Grants

About 45 minutes before the Clippers played the Orlando Magic on Saturday at Staples Center, Grant Hill put a brace on his right knee and a white sleeve to cover it. He then laced up his sneakers, a smile crossing his face because Hill was finally going to play in his first regular-season game after missing the first 36 because of a bone bruise in his right knee. Hill played six minutes, 25 seconds. He missed all three of his field goals, but scored two points on two free throws in the 104-101 loss to the Magic.

Grant Hill's long-awaited Clippers debut will have to wait at least three more days after Coach Vinny Del Negro elected not to activate him for Wednesday's game with the Dallas Mavericks. Hill worked out with the team twice this week and participated in Wednesday's pregame shootaround, but Del Negro chose to continue proceeding cautiously with the 40-year-old forward, sidelined since October because of a bone bruise in his right knee. "I just want to give him a couple more days of conditioning and contact.

This week, the National Endowment for the Arts opened the application period for its new round of literature grants . Novelists, time to start polishing up those CVs. The NEA makes grants of $25,000 to individual writers each year. Who can apply alternates between poets one year and writers of prose the next. The 2014 cycle is open to authors of fiction and creative nonfiction. Here's what it takes to be eligible : from Jan. 1, 2006, to Feb. 28, 2013, you have published: At least five different short stories, works of short fiction, excerpts from novels or memoirs, or creative essays (or any combination thereof)

Grant Hill is close to finally playing a regular-season game for the Clippers, but whether his debut will be Wednesday night remained uncertain. The veteran forward, who suffered a bruised right knee in the preseason, worked out with the team at the Clippers' training facility in Playa Vista for the second consecutive day Tuesday. But after practice Coach Vinny Del Negro said he would not make a decision on playing Hill until the Clippers get closer to their Wednesday night game against the Dallas Mavericks at Staples Center.

Lance Armstrong has granted an interview to Oprah Winfrey, his first since being stripped of his seven Tour de France titles and banned from cycling in the wake of a report detailing accusations of use of performance enhancing drugs by the athlete. Described on Winfrey's website as a "no-holds-barred interview," the piece will feature Armstrong from his home in Austin, Texas, and is scheduled to air on the Oprah Winfrey Network show "Oprah's Next Chapter" on Jan. 17 at 9 p.m. EST/PST, as well as live at Oprah.com.

Grant Hill, who has been sidelined the entire Clippers season with a bone bruise in his right knee, participated in his first full practice Tuesday. "To be able to actually put my jersey on and go out there and mix it up a little bit has been fun, although I'm still working off the rust," Hill said. "That'll take some time. " Hill, 40, participated in a light practice Monday, but Tuesday's practice involved more running and was more strenuous. "Today we went up and down, we did some scrimmaging, we did some sort of game-like scenarios in practice, which the guys on the team might not of liked,  but I certainly liked it," Hill said.  Clippers Coach Vinny Del Negro said that the team will evaluate Hill at Wednesday's shoot-around to determine whether he'll be able to play that evening against Dallas.

— A creeks cuts out of the Santa Ynez Mountains about 25 miles west of Santa Barbara. It follows a tight canyon from grass-covered foothills to the sea, passing an old adobe underneath a giant eucalyptus and grapevines planted when California was part of Mexico. There's the smell of sage. Deep quiet. Wind in the leaves. This is the Arroyo Hondo Preserve, known as "the jewel of the Gaviota Coast. " I don't know about that. The whole western skirt of the mountains, draping down to the ocean between Goleta and Point Conception, is mostly undeveloped God's country.

For 95 years, Grant Park loomed over downtown Ventura without drawing much notice. Now, with the help of a city government willing to lease the park's 107 acres for $1 a year and a group of residents willing to raise millions for a botanical garden, it's sprung to life. On Saturday, hundreds of residents, their dogs and their kids trooped up a new mile-long trail with seed-filled Dixie cups, dumping them in spots where California bluebells, golden lupine, white yarrow, mission red monkey flowers and a host of other plants might bloom in the spring.

Gerard Depardieu now has Russian citizenship, courtesy of President Vladimir Putin, who Thursday delivered on a promise made a couple of weeks ago. Russia's main state-run TV station broadcast an open letter reportedly from the "Green Card" star (via the BBC ), saying, "I filed a passport application and I am pleased that it was accepted. I love your country, Russia - its people, its history, its writers. I love your culture, your intelligence. " The actor is well-known in Putin's country.

DENVER - Grant Hill smiled as soon as he was asked if he has a target date to play in his first game of the regular season for the Clippers. "Yeah," Hill said, smiling. "In my mind. " Hill has a bone bruise in his right knee that has kept him out since the exhibition season. He said he has "ramped up" his workout activity. So Hill was asked what date he has in mind to play. "Sometime in January," is all Hill would say. "Hopefully soon I'll get to start practicing a little bit," he said.