Gunpowder

It was so stiflingly hot inside a people-packed Sound FX on Thursday night that the club's open side doors were like steam vents. But, if the damp bodies clogging the venue's interior testified to the sweltering humidity, the patrons didn't seem to mind. That's because there was something even hotter in the joint: the Stray Cats, with the original configuration of guitarist Brian Setzer, stand-up bassist Lee Rocker and drummer Slim Jim Phantom.

He was a physician, an eminent specialist. She was the model suburban mother, pitching in at her children's Camarillo school and pouring herself into activities at church. To most who knew them, Xavier and Socorro Caro were a couple enjoying the fruits of hard work, faith and family in a million-dollar hilltop home. But if their story illustrates anything, it is that even the iron gates of the most lavish estate can open wide for sadness, betrayal and deadly rage.

In the scene, actors holding guns are listening to a prop master as he hands out blank cartridges. "Gentlemen, these are blanks," the man tells them. "Only aim upward. There's a wad of paper that comes out and can injure someone." But unbeknown to the movie crew, a hit man is standing among the actors. He pulls a real bullet from his pocket and inserts it into the chamber of his gun. Then the director calls for quiet on the set and Bruce Lee runs toward the group, displaying kung-fu acrobatics.

I have a hard time understanding Vice President Dick Cheney's accident. However, John Kenney's piece, "He loves the smell of gunpowder" (Opinion, Feb. 15), was tasteless. RON JENSEN Rapid City, S.D.

A gunpowder-filled firecracker exploded inside a hospital toilet Thursday, rocking Harborview Medical Center emergency room personnel and patients but causing no injuries, police said. Fire officials estimated damage to the restroom at $5,000.

Q: How do trick birthday candles that will not blow out work? A: According to scientists at San Francisco's Exploratorium, small particles of gunpowder are woven into the wick. When the candle is lit, you'll notice that the wick occasionally shoots off little sparks as it burns. When you blow the candle out, the wick continues to glow for a few seconds. The glowing wick is hot enough to ignite the gunpowder, which reignites the wick.

A man who was mixing gunpowder from several heavy-duty firecrackers in his residential motel room Saturday blew off three of his fingers when the mixture exploded, Santa Ana police said. The man, whose name was not released, was taken to UCI Medical Center in Orange after the 1 p.m. explosion at 901 S. Harbor Blvd., fire officials said. The Santa Ana Fire Department is investigating. The man was mixing gunpowder from M-80s, which are powerful firecrackers.

He roamed the University of Cincinnati campus with a loaded gun. When his rage overflowed, the brainy microbiology major would open fire inside empty buildings, visualizing a wall clock or other object as a person who had done him wrong. By the mid-1970s, Bruce Ivins had earned his doctorate and was a promising researcher at the University of North Carolina. By outward appearances, he was a charming eccentric, odd but disarming. Inside, he still smoldered with resentment, and he saw a new outlet for it. Several years earlier, a Cincinnati student had turned him down for a date.

Fifty townspeople were injured Sunday night during this eastern Spanish town's annual festival when 200,000 skyrockets were launched in a mock fireworks war, authorities said Monday. Most of the victims were treated for gunpowder burns, but no serious injuries were reported.

A man was charged with five terrorism offenses, including possession of an ingredient used to make gunpowder. British media reported that the arrest came in connection with an alleged plot to assassinate Prime Minister Gordon Brown. Greater Manchester Police said the defendant was Krenar Lusha, 29, of Derby in England's Midlands. Four other men have already been charged.