Moat

I wish I was Tom Brady. Not because he has movie-star looks, a supermodel wife and three Super Bowl rings. He has a moat. That's right, a moat. How cool is that? Oh, and it just happens to surround the new $20-million, 22,000-square-foot mansion Brady and wife Gisele Bundchen have built in Brentwood, which we peasants can actually view in the video below from the Detroit Free Press. I'm not sure if the moat has alligators or piranhas swimming in it. Probably. The lavish property also includes a gigantic pool, so there's no need to splash around in the moat (as tempting as that might be)

I wish I was Tom Brady. Not because he has movie-star looks, a supermodel wife and three Super Bowl rings. He has a moat. That's right, a moat. How cool is that? Oh, and it just happens to surround the new $20-million, 22,000-square-foot mansion Brady and wife Gisele Bundchen have built in Brentwood, which we peasants can actually view in the video below from the Detroit Free Press. I'm not sure if the moat has alligators or piranhas swimming in it. Probably. The lavish property also includes a gigantic pool, so there's no need to splash around in the moat (as tempting as that might be)

A young boy was mauled to death by two polar bears after closing hours Tuesday at the Prospect Park Zoo in Brooklyn and authorities at first feared that the animals had devoured two other youngsters. But the two other youths were later located by police and were unharmed, according to wire service reports. The two bears were slain by repeated blasts from police shotguns. The dead boy, identified as Juan Perez, 11, of Brooklyn, was partially devoured by the bears.

A police officer was put on administrative leave Thursday over a traffic stop involving an NFL player whom he kept in a hospital parking lot and threatened to arrest while his mother-in-law died inside the building. Officer Robert Powell also drew his gun during the March 18 incident involving Houston Texans running back Ryan Moats in the Dallas suburb of Plano, police said. "I can screw you over," he said at one point in the videotaped incident.

Police have apprehended a Western man who went skinny-dipping in a moat ringing the Imperial Palace in a busy Tokyo business district, attracting a huge crowd. The naked middle-aged man jumped into the moat, then threw rocks and splashed water at two police officers who chased him in a rowboat, a police official said. The official did not know the man's name or nationality. Public broadcaster NHK and Kyodo News agency said the man is believed to be a 40-year-old Briton living in Spain who visited the moat with several Spanish friends.

I enjoyed the article on the Golden Isles of Georgia ("Where Old Money Played," June 7), but, as a history buff, was disappointed that no mention was made of the highlight of my two visits to the islands: Ft. Frederica on St. Simons Island, an earthwork fortification constructed in 1736 by Gen. James Oglethorpe, founder of the Georgia colony, and English settlers. The location of the moat, which was built to prevent incursions from the south by the Spanish and which surrounded the fort, is still visible, and the munitions storage building, made of "tabby," a mixture of lime, sand and oyster shells, is still partially intact.

Re "A White House Moat: The Clear Symbolism," editorial, May 22: I predict a more optimistic future than you, and that the White House "moat" is only a five- to eight-year fixture. Yes, we have too many guns, too many seriously disturbed people, too much hate talk, too many people appealing to the baser motives of people and succeeding. The fanatic lurch to the right in religion and politics is no accident. It happens every thousand years. By the turn of the century, the right-wing wackos will realize that Jesus didn't arrive, the end of the world they predicted was upon us didn't happen and they will return to the dark holes of fear and superstition from whence they came.

Scott Moats, a 17-year-old from Chula Vista, is among 48 bowlers set to compete Saturday and Sunday in the California Junior Scratch Bowling Tournament in Frenso. Moats earned his spot by placing third out of 106 competitors at a Southern California qualifying meet which took place on April 13 and 14 at Cabrillo Bowl in Chula Vista. Moats averaged 204 over 24 games. Robert Ellison, 20, of San Carlos, placed 13th at last weekend's tournament with a 194 average.

I love the sound of the bone against the plate and the fortress-like look of it lying before me in a moat of risotto, the meat soft as the leg of an angel who has lived a purely airborne existence. And best of all, the secret marrow, the invaded privacy of the animal prized out with a knife and wallowed down with cold, exhilarating wine.

A 51-year-old elephant at the San Diego Zoo had to be put to death because of injuries she suffered after falling headfirst into a concrete moat, officials said. Maya, an Asian elephant who was the oldest mammal at the zoo, apparently suffered torn ligaments in her legs Sunday as she tried to climb out of the moat surrounding her enclosure, said zoo spokesman Jeff Jouett.

Police have apprehended a Western man who went skinny-dipping in a moat ringing the Imperial Palace in a busy Tokyo business district, attracting a huge crowd. The naked middle-aged man jumped into the moat, then threw rocks and splashed water at two police officers who chased him in a rowboat, a police official said. The official did not know the man's name or nationality. Public broadcaster NHK and Kyodo News agency said the man is believed to be a 40-year-old Briton living in Spain who visited the moat with several Spanish friends.

THERE'S A new chateau rising on Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood. SBE Group is opening a restaurant named XIV with chef Michael Mina this fall in the space that once housed the entertainment company's nightclub Privilege (just down the street from Chateau Marmont). A multimillion-dollar renovation will evoke a "European chateau" -- designed, of course, by Philippe Starck.

John McCain was in his element: a crowded town-hall meeting in an open-air Fort Myers, Fla., seafood restaurant. He strolled from one side of the room to the other with a microphone in one hand, jabbing his finger in the air as he called for honorable victory in Iraq and better veterans healthcare. When a heckler shouted "4,000 American dead!" and "Bring them home!" McCain paused and asked him to wait his turn.

This Normandy-style home in Hancock Park has many of the trappings of a storybook castle. Adorned with a coat of arms, it has a "Juliet" balcony overlooking the living room, a Baroque-style fireplace, a lookout tower and a gatehouse. A drawbridge leads to a guesthouse. Earl Le Moine constructed the manse for his wife in 1926, and now the third set of owners has put the estate on the market.

Malibu's ultimate trophy home, the Castle, is for sale. The good news -- at least for a multitude of charities -- is that its owner, Princess Lilly, as international socialite Lilly Lawrence is known, isn't leaving town. Lawrence has commanded Malibu uber-agent Scotty Brown to find her a hilltop parcel on which to build her next project.

Marty Moates, whose upset victory in the 1980 U.S. Grand Prix of Motocross at Carlsbad Raceway was a landmark moment in American motorcycle racing history, has died. He was 49. Moates, who later became one of the founders of No Fear, a Carlsbad-based sportswear firm, died Thursday night of gunshot wounds in an apparent suicide. He was found in his car by his wife, Heather, near their home in La Costa. Friends said Moates was living in great pain from old motorcycle-related injuries.

At the new Mijouri Sushi Bune in Laguna Niguel, the sushi arrives fresh off the boat--in this case a fleet of handcrafted wooden boats afloat on a miniature moat. The moat surrounds the sushi bar, so you reach out to one of the water-jet-propelled boats and snag your abalone, giant clams, sea eel--whatever. This is the second venture for proprietor James Lee, a Bay Area architect who opened his first boat/moat sushi restaurant in San Francisco two years ago.

This Normandy-style home in Hancock Park has many of the trappings of a storybook castle. Adorned with a coat of arms, it has a "Juliet" balcony overlooking the living room, a Baroque-style fireplace, a lookout tower and a gatehouse. A drawbridge leads to a guesthouse. Earl Le Moine constructed the manse for his wife in 1926, and now the third set of owners has put the estate on the market.

There is a Sherwood Forest in Northridge, and in it, there is a castle. It wasn't always a castle. Until 1992, it was a nondescript house like most of the others in its tract of at least 200 homes built in the 1940s. After more than two years of construction, the house became a castle. It's the only one on its block, although it is now surrounded by other upscale residences.

Cameron Diaz, who returned to voice the character of Princess Fiona in "Shrek 2" this year, has purchased a home in the Hollywood Hills for $2.7 million. The actress bought a gated, one-story traditional-style house with three bedrooms and 3 1/2 bathrooms in about 2,800 square feet. The home, built in the '50s, also has a guesthouse and city views. Diaz, 32, first appeared in a feature film as the torch-singing moll in "The Mask" (1994).