: not guilty by reason of fright. Paul, 25, one of America's most promising young race car drivers, will answer charges Monday in U.S. District Court in Jacksonville, Fla., that he was a member of a marijuana smuggling ring headed by his father, John Paul Sr., 45.

WASHINGTON - Enraged over Congress' failure to approve disaster relief for victims of Superstorm Sandy, Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey unloaded Wednesday on House Speaker John A. Boehner and Republican lawmakers in Washington for putting "palace intrigue" ahead of their official responsibilities. Washington politicians "will say whatever they have to say to get through the day," Christie said, adding that, as a governor, he had "actual responsibilities" -- "unlike people in Congress.

Art Modell, a marketing executive who helped negotiate the NFL's first television contract and later enraged fans when he moved the Cleveland Browns franchise to Baltimore, has died. He was 87. Modell died Thursday of natural causes at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, the Baltimore Ravens announced. He had a history of heart problems. "Art Modell's leadership was an important part of the NFL's success during the league's explosive growth during the 1960s and beyond," NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said in a statement.

Word had barely come down that the Supreme Court majority was upholding the Affordable Care Act when incensed conservatives began printing up “Impeach John Roberts” T-shirts and a hacker had altered the chief justice's title on his Wikipedia page to “Chief Traitor of the United States.” On a freshly minted “Impeach John Roberts” Facebook page, one tea party “patriot” wrote, “Welcome to fascism. Thanks to this horrible decision from the 4 liberal justices and John Roberts there is zero limit to what the government can force us to do.” Outside of the perpetually alarmed right wing loony bin, however, Roberts was receiving praise for acting as the fair umpire he promised to be when he was confirmed by the Senate.

LIJIN China - Six months pregnant, 38-year-old Ma Jihong was healthy and fit, her body toned from working in the cotton fields. So when 10 people from the local family planning office showed up one morning in October, she slipped through a gap in the concrete wall around the house and bolted like a sprinter toward the main road. Five-year-old Yanyan, the younger of Ma's two daughters, was alone in the house with her mother at the time. Her father came rushing in from the yard when he heard the screaming.

Christopher Hitchens, the engaging and enraging British-American author and essayist whose polemical writings on religion, politics, war and other provocations established him as one of his generation's most robust public intellectuals, has died. He was 62. Hitchens died Thursday night at the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, said his literary agent, Steve Wasserman. Hitchens was diagnosed with advanced esophageal cancer in June 2010, when his memoir, "Hitch-22," hit the bestseller lists.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak refused to step down Thursday, saying in a nationally televised speech that he would hand authority to his vice president in a move that enraged and bewildered hundreds of thousands of protesters packed into Cairo's Tahrir Square. The country was anticipating an address that would mark the end of Mubarak's 30 years in power but instead was told that he was going nowhere. Protesters shouted, "Leave! Leave!" and chants of disapproval echoed across the Nile at the prospect that the 17-day standoff with the government was not over.

In the parlance of their trade, the Beverly Hills robbers were "professionals." They had staked out the 21-room mansion for weeks, even conducting dress rehearsals during which they crept along the service alley and climbed the 7-foot-high wrought-iron fence--masks, gloves and radios at the ready. They knew there was a staff of two--the butler and his wife--and that, each night, the butler headed toward North Elm Drive to walk the dog, a Belgian Schipperke. This night, Jan.

Irene Gut Opdyke, who risked her life in World War II by hiding Jews in a cellar beneath a German major's villa -- a story of courage that decades later would make her an internationally known speaker -- has died. She was 85. Opdyke was 25 and working as the major's housekeeper when, in 1943, she overheard that the Gestapo was about to sweep through a local Jewish ghetto in Poland.

Within minutes, the buoyant mood inside Tahrir Square turned into a fight for survival ? and for Egypt's future. Like two medieval armies, screaming, enraged mobs ? both hoisting Egyptian flags and professing love of country ? clashed violently Wednesday with rocks, sticks and Molotov cocktails. Soldiers stood by passively as the pitched battle between supporters of President Hosni Mubarak and those seeking his immediate ouster threatened one of the nation's most treasured sites, the Egyptian Museum.