Foremost

Webster's New World Dictionary describes astrology as a "pseudoscience." Why the surprise about President Reagan's faith in the stars, after all the President is the foremost practitioner of supply-side (voodoo) economics. VIC PETERSON Oxnard

The NFL is a business. Easy to say. Hard to swallow. Nowhere was that more evident this week than in San Francisco, where Alex Smith officially lost his starting quarterback job to Colin Kaepernick, who had filled in for him after Smith suffered a concussion last month against St. Louis. In the eight quarters that preceded that injury, Smith completed 32 of 35 passes for 385 yards with five touchdowns, a pass intercepted, and a passer rating of 140.2. In other words, he had more touchdowns than incomplete passes.

Neil Patrick Harris states that musicals of "mindless fluff [give] the theatrical medium a bad name" ("The Post-Whiz Kid Phase," by Jan Breslauer," Aug. 31). Silly me. I thought one goes to the theater to be entertained, but I guess I don't have the mature understanding he does of the "theatrical medium." I've seen "Rent." First and foremost, I was entertained. I apologize for taking the experience so lightly. MICHAEL BERMAN Hollywood

It's no great stretch for Miranda Lambert to empathize with the aspiring singers she's coached recently as a guest vocal advisor on NBC's "The Voice. " On her way to becoming one of the brightest new additions to country music in the last decade, Lambert herself got a major career boost with her third-place finish on another TV singing competition, "Nashville Star. " "I remember that I soaked up any advice someone gave me, and especially someone who was more successful," said Lambert, 28, who recently married "The Voice" judge Blake Shelton.

Tia Gindick's recent article on the illustrious historian, Frank Freidel, was a welcome departure from the usual lighter vein that pervades your section ("Frank Freidel Makes History a Good Read," May 15). It illustrates that we have a serious side to our community, and comes as an enlightenment to readers such as myself, who had never previously heard of Freidel, but now am reading his works. Let's have more penetrating articles about our foremost academicians. EDWIN H. BLUM Beverly Hills

In regards to "A Rebel's Verse," isn't it ironic that James Douglas Morrison was torn to shreds by the academic literary critics of his time and is now being resurrected by the very same as the poet god of the century? Morrison embodied those attributes so aptly expressed in Ralph Waldo Emerson's essay "The Poet." For many, Morrison was foremost a poet, secondarily a rock star long (very long) before this most recent proclamation from the higher places. SUSAN FULLER Placentia

Many of the desserts made by the pastry chefs profiled in "Sweet Success" (by David Lansing, July 21) are analogous to the "new" rock bands flooding MTV. Grand marnier souffles and strawberry tarts have been around since the '60s. The only real innovator in the article seems to be Kimberly Boyce, and even her ingredients and techniques were staples at Chez Panisse ages ago or are based on ancient French products. Yeah, I know--everything old is new again, but Lansing shouldn't have made this stuff sound like the second coming.

The WNBA season was barely three weeks old, and already two of the league's biggest stars were out because of injuries. Sparks forward Candace Parker, the 2008 league most valuable player, had torn the meniscus in her right knee. Seattle Storm center Lauren Jackson, the reigning MVP, required surgery on her left hip. Parker won't be back for another month or so, and Jackson will be out even longer. Tough luck? No, more like the continuation of a trend. Players, coaches and trainers say injuries consistently plague the league, and they believe they know why: an off-season that really isn't one. Nearly three-quarters of the league's players also compete abroad, supplementing their relatively modest WNBA incomes with what typically are much larger payments from foreign teams that also might pick up their living expenses and shower them with gifts.

Students filed into Chris Cox's dim classroom at Daniel Webster Middle School in Los Angeles' Sawtelle neighborhood, took their seats and immediately began working on a language arts warmup exercise. While Cox took roll, the eighth-graders silently worked. When they went over the answers, students raised their hands and waited to be called on. Down the corridor, seventh-graders streamed into Brent Walmsley's classroom and took over. Some sat on table tops; others wandered around the room, pausing to grab foamy handfuls of hand sanitizer that sloshed on the floor.

So, what's it worth to lace up those sneakers and break a sweat for about 30 minutes a day? About 3.5 extra years of life, on average - and about 4.2 additional years for those willing to step up the intensity or put in closer to an hour a day of brisk walking or its equivalent, according to a new study. Even for the severely obese - those with a body mass index above 35 - exercising for about 2.5 hours a week at moderate intensity or for 75 minutes at vigorous levels puts average life expectancy a notch above that of a normal-weight person who is sedentary, the research shows.

"Girls, girls, girls" - if the 2011 season had to wear a neon sign on its head, that is what it would say. Blame it on the "The Good Wife" or Lady Gaga or "Bridesmaids," but suddenly television went all gynocentric. It started in January, with the sight of Elizabeth McGovern, Penelope Wilton and Maggie Smith going head to head on the wonderful "Downton Abbey"; by the fall, all anyone was talking about was "The New Girl" and not just the Zooey Deschanel show but also the concept it stood for - the Pan Am gals, the Playboy bunnies, a double dip of Whitney Cummings ("Whitney," "2 Broke Girls")

Gov. Jerry Brown is not a mystery. He's a moderate. Anyone who thinks Brown is an enigma just isn't used to non-knee-jerk politicians in the 21st century. Modern Democrats are supposed to be loyal lefties 24/7. Republicans are expected to be reliably rigid right-wingers. All are stuck in their partisan or ideological pigeonholes. Not Brown. He's a left-of-center, labor-leaning Democrat. But he bounces around on the right too — and not just because it serves him well politically.

Aaron David Miller, a former Israeli-Palestinian "peace process" point person in the George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush administrations, is correct to assert in his Jan. 26 Times Op-Ed article that the recent cache of formerly secret documents on Israeli-Palestinian negotiations leaked to Al Jazeera "are bound to have a chilling effect on a process already in the deep freeze. " He errs, however, in lamenting the potential demise of a U.S.-sponsored "peace process" that is premised on Israel's demands, not Palestinian rights.

To some design aficionados, altering landmark architecture can be as perverse as painting a mustache on the Mona Lisa; any departure from the original tampers with its integrity. Frank Gehry, not surprisingly, takes a contrarian view. "I don't have a compulsion to preserve things like that," the architect said. "People have to live in buildings. You have to roll with the changes. To get locked into a straitjacket of design seems to me counterproductive to one's life. " That's good news for Jon Platt, owner of Gehry's Schnabel House in Brentwood.

The 2010 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded Friday to Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo "for his long and nonviolent struggle for fundamental human rights in China. " The award dealt a resounding slap to the Chinese government, which called the decision a "blasphemy" and warned that relations with Norway would be damaged. "Liu Xiaobo is a convicted criminal who broke Chinese law," Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu said in a statement published on the ministry website. "If the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to such a person, it absolutely disobeyed the spirit of this prize and it is a blasphemy to the prize.

Georgetown University law professor Martin D. Ginsburg, the husband of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, died Sunday of cancer, the Supreme Court announced. He was 78. Though he was among the nation's foremost experts on tax law, Ginsburg relished his role as the outgoing half of one of Washington's prominent couples. Marty and Ruth Ginsburg were married for 56 years, and friends often described theirs as a successful marriage of two seemingly quite different individuals.

On a recent episode of Bravo's "Million Dollar Listing," one of the real estate agent cast members went shopping for a swimsuit to wear on a celebratory jaunt to the Hamptons. The price for the fancifully printed swim trunks at the exclusive Vilebrequin boutique in Manhattan (a Beverly Hills outpost is just off Rodeo Drive)? More than $400. Men's swimsuits have become the latest obsession for the well-dressed man, whether he leans toward storied items like Panerai watches, Hermès ties and John Lobb shoes or prefers cutting-edge Givenchy T-shirts, Thom Browne suits and Balenciaga high-tops.

Joe Paterno shifts uncomfortably on the couch of his office at Penn State University and makes a confession about his holier-than-thou image. "It scares the heck out of me," booms the hallowed football coach. "Because I know I'm not that clean. Nobody is that clean." "I don't want to appear to be any more than I am," says Paterno, now speaking in a near whisper. "And that's a good, hard-working coach who is a decent guy, a family guy, who doesn't want to cheat." "I lose my temper sometimes.

Al Qaeda's offshoot in Yemen has emerged as the "foremost concern" for U.S. spy agencies since the group was tied to two attacks in the United States last year, according to a sweeping assessment of the global terrorism threat issued Tuesday by the nation's top intelligence officer. Director of National Intelligence Dennis C. Blair told a Senate panel that American spy agencies have intensified surveillance of the Al Qaeda affiliate's operations amid concern that the group -- once considered a regional menace -- is focused on the "recruitment of Westerners or other individuals with access to the U.S. homeland."

Four years ago, Jay McCarroll reigned as king of the TV catwalk as "Project Runway's" very first winner. His serrated wit and Capote-like candor made him an appealing hyphenate: an entertainer-fashion designer. Now, he's back with a new documentary premiering Feb. 20 called "Eleven Minutes" that traces the year following his victory and his struggle to segue from "Project Runway" to reality with his first independent runway show at Bryant Park. Hint: It ain't seamless.