Minimalism

The AMC drama "Mad Men," which paints a gin-soaked, cigarette-stained, ulcer-inducing picture of Manhattan's advertising industry circa 1960, is a period-perfect re-creation of the past, colored by the emerging trends of the present: When those hard-driving executives leave their masculine Modern office suites, they go home to the feminine Colonial Revival homes of suburbia. Call it an antidote to the midcentury minimalism that has become so prevalent in Los Angeles home design today.

It isn't easy to keep from singing a few praises from the Opera collection by the Boyd Lighting Co. of San Francisco. This collection is dramatic and bold yet fluid and graceful as an aria. The Rigoletto wall sconce, designed by Orlando Diaz-Azcuy, has strong lines with a gently sculpted arm that sweeps gracefully upward. At the end of the arm, there is one of three handmade lamp shades (red Thai silk, white Pongee silk or an ecru opaque paper) or a softly etched glass cylinder.

One of the mysteries of the recession is why mortgage lenders haven't tried harder to avert foreclosures. Because property values have plummeted in once-sizzling markets, lenders that repossess a house can lose half or more of the original loan's value. That leaves plenty of room to modify the terms of a loan and still obtain a better return on the lender's investment. Yet the number of loans going into foreclosure continues to mount, and the number of homes repossessed and sold this year is almost as high as it was a year ago. The latest evidence arrived last week, when the Treasury Department reported that a new federal program for troubled borrowers had benefited only 9% of the eligible homeowners.

The latest fad in the frou-frou world of pampering isn't a new thermal seaweed wrap, mud bath or cucumber-infused mineral water. It's doing away with them. For years, typical treatments at elite spa establishments could easily run $125 or more for a one-hour massage. The new normal: Less than $50, and sometimes as low as 20 bucks. "It's no longer an indulgence," said Candy Boroditsky, 65, after receiving a $49, 50-minute Swedish massage at Massage Envy in Marina del Rey. "It used to be people who made a certain amount of money ?