Jousting

A knight of the Table Round should be invincible Succeed where a less fantastic man would fail Climb a wall no one else can climb Cleave a dragon in record time Swim a moat in a coat of heavy iron mail. --"C'est Moi" from "Camelot" * It is a blazing 102 degrees outside. Still, layer by layer on it goes, about 100 pounds of armor and weaponry: shirts, leather vests, chain mail, metal greaves to protect legs, gauntlets over hands, steel helmets. After that, shields and 13-foot lances.

KISSIMMEE, Fla. - Mitt Romney's record as governor of Massachusetts was the focal point of presidential campaign sparring on Saturday, with the GOP nominee boasting that he worked across the aisle to close a multibillion-dollar budget gap and President Obama arguing that his tenure benefited the wealthy at the expense of the middle class. Romney, speaking to thousands in a plane hangar in Kissimmee, said Washington needed bipartisan collaboration to fix the nation's problems, and he pointed to his record in Massachusetts working with a legislature that was 85% Democratic.

Antonio Hernandez picked up his first lance just last week, but no one at the annual jousting tournament in the genteel Virginia town of Hume could tell he was a rookie. In practice heats, he was looking deft at the sport, charging 100 yards on his faithful steed and spearing shower-curtain-ring-size loops dangling from wood posts. Hernandez, a.k.a. the Riverton Knight of Paddington farm, quickly became a crowd favorite at the Leeds Ruritan Club jousting tournament last week.

Here's the instruction book for the newest/oldest/oddest sport you'll hear-ye, hear-ye about today: First, you dress like a Buick. Next, you mount a horse. (I know what you're thinking — nothing out of the ordinary so far.) Third, you charge at full gallop toward your opponent, then attempt to bosom him off his horse with an 11-foot lance. You get 10 points if you "de-horse" him (my new favorite verb). Five points if you shatter your lance against the opposing tin man. If you woke up this morning thinking that life no longer excites you, that Wednesday is the same as Thursday, that there's nothing to hold your attention now that football season has expired, meet full metal jousting, a renaissance of the Renaissance.

Behold the king of the boat jousters. The man-mountain stands silhouetted against the Mediterranean sun, gliding past spectators lining a canal: Aurelien Evangelisti, a.k.a. The Centurion, a Gallic Goliath of Italian and Maltese descent, a baby-faced, hook-nosed Hercules clad head to toe in nautical white, the heavyweight champion of a curious sporting spectacle that has defined this hard-working port town since the 17th century. Evangelisti plants a trunk-like leg behind him on the tintaine, a platform atop the stern of a boat propelled by 10 oarsmen.

'Tis a wondrous sight to behold, to be sure. Cross a stream from where 20th-Century picnickers sit and suddenly you are in the midst of a Field of Revels and Tournament blazing with color in the late morning sunshine. Everyone is resplendent in chain mail, robes, swirling hats, iron helmets, red velvet shawls. There are knights and their ladies. It's the Society for Creative Anachronism, traveling back to the Middle Ages, for . . .

The battle for the Republican nomination to succeed Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger took a nasty turn Saturday as a trio of Silicon Valley candidates tussled over fiscal plans and contender Meg Whitman's apparent failure to vote until she was 46 years old. Most aggressive was state Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner, a mapping software mogul who called on Whitman to drop out of the race for the good of the party. The former chief executive of EBay, he argued, would lead Republicans to certain defeat in a general election, thanks to the civic indifference indicated by her voting record.

Though many of the equestrian riders in the Rose Parade are dressed in fancy duds and their mounts prance proudly to the music, parade viewers "never get to see how talented these folk are by watching the parade," says George Chatigny of the L.A. Equestrian Center.

Congressional supporters of trade protectionism are not without their allies in Tokyo. That was made clear again last week when Special Trade Representative Clayton K. Yeutter and Agriculture Secretary Richard E. Lyng, on separate missions to Japan to promote increased purchases of U.S. products, publicly expressed "frustration" and "disappointment" at their lack of progress.

It's true. It's true. The crown has made it clear. The climate must be perfect all the year. --"Camelot," Alan J. Lerner Rain in Camelot? Never. At least not until guests had filed into the Registry Hotel ballroom Saturday night. During the outdoor reception of "A Night in Camelot," a benefit staged by the Camelot chapter of the Performing Arts Center, the climate had suddenly become less than perfect.

This city's preferred civic image is that of a quiet village with pristine beaches, trendy shops and upscale homes on tree-lined streets. The state-owned Del Mar Fairgrounds, on the city's northern edge, is another matter. The entertainment complex is mostly known for the annual San Diego County Fair and Thoroughbred racing season. But there are also the gun shows, reptile shows, boat shows, horse shows, bingo, the gay rodeo, soccer matches, concerts and, soon, the largest dog show west of the Mississippi.

As farmers markets and their sales have burgeoned in Southern California, the rights to sell at them — at least at the more successful venues — have become increasingly valuable, and in several cases, matters of contention. Witness the recent squabbles at the South Pasadena market, where slots for vendors, fees, integrity and management are at stake. It's a story of more than local interest, because the same issues, typically below the radar of the general public, frequently come into play at other markets.

The government of Israel seems to be embracing the Christmas spirit. This week it is organizing carols and tree giveaways in Jerusalem, bus service to Bethlehem and even a fireworks show in Nazareth with an apparent eye on burnishing the nation's reputation for religious diversity. But Israel won't be giving the Christmas gift near the top of the Vatican's wish list this year: possession of a Mt. Zion holy site where Jesus is believed to have gathered his disciples for the Last Supper.

The battle for the Republican nomination to succeed Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger took a nasty turn Saturday as a trio of Silicon Valley candidates tussled over fiscal plans and contender Meg Whitman's apparent failure to vote until she was 46 years old. Most aggressive was state Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner, a mapping software mogul who called on Whitman to drop out of the race for the good of the party. The former chief executive of EBay, he argued, would lead Republicans to certain defeat in a general election, thanks to the civic indifference indicated by her voting record.

As one of an insufficiently large number of fans of Rob Thomas' romantic dramedy "Cupid," which starred Jeremy Piven and Paula Marshall and aired only 14 episodes before being canceled by ABC in 1999, I greeted with mixed feelings the news of its retooled return. In the whole history of remakes, there have been few that have seemed worth the effort -- the recently concluded "Battlestar Galactica" and Hitchcock's second "The Man Who Knew Too Much" come to mind, and then . . . I'm out.

Behold the king of the boat jousters. The man-mountain stands silhouetted against the Mediterranean sun, gliding past spectators lining a canal: Aurelien Evangelisti, a.k.a. The Centurion, a Gallic Goliath of Italian and Maltese descent, a baby-faced, hook-nosed Hercules clad head to toe in nautical white, the heavyweight champion of a curious sporting spectacle that has defined this hard-working port town since the 17th century. Evangelisti plants a trunk-like leg behind him on the tintaine, a platform atop the stern of a boat propelled by 10 oarsmen.

The Middle Ages will come to the Conejo Valley next week when a nonprofit educational group hosts a jousting tournament with fully armored knights, war horses, colorful pennants and pageantry. The Grand Tournament of Hope is scheduled Thursday and Friday as a school assembly event from 10 to 11 a.m. on three campuses: Conejo Valley High, 1872 Newbury Road in Newbury Park; Redwood Intermediate, 233 Gainsboro Road in Thousand Oaks, and Weathersfield School, 3151 Darlington Drive in Thousand Oaks.

You've seen their billboards, heard their radio spots, read their ads. But who is behind the escalating competition in the Hawaiian package vacation market? More than a dozen wholesalers are in the business of packaging Hawaiian vacations. But if ever there were an 800-pound gorilla in the Hawaiian tourism market, it would be Pleasant Hawaiian Holidays. Pleasant Hawaiian, a family-owned Westlake Village company, uses a broad network of hotels and contacts cultivated over 38 years in the islands.

NEW YORK -- After Christie's got $119,000 for a Titanic life jacket at an auction in London last year, Gregg Dietrich was not surprised that his phone kept ringing with offers of other items from the ill-fated ship. "When we sell one . . . more seem to come out of the woodwork," said Dietrich, who heads the maritime (or "ocean liner") division of the auction house here. "We're been inundated with Titanic offers." The problem was, many of the calls came from people like the man who was certain he had all sorts of valuable Titanic keepsakes: a first-class passenger list, a menu from its Cafe Parisienne, even a passenger ticket that would have been the first ever auctioned.

Eager to set themselves apart from a Republican-led Congress tarnished by scandal, Democrats outlined a plan Wednesday to end the secrecy around earmarks inserted in legislation to funnel public money to favored interests. "We're going to stamp out corruption, and the proof is in the package," Rep. Louise M. Slaughter (D-N.Y.) said as she outlined reform measures that Democrats would put to a vote today and Friday.