Minimalism

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 ?

An Aurora Las Encinas Hospital employee has filed a whistleblower lawsuit against the owners of the Pasadena mental hospital, alleging that top company officials have defrauded the federal government by providing "minimal, substandard care" to patients. The lawsuit, filed last year under seal in U.S. District Court, recently was made public. The suit marks the latest in a series of complaints about care at the psychiatric hospital known for decades as a destination for wealthy and famous patients seeking mental health help and treatment for alcohol and drug abuse.

The best-dressed celebrities at Sunday's Golden Globes got the message that simpler is almost always better when it comes to red carpet dressing. Simple also happens to be what's new in fashion now, with "minimalism" being the watchword for the last two runway seasons. Claire Danes was the big red-carpet winner in a neon pink silk halter gown by designer Francisco Costa for Calvin Klein. Costa also designed Emma Stone's cap-sleeved, open-back, nectar-colored silk crepe gown, which was so simple, sleek and confident that it made much of the rest of the night's apparel look overdone and duded-up.

Nearly a decade after California legislators passed the nation's first paid family leave law, researchers say the downside for businesses has been minimal while thousands of families have seen their working lives improve. Men are spending more time with their newborns. Women are breastfeeding more. And workers who take family leave enjoy their jobs more. Those are some of the conclusions of a new study by Eileen Applebaum, senior economist at the Center for Economic Policy and Research in Washington, and Ruth Milkman, professor of sociology at UCLA and City University of New York.

For much of the 1960s in the state of Wisconsin, there was a shared deity. There was the incumbent and there was Vince Lombardi. It was a time of bobby socks and crew cuts, of Edsels and Cadillacs with fish-like tail fins. Everybody smoked, drank brandy at parties, bought snow tires in October and looked forward to Friday night fish fries. Everybody also worshiped Lombardi's Green Bay Packers. As in all small pro sports markets, Wisconsin fans were both protective and paranoid about their teams.

We have a rule in our house: My wife and I will always pony up for books. It's not even a subject of discussion ? if either of our kids wants a book, we will buy it, no questions asked. This is equally true of the books we have at home, which are equally available to everyone, regardless of subject matter or degree of difficulty. Whatever else they are, after all, books are gifts (for the mind, the eye, the hand), which makes it downright uncharitable to deny them to anyone. This, I should say, is how I was raised too, in a house full of books, by parents who put a premium on the written word.

The films of Argentinian director Lisandro Alonso take the form of silent, solitary journeys. His fourth feature, "Liverpool" (2008), which Kino International is releasing on DVD this week, both revisits and expands on the template of his previous films, which have sent reticent loners on rugged treks through desolate landscapes. Here, the protagonist is a merchant sailor named Farrel (Juan Fernández), a stoic man with an air of inscrutability and a vodka bottle in his duffel bag. Granted shore leave in Ushuaia ?

Thanksgiving travelers have a lot to digest this year, and we're not just talking turkey. More of us are taking to the skies than last year at this time, experts say. Aside from the usual holiday hassles of jammed jets and fickle winter weather, we'll be navigating new body scanners and pat-down procedures at airport security checkpoints. Here's how to keep Turkey Day travel worries from gobbling up your fun and finances: Crowded planes: Airlines expect to handle 3.5% more passengers during this year's Thanksgiving holiday season than they did last year, filling nearly 90% of their seats on peak days (this year, Nov. 19, 24, 28 and 29)

Two of the Democrats' most prominent political strategists gave a withering verdict on President Obama's performance in the midterm election campaign, describing his message as utterly out of touch with the pain voters are enduring in the economic downturn. James Carville and Stanley Greenberg, both former advisors to ex- President Bill Clinton, said Thursday that Obama wrongly tried to paint the economy as making a comeback worthy of an election day reward – an assessment that didn't ring true to the average voter.

News of the "Twinkies diet" is hard to swallow – especially amid all the recent angst about marketing fast food to kids . To top it off, the news comes from an unusual source. [ For the record, 2:35 p.m. Nov. 9: An earlier version of this post incorrectly said Mark Haub was a professor at the University of Kansas. He is from Kansas State University.] Mark Haub, a nutrition professor at Kansas State University, went on a convenience store junk food diet of Twinkies, Nutty Bars, Little Debbies and other sweets to see whether weight loss was all about calorie counting, no matter the calories, CNN reports . In two months, Haub says he lost 27 pounds, lowered his body mass index and even lowered his level of "bad cholesterol.