Lust

We've known for a long time that many members of the Legislature were in bed with electric utilities. But until the lurid crowing of Assemblyman Michael Duvall (R-Yorba Linda), we thought the expression was only figurative. Duvall resigned Wednesday after a videotape surfaced in which he boasted to an Assembly colleague in graphic detail about two sexual affairs. Duvall, who is married, apparently was unaware that a microphone in front of him was still turned on during a break in a committee meeting in July.

Unreal Estate Money, Ambition, and the Lust for Land in Los Angeles Michael Gross Broadway Books: 533 pp., $30

Unreal Estate Money, Ambition, and the Lust for Land in Los Angeles Michael Gross Broadway Books: 533 pp., $30

This seems to be a banner season for figs, which are practically made for farmers markets, since they are only at their best when fully ripe, at which point they are too perishable to ship commercially. The Adriatic variety, with thin green skin and strawberry flesh that's so sweet it's almost like jam at peak ripeness, is one of the most luscious of figs but rarely encountered fresh, even at farmers markets, because of this fragility; most go to make dried figs and fig paste. The second and main crop just started for Mark Boujikian of Raisin City, near Fresno, who does such a superb job with fresh Adriatics that many customers dream about them for the 10 months they're unavailable.

If the Kirov Ballet's opening night leads in "Scheherazade" emphasized pure, delirious lust, two new principals brought implications of forbidden love to the Thursday performance of Mikhail Fokine's one-act 1910 dance drama at the Orange County Performing Arts Center.

The Orange County Coalition of the Theatre Arts has opened its new six-play season with "A Bus Called Lust," described by Orange County writer Kent Hawkins as "for the most part, a parody of (Tennessee Williams') 'A Streetcar Named Desire.' " Come again? Except for the silly title, "A Bus Called Lust" bears only a cursory resemblance to Williams' venerable drama.

I read your article on the hit HBO series "True Blood" with a slight sense of not-quite-supernatural deja vu. ["Fans Can't Stem Their Lust for More 'Blood,' " June 7.] The attraction of that program's blend of Gothic romance with vampires in a serialized format which commands a large and loyal audience, particularly female, is nothing new. It all happened before, back in the 1960s when the late television producer-director Dan Curtis created the spooky ABC daytime drama "Dark Shadows," a pop-culture phenomenon that remains undead decades later on DVD and in an upcoming feature film project starring Johnny Depp.

Corbin Bernsen states: "We were the mirror of that Reagan-Bush, 1980s era of greed and lust . . ." regarding "L.A. Law's" run ("Saying So Long to Billable Hours," May 9). I sure am glad that we have no greed or lust in the White House now. JOHN F. STOPP Apple Valley

Re "Straight Arrows" (May 3): Hugh O'Neill's interpretation of what the Bible says about lust is misleading and inaccurate. He says, "When the guys who wrote the Bible made lust one of the seven deadly sins, they were talking about bad lust. . . . I'm talking about good lust." Jesus Christ made no such distinction in Matthew 5:28: "Whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart." O'Neill further advises men that, "The feelings are not a problem; acting on them is. It's perfectly OK to covet thy neighbor's wife."

With regard to Thomas Cahill's review of "Images of Lust" (The Book Review, March 15): Sheelas--images of lust? Candidates for a Hustler centerfold? The figures show women about to give birth in the squatting position universally favored by primitive cultures. Their faces reflect pain and concentration--not terror and death. Labor contractions pull the skin tightly over their rib bones as they gasp for breath. And their hands--eager to grasp an emerging infant--part the labia, as the climactic moment nears.

Fur, Fortune, and Empire The Epic History of the Fur Trade in America Eric Jay Dolin W.W. Norton, 444 pp., $29.95 In "Company of Adventurers," the first of a three-part history of the Hudson's Bay Co., Peter C. Newman wrote: "Seldom has an animal exercised such a profound influence on the history of a country. Men defied oceans and hacked their way across North America; armies and navies clashed under the polar moon; an Indian civilization was debauched — all in quest of the pug-nosed rodent with the lustrous fur."

Lust & Larceny: Noir City 12th Annual Festival of Film Noir Where: American Cinematheque, Egyptian Theatre, 6712 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood When: Friday through April 18 Price: $11 general admission; $9 seniors 65 and older and students with I.D. and $7 for Cinematheque members Contact: www.egyptiantheatre.com or www.american Schedule: Friday at 7:30 p.m.: "Cry Danger," "Hot Spot" Saturday at 7:30 p.m.: "Red Light," "Johnny Angel" Sunday at 7:30 p.m.

"Chloe" is a conundrum. Envisioned as a psychosexual thriller about a woman scorned, director Atom Egoyan's latest puzzle is just puzzling, little more than a messy affair with mood lighting, sexy lingerie, heavy breathing and swelling, um, music. Everyone here is dripping with money, lust and anxiety, all to bad effect. Julianne Moore is Catherine, a successful Ob-Gyn who suspects husband David (Liam Neeson), a college music professor, of something more than a pedagogical interest in one of his students.

We've known for a long time that many members of the Legislature were in bed with electric utilities. But until the lurid crowing of Assemblyman Michael Duvall (R-Yorba Linda), we thought the expression was only figurative. Duvall resigned Wednesday after a videotape surfaced in which he boasted to an Assembly colleague in graphic detail about two sexual affairs. Duvall, who is married, apparently was unaware that a microphone in front of him was still turned on during a break in a committee meeting in July.

I read your article on the hit HBO series "True Blood" with a slight sense of not-quite-supernatural deja vu. ["Fans Can't Stem Their Lust for More 'Blood,' " June 7.] The attraction of that program's blend of Gothic romance with vampires in a serialized format which commands a large and loyal audience, particularly female, is nothing new. It all happened before, back in the 1960s when the late television producer-director Dan Curtis created the spooky ABC daytime drama "Dark Shadows," a pop-culture phenomenon that remains undead decades later on DVD and in an upcoming feature film project starring Johnny Depp.

The bomb that shattered the living room left carnage in its wake. The floor is slick with blood, tattered bodies litter the room, entrails dangle from the ceiling and an unrecognizable mass of goo stuck to the wall erratically spurts jets of mauve blood.

Your article on the death penalty ("Degraded by a Lust for Death," by William J. Wood, Op-Ed Page, Feb. 7) is not only outrageous but also insulting. How dare you characterize proponents of capital punishment as having a "lust for death"? Your sanctimonious opposition doesn't give you the right to slander those with whom you disagree! Furthermore, Father Wood's hand-wringing discourse adds nothing to the debate over capital punishment. I was astounded to read that "our democratic experiment is such a failure that we have to resort to legalized killing in order to protect ourselves," and that violent crimes "are symptomatic of a very dysfunctional society."

"Chloe" is a conundrum. Envisioned as a psychosexual thriller about a woman scorned, director Atom Egoyan's latest puzzle is just puzzling, little more than a messy affair with mood lighting, sexy lingerie, heavy breathing and swelling, um, music. Everyone here is dripping with money, lust and anxiety, all to bad effect. Julianne Moore is Catherine, a successful Ob-Gyn who suspects husband David (Liam Neeson), a college music professor, of something more than a pedagogical interest in one of his students.

It's every adolescent's fantasy: Meet a fascinating, remarkably pale member of the opposite sex, fall in love, then realize that he or she is a full-on, blood-guzzling vampire.

In better days, diamonds may have been a girl's best friend. But in such dark economic times, it's friends that are a girl's best friend -- especially if you can raid their closets. Clothing swaps are growing in popularity, and for good reason. The events, where people donate clothes they no longer wear and walk away with items they never even knew they wanted, provide a shopping high without the buyer's remorse, a wardrobe refresher without the plastic. In an era when people with money aren't spending it, and people who don't have much are hoarding it, clothing swaps are a cost-free cure for clothing lust, which, despite the ever-declining economy, is a difficult sin to swear off, even if most of us have more than enough to wear.