Irony

The space shuttle Discovery crew played Tchaikovsky's "1812 Overture" during the latest "Star Wars" experiment, a choice described as "a touch of irony" in The Times article (June 22). Why ironic? Because, according to the journalist, the overture was written by a Russian to celebrate a Russian victory over Napoleon more than 100 years ago. The journalist seems to have missed the real irony implicit in both the experiment and his report of it: that a vehicle representing the highest technology of the most advanced species of Earth is occupied with tasks of warfare.

Most of us are too plump and are overly fond of snacks, fast food - and food in general. So why did two lean young women who dine on smoothies and organic fruits and vegetables (how unimpeachable does that sound) seek help cleaning up their act? May Haduong, 33, and Frances Motiwalla, 34, just had this sense they were slaves to each passing fad (greens! organic! flaxseed! gluten-free!) and were building up their eating rules in a haphazard, unscientific way. "We've sort of made it up in our heads," Haduong says: whirring up slurries of kale, beet greens, frozen fruits and celery in the blender in their pint-sized kitchen twice a day (down to once a day when Motiwalla couldn't take it anymore)

If you take them at their Facebook word, at least 223,609 people plan to attend the Jon Stewart/Stephen Colbert "Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear" on the National Mall in Washington on Saturday. According to enthusiastic posters on the social network site, the rally is either a) "the start of a massive, powerful movement … to turn back the vehement, reactionary discourse in this country" or b) "very much like a music festival. " The Comedy Central satire twins don't have an agenda exactly, although Stewart has a motto: "Take it down a notch, for America.

Many Occupy L.A. protesters arrested during demonstrations in recent months are being offered a unique chance to avoid court trials: pay $355 to a private company for a lesson in free speech. Los Angeles Chief Deputy City Atty. William Carter said the city won't press charges against protesters who complete the educational program offered by American Justice Associates. He said the program, which may include lectures by attorneys and retired judges, is being offered to people with no other criminal history and who were arrested on low-level misdemeanor offenses, such as failure to disperse.

It's probably a good thing that the new U.S. President and Naval Aviator action figure is being marketed to those "14 and up" ("No. 43 Lands at Toy Stores on G.I. Joe's Shelf," Aug. 17). A child of more tender years couldn't possibly begin to appreciate the layers of irony and fraud. Wenzel Jones North Hollywood

Re "China has misgivings about U.S. debt," March 14 What delicious irony. Communist China holds "roughly $1 trillion of U.S. Treasury and other government-backed bonds." So the worried banker to our proudly rich and powerful capitalist country is a communist country we not so long ago would have nothing to do with, and sought in various ways to rid the world of. And we're dearly hoping China will continue to bail us out of our self-inflicted dire straits. Who was it who said capitalism would dig its own grave?

George Romero directed his 1968 classic "Night of the Living Dead" for a measly $114,000. Hal Roach Studios has produced a color version of the chiller (as seen last weekend on KTLA) using their Colorization process. The cost to add color: $250,000.

Ah, yes, the irony was flowing strong like sap in the spring through Mike Madigan's March 12 commentary ("Local Control Key Issue in Controversy Over SDG&E Merger"). Here we have a senior executive from the Los Angeles-based Pardee corporation waxing eloquent on the importance of "local control." Yes, that is the same Mike Madigan--local boy bought by outside interests--who was principal spokesman against growth controls during last November's election (shades of Howard Allen). And yes, that is the same Pardee that spent the single largest sum--close to half-a-million dollars--to defeat not only the citizens' growth-control initiatives but the City Council and Board of Supervisors plans as well.

Re "They mix, not match," June 24 A common and unintended consequence of a program that grants preferential treatment to any one group is the likelihood that some of the beneficiaries of that treatment will conclude they were so blessed based on merit. Apparently, such is the case with many of Orange County's Vietnamese, who were given access to this country based on American largesse (be it as refugees or under family unification) and now disparage Latino illegal aliens in this country.

Re "Zoot suits against the world," Opinion, June 19 I was 12 during the zoot-suit riots. I remember hiding in my room clutching a baseball bat as truckloads of sailors led by a police car came through the Ramona Gardens housing projects where we lived. No Mexican American youths were safe regardless of how they were dressed. The fact that many Mexican American servicemen fought courageously in the war and were awarded a disproportionate number of Medals of Honor may be the ultimate irony of the whole episode.

The Occupy movement came to Los Angeles aiming for Wall Street titans, but farmers market vendors are the first to take a real hit. Two weeks ago, about 40 vendors who sell on the City Hall lawn every Thursday were forced off the property after protesters refused to remove their city of tents. The mini-businesses — produce farmers, popcorn poppers, flower sellers — were abruptly moved by city officials to a new and less visible location across Main Street. Since that relocation, profits have plummeted, vendors have pulled out and shoppers have become scarce.

People usually have good reasons for swallowing over-the-counter painkillers: They're hurting. But though the drugs often help, new research suggests that they sometimes do the opposite of what their users intended. That's especially true for serious athletes, for whom pain ? and painkillers ? are regular companions. In recent years, scientists have been studying runners competing in the Western States Endurance Run, a 100-mile race through California's Sierra Nevada mountains that involves more than 18,000 total feet of uphill climbing, more than 21,000 feet of downhill running and an average of 26 hours to complete.

If you take them at their Facebook word, at least 223,609 people plan to attend the Jon Stewart/Stephen Colbert "Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear" on the National Mall in Washington on Saturday. According to enthusiastic posters on the social network site, the rally is either a) "the start of a massive, powerful movement … to turn back the vehement, reactionary discourse in this country" or b) "very much like a music festival. " The Comedy Central satire twins don't have an agenda exactly, although Stewart has a motto: "Take it down a notch, for America.

The Elephant's Journey A Novel José Saramago Translated from the Portuguese by Margaret Jull Costa Houghton Mifflin Harcourt: 208 pp., $24 Once upon a time — a time of civil war and spectacle, when Protestant fervor swept Europe and the Inquisition intimidated the faithful — an Indian elephant traveled on foot from Lisbon to Vienna. Four and a half centuries later, this arduous and unlikely trek inspired Portuguese Nobel laureate José Saramago to write his most optimistic, playful, humorous and magical book, a grace note written near the end of his life.

Michael Winterbottom's "The Killer Inside Me," starring Casey Affleck as a small-town deputy sheriff with a big-time psychosis, is little more than torture porn tricked out in art-house finery. That is the bigger crime here. Killers, particularly of the sociopathic strain of Affleck's Lou Ford, can make for seductive characters. Whether it's Tommy Lee Jones turn as the seriously bent Gary Gilmore of "The Executioner's Song" or the sarcastic shot aimed at a media culture in love with violence that Oliver Stone took with his "Natural Born Killers," we want to understand all that separates us from them.

In a TV trope as old as "The Addams Family" and "The Munsters," minimally updated by animation, much crudity and current pop culture references, TBS' new series "Neighbors From Hell" seeks to lampoon human depravity by contrasting it with the more reasonable behavior of supernatural beings, in this case demons. The hell this time around may be full of requisite flames, but the preferred method of torture is lame irony — sinners must listen to Britney Spears, Satan looks like Hellboy run amok but acts more middle management than Lord of Darkness, and demons are allowed lunch breaks, signaled by the screech of a creature that bears a passing resemblance to the bird who provided a similar service in "The Flintstones."

Culture mavens baffle me. They are always impatient to find the next trend so they can get ahead of it. By the time the trend arrives, these people have moved on. That way they can look back with glowing superiority and say things like, "Irony used to matter, but now everyone's into it, so it's passe." The "irony culture," you may remember, was one of the casualties of Sept. 11. Then we were told that, oops, irony may have survived after all.

If only they'd called it "Almost No Sex and Very Little City," at least we would know what we were in for with " Sex and the City 2." In this second screen incarnation of the fabulous HBO series, the satire is sagging, the irony's atrophied and the funny is flabby. Yes, the clothes are more fabulous than ever, but Carrie, Miranda, Samantha and Charlotte have misplaced their chic and sassy and become, gulp, too ordinary and desperate. They were never supposed to be like the rest of us. Still, the women are not anywhere as desperate as the movie itself, which fails its stars and its many obsessive fans, unless everyone was waiting for the AARP version.

It has already become a cliche on the right to tut-tut at U.S. Senate candidate Rand Paul's "rookie" mistake of trying to conduct a "libertarian seminar" during the campaign. I'm not so sure. For starters, if you're not invested in Paul's political career, why not seize this rare opportunity for one of those much-coveted national conversations on race? Besides, Paul's not going to lose because of his reservations about some aspects of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. He's from Kentucky, a very red state.