Mold

The job started with a water leak - and ended in the total remodel of the 1,800-square-foot Malibu town house. Jackie Gould, who had lived in the beachfront home since 1976, called Erla Dögg Ingjaldsdóttir and Tryggvi Thorsteinsson, the husband-and-wife principals of the Santa Monica architecture firm Minarc, and asked them to help with a little repair work related to the leak. "Mold-proof me," she remembered saying. But it wasn't so easy. "The place was basically taken over by mold - the whole building, including the furniture," Thorsteinsson said.

A 14-year-old hamburger -- seemingly perfectly preserved, looking like it just hopped off the grill -- has left McDonald's with a lot of explaining to do. The fast-food chain says the apparent lack of mold or disintegration is actually no big deal, and suggests that the burger's pristine appearance -- assuming it's not a prank -- is likely the result of dehydration, and not funky preservatives. The hamburger has been in the headlines of late, most recently on "The Doctors.

It's not easy to bring up slippery plasmodia and foul-smelling toadstools in art world cocktail party conversation. Such is the dilemma of a fungi enthusiast. But this weekend, Machine Project launches a two-week mycological affair that brazenly celebrates mushrooms, molds and other members of the oft-maligned fungus kingdom. "The stranger it was, the more excited he got about the project," says mushroom hunter and FungiFest co-curator David Fenster, about pitching the exhibit to Machine Project director Mark Allen.

Black particles floating in medication; rust and mold in "clean rooms" where injectable drugs are packaged, workers handling sterile products with bare hands. These were among the major violations a team of U.S. Food and Drug Administration inspectors uncovered recently after investigating 31 drug compounding pharmacies -- a special sweep undertaken in the wake of a deadly outbreak of meningitis spread by tainted drugs. None of the compounding pharmacies was in California. "It may surprise some people to know that, even in light of recent tragic events, some of our firms still challenge our authority to conduct full inspections of their facilities," said Dr. Margaret Hamburg, commissioner of the FDA. Results of the sweep were announced late this week.

Texas Rep. Ron Paul slammed Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney on Sunday, saying they were inconsistent politicians who represent the status quo. “They come from the same mold,” he said on “Meet the Press.” “They're about the same. They're both on the defensive, they're both explaining themselves … Why should we have a nominee that is going to spend most of the their time explaining themselves and deciding what position they were on and when?” ( Watch video below. ) “I think if you are consistent it speaks for itself,” Paul said.

The glob a Florida woman found in her daughter's Capri Sun juice pouch was not human tissue. It wasn't a frog, a cow eyeball or anything else quite as gross. It was mold, formed after air got into a damaged package, and it wasn't harmful, according to Kraft Foods Inc., maker of the drink. The unpleasant finding by Melissa Wiegand Brown went viral after she posted photographs of the oval, skin-like mass on her Facebook page, representing the power of the Internet. Reports of the monster mold spread via blogs and began to dominate Kraft's Facebook page, where some posters expressed not just horror at the photos but also outrage at what they perceived to be the company's slow response to the Memorial Day weekend issue.

Leaky plumbing, roofs and windows and improper property drainage can result in rot and mold when water gets where it's not supposed to be ("Just a Patch or a Plague?" by Janet Eastman [July 10]). This is often the result of improper construction and building code violations. It is not the fault of homeowners, but blaming them has become a convenient cop-out for builders and insurance companies that well know the difference between a little mold in the shower and mold inside walls from construction defects.

Regarding "Mold" by Diane Wender, Dec. 16, and other letters following the article: Some of the comments have been pretty scary. For homeowners and home buyers, don't think that as soon as you see mold, it will cost you a fortune. It may not. However, you should have it checked out by a qualified home inspector or inspection company. Being a real estate agent, more than once I have begun a transaction on a home that has mold, most recently in a condo association, and the association is taking care of the remediation.

A 14-year-old hamburger -- seemingly perfectly preserved, looking like it just hopped off the grill -- has left McDonald's with a lot of explaining to do. The fast-food chain says the apparent lack of mold or disintegration is actually no big deal, and suggests that the burger's pristine appearance -- assuming it's not a prank -- is likely the result of dehydration, and not funky preservatives. The hamburger has been in the headlines of late, most recently on "The Doctors.

Fears that mold has infiltrated Leonardo da Vinci's Codex Atlanticus, the largest collection of drawings and writings by the Renaissance master, are groundless, officials said Tuesday. The Biblioteca Ambrosiana in Milan, Italy, where the roughly 1,120-page Codex is housed, said a microbiologic analysis of the document excludes "a biological onslaught." Some scholars warned last year that the Codex, which contains drawings and writings from 1478 to 1519 on topics ranging from flying machines to weapons, mathematics and botany, had been infiltrated by mold.

When the Edward H. Ackerman American Legion Post 397 in Hellertown closed in 2008, the public story was that the aging building had become too expensive to maintain. In a sense, that was true, but one of the reasons it had become too expensive was because the post's treasurer had embezzled tens of thousands of dollars, diverting membership dues into his own pocket and forging signatures to cash checks. The post also owed back federal payroll taxes. The sad details of that episode don't need to be recounted.

Larry Hill is the dean of a small network of dog trainers who are out to save the bully breeds - pit bulls, mastiffs and Rottweilers - of South Los Angeles. His specialty is tough dogs in tough neighborhoods. In his professional work and monthly free classes, he takes lunging, yelping masses of dog flesh and molds them into gentle companions. Hill's mantra is there is nothing wrong with the dogs. It's the owners who have the problem, as I discovered one Saturday morning at St. Andrews Recreation Center in Gramercy Park.

The job started with a water leak - and ended in the total remodel of the 1,800-square-foot Malibu town house. Jackie Gould, who had lived in the beachfront home since 1976, called Erla Dögg Ingjaldsdóttir and Tryggvi Thorsteinsson, the husband-and-wife principals of the Santa Monica architecture firm Minarc, and asked them to help with a little repair work related to the leak. "Mold-proof me," she remembered saying. But it wasn't so easy. "The place was basically taken over by mold - the whole building, including the furniture," Thorsteinsson said.

SACRAMENTO - The smell of the blossoms had drawn Mike Williams to the rose garden sometime after midnight. Capitol Park security guards were scarce at that hour, and he hoped to get a little sleep. At 60, the medical technology inventor and entrepreneur was homeless, his money gone, his 28-year marriage over. But on that August night, things got worse: Williams was awakened by brutal kicks to his midsection. The thieves grabbed his backpack and laptop - which he'd been using to chronicle his unexpected journey.

Josh Gad, who was nominated for a Tony for "The Book of Mormon," is the co-creator and effectively the star of "1600 Penn," a new single-camera sitcom from NBC about the first family. It gets a preview Monday night to draft off "The Voice" before taking up a Thursday post in January. As in Comedy Central's "That's My Bush!" more than two election cycles back, the big idea is to stock the White House with characters familiar from a thousand years of situation comedy. We get a gruff and grumpy dad, the president (Bill Pullman)

My old friend Michael Ruhlman has come up with a terrific holiday gift not only for cookbook readers but for cookbook writers. Always out in front of the technological curve, Ruhlman and his photographer wife, Donna Turner Ruhlman, have just released a mini-cookbook for the iPad called “The Book of Schmaltz: A Love Song to a Forgotten Fat” (perfect timing, no? There are still four days of Hanukkah left). It's gorgeous. If for some reason you never thought frying chicken fat could be made beautiful, you really need to check this out. Especially on the iPad, the colors just glow.

Broke the Mold, ridden by Alex Solis, rallied in the final quarter-mile to win Wednesday's $82,550 feature race for 3-year-olds at Santa Anita. Broke the Mold finished three-quarters of a length in front of Irish, ridden by Walter Guerra. Exemplary Leader, coupled with Broke the Mold in the wagering, was another 1 3/4 lengths back. The winner was clocked in 1:49 for 1 1/8 miles on the turf.

Regarding 'Mold' by Diane Wedner, Dec. 16: Having administered the removal of mold-infected wallboard from a new 10-story office building in Burbank ($4 million) and a 13-story hotel in Anaheim ($7 million) within the past year, I can safely offer the following additional advice to property owners and managers: 1. When water penetrates the walls of your building, the worst action is no action. Mold will often begin to form inside the wall space within two to four weeks. When mold growth presents itself on visible interior walls, it usually means that heavy mold growth is already present in inner wall cavities.

Is there a pattern about to be broken? These things can be so hard to do. General Manager Ned Colletti just loves his journeymen backup catchers - Dioner Navarro, Brad Ausmus, Gary Bennett, Rod Barajas, Mike Lieberthal, Sandy Alomar, and of course, Matt Treanor. Like it's a requirement. Something to cross off his annual winter check list. It's understandable, really. A team needs a dependable, veteran catcher it can count on to put behind the plate once a week or so, and feel confident the staff is in capable hands.

Nebraska quarterbacks have long fit a specific mold, one that requires certain characteristics: Athletic, durable, adept at the option pitch, able to lead a run-first, -second and -third offense. You won't find "ability to pass" high on that list. A pass once in a while just to keep the defense honest? Maybe. But that's about as far as it usually goes in Lincoln. Taylor Martinez was a classic fit the past two seasons. He's trying to break out of that mold in 2012 — and he's off to quite a start.