Hats

The wait for tables is getting longer at Buck's, a popular breakfast spot for the tech elite and a weather vane for the Silicon Valley economy. Here, like everywhere else, Facebook is the talk of the town. "Charles Schwab was in the restaurant the other day, and I asked him to hook me up with some Facebook shares," said Jamis MacNiven, owner of Buck's, in the wealthy suburban enclave of Woodside. "He told me even he can't get Facebook shares. " The new tech boom officially gets underway Friday when Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg rings Nasdaq's opening bell remotely from the company's Menlo Park, Calif., headquarters, launching the largest initial public offering of stock in Silicon Valley history.

GLENDALE, Ariz. — The Kings' dormant power play stirred to life, as did forward Jeff Carter, and the Phoenix Coyotes picked the second game of the Western Conference finals to look like they had spent too much time in the midday sun. The Coyotes simply lost it, and now the Kings are within two victories of winning the series and reaching the Stanley Cup finals for the second time in franchise history. Getting there took a collective effort, featuring the first career playoff hat trick from Carter and another goal from rookie Dwight King in the Kings' 4-0 victory over the Coyotes on Tuesday night at Jobing.com Arena.

Long before there were sun screens in plastic containers, there were parasols and sun hats. Parasols remain passe. But wide-brim hats are back as a chic way to help foil ultraviolet rays. Paired with an SPF 15--or higher--sun screen, they provide good coverage and a certain joie de vivre no matter how practical or basic the design. An example is the regulation California lifeguard hat, an oversize, functional model made of hand-woven palm that retails for about $10. Because it's linked to a glamorous occupation, the hat is considered a trendy summer accessory all the way from the West Coast to the West Indies.

Dustin Brown has endured a difficult week. The Kings' captain battled a case of flu, heard Coach Darryl Sutter say he had become stale offensively, and found himself the subject of persistent trade rumors. He responded Saturday night with a commanding performance that should make him and Sutter feel a lot better and quiet some of the rampant speculation. Brown scored the Kings' first three goals against Chicago for a natural hat trick, the third hat trick of his career, and assisted on their final goal in a 4-0 rout of the surprisingly listless Chicago Blackhawks at Staples Center.

Why was your Buzz staff reading the classified ads in Radioactive, a free paper that caters to heavy metal fans and musicians? It's best not to ask. But here are a few of the more outstanding entries we found: * BIKER TATTOOS--(temporary) mailed discreetly at discount prices. * DRUMMER--Wtd to complete politically, socially aware, anti-racist, anti-cliche, progressive metal semi-thrash group. Pro attitude a must.

He is of an era when men rode the range, packed steel revolvers and toughed it out with nature, protected only by their wits and good fortune. The problem is that Larry Rosenbaum lives in a time of cell phones, digital recordings and television. Still, Rosenbaum has managed to carve out a niche for himself, creating a way of life that resembles the 1890s more than the 1990s. He doesn't own a television, uses a bedroll instead of a tent when camping and shuns matches in favor of steel and flint.

Although they're huddled close, the tens of thousands of cattle are remarkably quiet. The cowboys traversing the blocks-long boardwalk above hear only the occasional bellow below. In familiar hats, jeans and boots, the men ? and some women ? make their way toward the bustling auction arena. Some come to the Oklahoma National Stock Yards just to watch the bustle of cattle, but most come, checkbook in hand, to bid and to buy. This has been going on in Oklahoma City for 100 years, since cattlemen began bringing their critters to market here.

Now I know what killed vaudeville. They must have had tunnel-vision reviewers like your Don Shirley ("Second-Rate Acts Come In Off the Street," March 19). Having seen "Hats Off" at the Variety Arts Theatre, I can only assume Shirley is about 100 years old and was probably on hand to kill vaudeville. Second-rate acts? These are wonderful street performers . . . that's what we want to see! The trained flea act alone was worth the price of admission. The trumpet players were electrifying.

They're made for the shade. They help beat the heat. And chapeaus are so apropos for these mercury-driven days of summer. "Hats are very self-expressive, very self-revealing and say so much about a person's personality," says Drea Kadilak, a Los Angeles hat designer. So we asked the milliner to spill the 411 on these hat-loving wearers who attended this month's Acura Tennis Classic Tournament in Manhattan Beach.

At the beginning of the 20th century, millinery was so commonplace that many women decorated their own hats. But with the social movements of the late 1960s, fashion became more casual and upscale hats fell by the wayside. Today, there are only a handful of famous milliners, notably Brits Stephen Jones and Philip Treacy and recent Target collaborator Eugenia Kim, based in New York. But over the last few years, hats have started to come back into vogue, and now L.A. native Rehn Dudukgian, 28, is hoping to join the roster of great hat designers with Bijou Van Ness, her new line of couture creations that fuse the romance of 20th century European fashion with pure Hollywood glamour.

Moisture, condensation, fog -- whatever you want to call it -- has made it impossible to peek through two windows on the door of the St. John Bosco wrestling room to see what's happening inside. Then the door opens, and a visitor is blasted with a burst of hot air as if a heater is going full throttle.  It's sauna-like conditions, and yet there's no machine producing the heat. It's coming from more than 20 shirtless, sweating wrestlers circling the room and trying to prove what Coach Omar Delgado means when he says, "Wrestling is a six-minute sprint.

Times columnist Helene Elliott rates the pluses and minuses in the NHL from the last week: + Congratulations to Phoenix Coyotes forward Shane Doan, who scored his first hat trick, in his 1,161st game, and Calgary Flames winger Jarome Iginla, who scored his 500th goal. Each reached his milestone Saturday, a fitting convergence for two of the NHL's classiest players. + NHL players and teams have stepped up with gifts and prayers to support Jack Jablonski, a Minnesota high school hockey player who suffered a severe spinal cord injury after being checked from behind and isn't likely to walk again.

Eleven goals scored, four goalies and two injuries taking players out of the game. You might say it is a good thing the Ducks and Blue Jackets aren't in the same division. Who knows what else would happen if they played more often? Sunday featured enough twists and turns for a week of action. The Ducks beat Columbus, 7-4, at Honda Center, led by Corey Perry's fourth career hat trick and two goals from Teemu Selanne and a three-point night from center Saku Koivu. The winning goalie was a 26-year-old Finn named Iiro Tarkki, who arrived in Anaheim at about 11 a.m., on a flight from Philadelphia, and had no idea he would be making his NHL debut.

Although its U.S. theatrical opening is still two weeks away, Iran's official Oscar submission, the gripping domestic drama "A Separation," has already gathered such a head of award season steam that it appears a virtual shoo-in for a foreign-language film nomination. The hoopla — which includes a recent win for its screenplay from the Los Angeles Film Critics Assn. in addition to top foreign film nods from the National Board of Review and the New York Film Critics Circle — has also helped put the movie's writer-producer-director, Asghar Farhadi, on the radar to compete for such top Academy Awards as director and original screenplay.

Week by week, the football world is learning something about the new quarterback of the Denver Broncos. Tebow ends with a W. The magic happened again Sunday in breathtaking fashion as Tim Tebow guided his team to another overtime victory — Denver's third in Tebow's eight starts — 13-10 over Chicago at Invesco Field. When is the stunning no longer surprising? When is the unbelievable almost expected? It's happening just about every week for the Broncos, who are 7-1 since promoting Tebow to the starting job in mid-October, have won six in a row, and trailed at the two-minute warning in each of their last four wins — against the Jets, Chargers, Vikings and Bears.

At the end of a dirt road deep in the mountains, Consolacion Acay hobbled onto her porch and picked up her tools of the trade: a glass cup, a bamboo straw, a stone the size of an apricot pit and a bottle of potion. Then she began casting spells to heal her client. "I found this stone while I was swimming near waterfalls in the middle of the island," the unassuming 86-year-old said later. "That night I had a dream that taught me how to use the stone to heal people, and I've been doing it ever since.

Question: Please clarify the Transportation Security Administration's limitations on volume of fluids allowed in a single container to be carried onboard in the 1-quart plastic bag, which raised the issue of 3-1-1 (3 ounces, 1-quart bag, 1 bag per person). I was in Italy and wanted to bring back a vial of Modena's famed balsamic vinegar. In Europe, volume is expressed in metric, and the smallest container I could find was 100 milliliters, which is 3.3 ounces. I chose not to bring anything back.

Weirdest Friday news dump ever. Very late in the day on Oct. 14, the Obama administration released a lot of politically problematic information, including the news that the deficit for 2011 hit $1.3 trillion (the second biggest ever, after 2009) and that it's abandoning the CLASS Act, one of the more expensive and unwieldy appendages of "Obamacare. " One other thing: The White House announced we're putting boots on the ground in sub-Saharan Africa. President Obama notified Congress that he's sending about 100 combat-equipped troops to advise African forces on how best to kill or capture (but hopefully kill)