Entrepreneurs

One day, a little over five years ago, Russ Lease decided that what the world needed was historically accurate, reasonably priced reproductions of Beatles clothing: stitch-for-stitch copies of the distinctive outfits the famous musicians wore in concert. Luckily, Russ was in the position to provide them. He and his brother owned the Pants Plus clothing store in a suburban Maryland mall from 1976 until the mall closed in 2001. Russ knew the clothing industry. And he knew the Beatles.

The Sundance Film Festival is a badge of maverick credibility for thousands of independent filmmakers, along with people looking to star in, purchase or simply appreciate indie movies, not to mention the media. The herding of all those tastemakers in one place has had an unexpected side effect: Come late January each year, a disappearing act takes place in Park City.

It was an irresistible aroma that drew Ed Lee to a crowded kiosk in Hong Kong's Mongkok subway station in 2004. One bite of Beard Papa's crunchy choux pastry shell and creamy vanilla filling and the Southern California entrepreneur was smitten. The next year Lee, 47, and his partner, Joe Lung, 41, both immigrants from Hong Kong, opened their own Beard Papa Sweets Cafe at the Hollywood & Highland center in Hollywood.

On a quick break from his job as a trash hauler, Rob Chapman was in the mood for some coffee. So he pulled his truck into the Sweet Spot Cafe, a drive-through espresso stand on busy Aurora Avenue here in the Seattle suburbs. "Do you want a Wet Dream or the Sexual Mix today, honey?" asked barista Edie Smith, dressed in a tight-fitting yellow blouse that did a less than fully effective job of covering her cleavage. She leaned down in the window, perhaps all the closer to hear his order.

IN the deep of night when most of Los Angeles sleeps, Xuan Ngo -- his hands working with all the speed and precision of a veteran pastry chef -- intently cuts small squares of ganache, scrapes the seeds from Madagascar vanilla beans and candies tiny bits of freshly ground coffee for his Xuan Chocolates.

The flower farmer climbed out of his refrigerated box truck, slogging through the snow and face-slapping wind. Only die-hard vendors like him would show up at the outdoor market in the middle of New York City's first major snowstorm of the season. "Happy Valentine's Day," Michael Barry said with a frown. "This is terrible." Winter storms slammed the Northeast and Midwest on Wednesday, but for Barry -- this state's last commercial rose grower -- the bad weather could not have hit at a worse time.

Students at the School of Arts and Enterprise in Pomona exemplify the innovative spirit being highlighted this week by EntrepreneurshipWeek USA, a nationwide initiative to inspire young people to think like entrepreneurs. One of just a handful of state charter high schools that combine arts and business education, the school this semester is setting up a slew of programs to sharpen the financial skills of its arts-oriented students.

IT starts as an idle thought while navigating the twisting roads of Provence, or at the first glimpse of the terraced hillsides of Spain's Priorat. For some, simply staring at the constantly expanding selection of Italian wines in a favorite wine store brings it on.

Sometime between the end of the Apollo missions and the shuttle disasters, space lost its shine. Instead of Capt. Kirk boldly going where no man has gone before, space shuttle launches barely cause a media ripple. The most recent indignity was the headline-grabbing misadventure of a diaper-wearing, lovesick astronaut. Now, all that may be about to change.

To understand politics, the adage goes, you've got to follow the money. But to understand money, it sometimes helps to follow the politicians. At least three guys who know their way around Sacramento -- former California Controller Steve Westly, former Assembly Speaker Bob Hertzberg and former legislator and Secretary of State Bill Jones -- are trying to make a go of it in the alternative-energy industry.