Fencing

CBS took a cheap shot with "Picket Fences" (Jan. 22) when it promoted, as a story, incest between a father and his teen-age daughter. Instead, in the closing minutes, it was revealed that the man was a Mormon and the girl was actually one of his wives. CBS made a weak attempt to set the facts straight with a short, written disclaimer after a commercial when many viewers had probably already tuned out. What was not pointed out is that Mormons have been under penalty of excommunication for polygamy for nearly 100 years and those who continue to practice plural marriage today are usually several generations removed from the doctrines of Mormonism.

A clean-shaven Bryce Harper stood in the visitors' clubhouse at Dodger Stadium on Tuesday, 11 stitches tracing a line under the chin of the young Washington Nationals star. The night before, Harper was chasing a fly ball when he crashed into an unpadded part of the right-field wall that features an electronic National League scoreboard covered by transparent plastic and a coated chain-link-style screen. Harper's legs, shoulder, ribs, hand, wrist and chin were sore, he said, but he did not suffer a concussion.

Felicia Zimmermann laughs when she remembers the day her father, Thomas, told her that he was enrolling her in fencing classes. Zimmermann, a shy 8-year old, looked up from her piano practice. She was not interested in fencing, she told him. "Do you even know anything about fencing?" she asked. He shrugged. Not really. But he had seen an advertisement in the local newspaper for a fencing center in nearby Rochester, N.Y. He thought the sport might make his quiet daughter more assertive.

Powering down The San Diego Padres moved in the outfield fences this season, a nod to hitters frustrated when a home run anywhere else would be an out at Petco Park. In the Padres' first 10 home games, three balls that would have been outs last season went for home runs. "All for the other guys," Padres Manager Bud Black said. It's been that kind of start for the Padres, whose record through Friday was worse than any team other than the losing-by-design Houston Astros and Miami Marlins.

Ten days before Bob Anderson headed to the 1952 Olympic Games in Helsinki as part of the British fencing team, he responded to a call from a British film studio in need of three fencers to coach the lead actors for sword-fighting scenes in a new pirate movie. The movie was "The Master of Ballantrae," starring veteran Hollywood swashbuckler Errol Flynn. Anderson didn't win any medals at the Olympics, but he unexpectedly launched a new side career in the movies. Anderson, 89, who became an Olympic fencing coach while carving out a more-than-50-year career as a fencing trainer to the stars and a movie sword-fight choreographer and stunt double, died early New Year's Day at a hospital in England, the British Academy of Fencing announced.

Drew Glenn is only 11, but he's already figured out some basic rules in the game of life that have taken many of us too long to grasp. "If you make one wrong move, it can cost you the match," he declared. "It's a surprise how much physical energy and concentration it takes to learn how to control your actions." No, he's not a Socrates-in-the-making. He's a fencer.

Sheriff's investigators are looking for someone who scrawled a swastika and the words "Die Jews" on the front door of a Canyon Country apartment where a 41-year-old Jewish man lives, authorities said. The incident is believed to have occurred between 11:30 p.m. Sunday and 2 a.m. Monday, Santa Clarita Sheriff's Sgt. Don Wyman said. The Sheriff's Hate Crimes Unit is investigating the incident.

Vancouver's best photo op may finally be getting a grander stage. Organizers on Wednesday are expected to announce changes to the fencing surrounding the Olympic caldron after residents and visitors complained that the unsightly chain link ruined the view of the popular waterfront attraction. "This fence is offensive," said Jeffrey Paleczny, one of thousands of visitors angling for a view earlier this week. Among the options: replacing the chain-link fences with Plexiglas and moving the perimeter closer to the flames.

In the Hollywood version of the Old West, it was the rip-snorting, gun-toting cowboys who tamed the wild frontier. In reality, it was barbed wire, more than brawn and bullets, that made the difference. Just ask those who see barbed wire as something more than fencing. As there are collectors of stamps and butterflies, so are there those who collect strands of the so-called "devil's rope." "It's what tamed everything west of the Mississippi.

PETER WESTBROOK Fencing What Nolan Ryan is to baseball and George Foreman is to boxing, Peter Westbrook is to fencing. At 39, Westbrook is the dean of sabre with 13 national championships and a bronze medal in sabre in the 1984 Olympics, which made him the first American in 24 years to win an Olympic fencing medal. Like Ryan and Foreman, Westbrook does not appear to be slowing. In the U.S. National championships, he finished fifth in the sabre.

During the 1960s, when most African nature reserves were being established, lions tended to be born free. But today, freedom doesn't always serve them well. Fifty years ago, human population densities were low in the areas where lions roamed. But since then, the human population in that part of Africa has increased fourfold to fivefold, and demands on land have intensified. The prey that lions rely on has been reduced by poaching and habitat loss, which means that lions living in unfenced preserves roam out into farms and pastures, where they kill livestock - or humans.

  SAN DIEGO -- The right-field wall at Petco Park is 11 feet closer to the plate than it was last season. Asked if that made the opposite field look any more inviting, Dodgers center fielder Matt Kemp laughed. "When I'm on, can't no ballpark hold me," he said. BOX SCORE: Dodgers 4, Padres 3 He's probably right. But for the majority of other players, the renovations to one of baseball's most pitcher-friendly parks could make a difference.

Re "Is the border secure?," March 10 Supporters of building a nearly impenetrable fence along the U.S.-Mexico border say such a barrier would go a long way toward stopping illegal immigration. However, an estimated 40% of the illegal immigrants already in the United States (more than 4 million of the total) are visa abusers. These are people who came to the United States with a valid visa (tourist, student or others) and stayed past the expiration. Many of them don't look like Mexicans, and they blend into our society.

AVONDALE, Ariz. - One of the Indianapolis 500's darkest moments came in 1973 when the car of David "Salt" Walther crashed and spun like a pinwheel down the front straightaway. Not only was Walther badly hurt, his broken car sprayed parts and fuel into the grandstands, injuring 12 spectators. "Now they've started to burn the customers," Times columnist Jim Murray wrote that day, adding, "It may be time to reexamine the 'sport.'" Forty years later, NASCAR plans its own reexamination after last week's crash at Daytona International Speedway injured more than two dozen fans in the grandstands.

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. - A crash near the end of the NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Daytona turned to horror Saturday when one of the cars hurtled into the grandstand fence, sending pieces of the car flying into the seats and injuring more than two dozen spectators. The car was driven by Kyle Larson, who was collected in a 12-car crash just as the field, traveling at more than 175 mph, was approaching the finish line at Daytona International Speedway. The crash was so violent that the front half of Larson's white No. 32 Chevrolet was sheared off as his car went airborne and tore into the fence.

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- The race car of Californian Kyle Larson flew into the grandstand fencing Saturday in a multicar crash at the end of the NASCAR Nationwide Series race, injuring 28 spectators. Of the 28 who were injured, 14 were taken to local hospitals and the other 14 were treated at the track, Daytona International Speedway President Joie Chitwood told reporters Saturday night. Details about the extent of the injuries were not immediately known. The damaged fencing was expected to be repaired in time for Sunday's Daytona 500, said Steve O'Donnell, NASCAR's senior vice president for racing operations.

En garde! A fledgling high school fencing league, including Chaminade, Harvard-Westlake and Villanova Prep, will begin swordplay next week and culminate with the crowning of team and individual champions in January and February. The Southern California High School Fencing League, sanctioned by the Southern California Division of the U.S. Fencing Assn., also includes Bellflower, Norwalk and Victor Valley highs. The first of three individual tournaments is scheduled for Sept. 24 at 9 a.m.

Latvia defeated the United States in the 13-hour fencing competition, the opening discipline of this five-event sport. The three U.S. pentathletes were doing well, hanging near the top until they encountered Latvia and lost, 8-1, in the 17th round. Hungary, traditionally strong in fencing, placed first in team standings with 2,796 points. Poland is second and Mexico third. The United States enters the second day of competition in fourth place, tied with Latvia.

"Monday Mornings," a medical drama premiering Monday night on TNT, brings TV producer and writer David E. Kelley ("Ally McBeal," "Boston Legal") together with neurosurgeon and media personality Dr. Sanjay Gupta, whose 2012 hospital-life novel is its basis. Life is full of surprises. The title refers to the "M&M" (for "morbidity and mortality") meetings where surgeons discuss the less successful moments of their recent work - patients dying, breaches of protocol, moments of insensitivity - albeit here they do not so much discuss as submit to a browbeating by their usually charming boss (Alfred Molina as Chelsea General chief of staff Harding Hooten)

Re "Israel finishes main part of border fence," Jan. 3 The fact that so many of the Islamic war-afflicted in Africa seek a haven in Israel should be seen as an indicator of how Israel is perceived on the ground by Africans. It takes either great bravery or desperation to traverse Africa and then survive the harsh Sinai desert to arrive at Israel. Unfortunately, Israel, mostly made up families of Jewish refugees from around the world, cannot absorb these immigrants. That is not to say that there is no official way to enter.