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.

We would be remiss in our coverage of the Dell deal today if we did not point out some of the delicious ironies and coincidences contained therein. Let us flash back first to 1997. It's Aug. 6, at the Macworld conference in Boston. Apple's interim chief executive, Steve Jobs, takes the stage to make a stunning announcement . Rival Microsoft has thrown Apple a lifeline by agreeing to invest $150 million to keep the company afloat. As the announcement is made, a gigantic image of Microsoft CEO Bill Gates appears on a video screen behind Jobs, as the audience gasps.  QUIZ: Test your Apple knowledge "We have to let go of a few notions here," Jobs said that day. "We have to let go of the notion that for Apple to win, Microsoft needs to lose.

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 companies have been making an effort to green their businesses, finding ways to use fewer resources. One way has been to convert traditional paper-based processes to electronic ones. There's really no faulting Barnes & Noble for choosing to pay its employees by direct deposit, rather than using paper payroll checks. Except that it means, in one part of its business, Barnes & Noble has gone paperless. "I find it ironic that a book retailer would go paperless," wrote a Barnes & Noble staffer on the Facebook page of journalist Lisa Napoli.

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 "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.

How ironic! Those drywall installers who crossed the border illegally, drove down wages, and wrecked the unions are now seeking to organize as they see their security threatened by newer arrivals willing to work for even less than they now earn, "Southland Drywall Hangers Hold Out in Hope of Nailing Down a Union" (July 5). If the drywall hangers are successful in forming a union and winning a contract, will they also be willing to pay for all the state and federal income taxes they avoided while working under the table?

Four straight rows of four palm trees each stand on the northeast corner of 2nd and Spring streets downtown - a block from Los Angeles City Hall, right alongside LAPD headquarters. They're directly across from the newsroom. I stare out at them from my desk. Lately they have come to look like hourglasses running out of time. Small tufts of green fronds reach to the sky. Ample brown ones drag down toward the dirt. Will the dead fronds ever be trimmed? Would it make a difference?

“Muslim rage” is the headline, and it's brought the country full circle. To recap: Americans made a grotesque video about Islam, violent protests ensued, and now other Americans have condemned Muslims for reacting poorly. On Monday, Tina Brown's Newsweek released a cover once again intended to provoke, outrage, create buzz and sell copies   of the magazine: "MUSLIM RAGE," the new cover reads in bold font, "HOW I SURVIVED IT, HOW WE CAN END IT. " The text straddles a highly unflattering picture of screaming Muslim men in Morocco.

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)

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.

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.

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 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.