Lame

No self-respecting politician wants to be one. The phrase itself is utterly demeaning. But with a year left in office, there are signs that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has begun his transformation into a lame duck. This status, defined by the weakness of a politician whose term will soon expire, may be difficult to swallow for a former Mr. Universe known to legions of moviegoers for vanquishing opponents as Hercules, Conan and the Terminator. Even as a pregnant man in "Junior," Schwarzenegger reflected a particular kind of strength.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration's proposal for voluntary guidelines that would wean livestock off  growth-inducing antibiotics left foodies and public health officials disappointed this week. “Nonbinding recommendations are not a strong enough antidote to the problem,” argued Rep. Louis Slaughter (D-N.Y.). Avinash Kar, public health staff attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council, replied to the news with a statement equivalent to an eye roll: “We've essentially had a voluntary measure in place for 35 years since FDA first acknowledged the risks of using antibiotics in livestock feed, and we have seen the use of antibiotics grow exponentially in that period.” Food Politics' Marion Nestle was also frustrated: “I'm guessing this is the best the FDA can do in an election year,” she lamented , saying the proposal looked more like a “direct challenge to drug companies and meat producers to clean up their acts” than a real solution.

Just a few months ago, the supreme leader of North Korea, Kim Jong Il, appeared to be a lame duck in both senses of the term. In public appearances, he looked deathly ill after suffering a severe stroke in 2008, and preparations were reportedly underway for one of his sons to succeed him. Fast-forward to today, and Kim is lame no more. Not only has he regained his vigor, judging by his performance during recent visits by Bill Clinton and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, but talk of his succession has also become muted.

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart Leave it to "The Daily Show"host Jon Stewart to express the collective shock over Facebook paying $1 billion for Instagram. “What is Instagram?” Stewart asked. When told it's a mobile app that makes your photos look like they were taken with a Polaroid, he's even more baffled at the blockbuster price tag. “A billion dollars of money? For a thing that kind of ruins your pictures?” he exclaims. “The only Instagram worth a billion dollars would be an app that instantly gets you a gram.” Stewart turns to his senior youth correspondent Jessica Williams to explain yet another technology story that makes absolutely no sense to him. “How in god's name is that worth a billion dollars?

What does one become by not eating broccoli? A lame duck! RICHARD KUZNETSKY Reseda

Reagan seems to have waddled from lame duck to dead duck. Perhaps the time has come for him to just duck out. HELEN E. NAST Los Angeles

Love the pencil guy. Hate the duck. At least the pencil guy seems to have some connection to the page he's on (Letters, Nov. 13). What's with the cartoon duck? Last week's explanation was, like the duck, lame. KATHY ROGERS Pacific Palisades Lame? OK, how about this: The duck was the mascot for our Summer Splash issue in May, and everyone liked him so much, we asked him to stay.

Thank you for Conine's fine column. We need more of his kind of thinking. These disloyal Americans calling the President a "lame duck" and a "useful idiot for the Soviets" make me boil! Thank goodness for (Vice President) George Bush. MRS. ANDRIAN J. JENSEN Santa Maria

I was shocked at the fraudulence of the words and images in "Burnout." To commission some very talented but prosperous commercial illustrators and photographers to do a few renditions of Black Rage is lame enough, but then to compare them to some of the greatest artists of the 20th Century, and on such flimsy grounds, amounts to cultural perjury. TIM SASSOON Venice

THE prophetic Howard Stern once dubbed KLSX-FM (97.1) "Radio Hindenburg," and Jack Silver's latest brainstorm has finally sent the station crashing down in flames [" 'Breakfast With the Beatles' Dropping Off KLSX's Menu," by Randy Lewis, Aug. 7]. The program director is dropping "Breakfast With the Beatles" after 23 years, but he consoles listeners with these oh-so-sincere words: "I support it 100%." Thanks, Jack, that means a lot! I plan to support KLSX 100% by never tuning in again -- unless I feel a sudden urge to hear the round-the-clock boring infomercials and lame Howard Stern wannabes now fully populating your 100% unlistenable station.

It was the sigh before the storm. During a joyous couple of hours on the Staples Center court Saturday, the Clippers rediscovered their alley and dug up their oop and sprinted their way to a 101-85 drubbing of the Memphis Grizzlies. Yet during a somber few minutes in his locker-room office afterward, the embattled Vinny Del Negro acknowledged that it might not matter. "We'll see," he said softly. "We need to win. We need to play better. But I don't worry a lot about it, because there are things out of my control.

Everyone knows the odds are stacked against UCLA on Friday night. Everyone knows the Bruins are headed to Oregon as 32-point underdogs in the inaugural Pac-12 Conference championship game, playing one last time for a coach on his way out the door. So the question becomes: Can they find a way to keep this game close? As one impartial observer — Oregon State Coach Mike Riley — put it: "That's going to be a tough one. " Tough, but not impossible. Riley and several other Pac-12 coaches who have faced both teams this season see a sliver of hope for the Bruins, a few ways they might stay with the eighth-ranked Ducks.

What a wonderful, heart-warming picture of Frank McCourt on the front page of The Times on Tuesday morning. He's smiling, and appears to be holding a little girl so they might get their picture taken together. My, how time flies. It wasn't that long ago the little woman would be the one standing with Frank mugging for the cameras at a charity event. Oh well, he still knows how to put on a good front. Matt Kemp is pictured, too, and he's smiling and saying nice things about McCourt.

The season's almost over and no one is close yet to figuring it out. The CBS rating for Saturday night's game between Louisiana State and Alabama, a spectacular 11.9, was almost three points higher than the winning team scored. Was it overhype, great defense, both, or what? The best offensive play at Bryant-Denny Stadium was the 73-yard punt by LSU's Brad Wing, out of his own end zone, that helped keep Alabama from winning in regulation. The 9-6 finish might have looked ugly, but it was not close to the worst college overtime game ever contested.

One day after Mike Scioscia was doused with a huge cooler of ice water in celebration of his 1,000th victory as manager, the Chicago White Sox tossed an equally frigid wet blanket over the Angels on Monday night. The team with the worst record in the major leagues rocked starter Ervin Santana (1-4) and reliever Trevor Bell for seven extra-base hits, three of them home runs, in an 8-0 victory in Angel Stadium. Adding injury to insult, the Angels lost left fielder Vernon Wells to a right groin strain in the fourth inning, an injury the veteran suffered as he broke out of the batter's box on a grounder to third base.

The coaching is telling Phil Jackson to stop, the NBA's championship sovereign referring to himself as a "lame duck" because he's lost touch with players who have done increasingly wacky things on the court. He was only partly joking. But this is his time of year. The feeling around the Lakers' practice facility has been more rigid leading up to Sunday's playoff opener against New Orleans, Jackson's cadence reflecting the importance of what lies ahead for a team that hasn't always seemed to be of championship timber.

Quoting from your paper (Part I, May 10), Regan said of publishing his book now: "They dismissed me--why should I wait?" Two reasons might be: (1) Revenge would not be as sweet, (2) It certainly would not sell as well. What kind of disgruntled patriot, (which he said he was) would defame his President in the midst of crucial arms negotiations . . . because he got canned? This former Marine has lost his true grit. Regan's cop-out, the famous "the public has a right to know," cannot conceal the lack of character which prompted these actions and perhaps explain the reason that he was "dismissed."

Regarding Charles McNulty's article on L.A. actors taking the stage in N.Y. ["Critic's Notebook," May 3]. Why can't the L.A. Times take a wider look at theater in L.A. or Southern California? All you guys ever quote are Gil Cates, an established longtime hack, and Michael Ritchie, who has managed to make his politically correct predecessor look like a visionary. And what successful screen-TV actor would want to risk doing live theater with those lame safety nets? Quality talent shops their next project by how much they respect and can be inspired by the director and that director's track record.

Kobe Bryant woke up with chills and body aches. All of the Lakers looked ill later in the day, and it had nothing to do with the common cold. They were thumped by the Charlotte Bobcats yet again, a semiannual event that happens over and over, the two-time defending champions losing another one to a franchise that has made the playoffs once. This time the Lakers were embarrassed by a 109-89 score Monday, another lame effort in Charlotte unfurled in front of a jubilant crowd.

President Obama is enjoying a surge in public approval as he marks the midpoint of his first term, an uptick that follows a productive lame-duck congressional session and his well-received speech on the shooting tragedy in Tucson. The same polling shows that although new Speaker of the House John Boehner is getting favorable reviews early on, Americans don't expect that much from the new Congress. A new NBC News/Wall Street Journal survey released Wednesday night showed Obama's job-approval rating at 53%, an eight-point jump from mid-December and his highest rating since July 2009.