Mood

Manny Hamelburg, 68, a retired businessman, had fought prostate cancer for years. First, he tried radiation, then a drug with side effects that nearly killed him, and finally Lupron, a drug that blocks production of testosterone, the hormone that can fuel prostate cancer. The cancer disappeared. But life was miserable. Without normal levels of testosterone, Hamelburg says, he had no energy, and "zero libido for seven years. I was like a eunuch. I was chemically castrated. Sex was just hugs."

After last year's season finale of "The Killing" generated howls of indignation, the show's blindsided creative team began worriedly plotting to win back their audience. What if the show's central mystery was answered — something implicitly promised in its first season promotional campaign "Who killed Rosie Larsen?" — in the opening episode of the new season, which begins April 1? After lengthy discussions, executives at AMC and the show's production company, Fox Television Studios, ultimately decided against the highly unusual step, according to a person familiar with those talks who was not authorized to speak about them publicly.

Aries (March 21-April 19): You may fall behind, but get back in step as soon as you are able. It is impossible to tell how great you are when things come too easily. Taurus (April 20-May 20): Whatever mood you strike, it gets magnified about a hundred times by the afternoon. Gemini (May 21-June 21): You have an audience, and they have expectations. You'll give them what they want, but not in the way they think it will happen. Cancer (June 22-July 22)

Your smartphone: It's not just for texting, tweeting, waging war against little green pigs and - oh, right - calling people. It's also for making yourself a happier, less stressed-out, more self-aware person. Really, there's an app for that. Any number of apps. They come with names like Mood Swing and CBTReferee and BrainFreqz, and at their best, they offer users "'treatment' in the palm of their hand," says Dr. John Luo, an associate clinical professor of psychiatry at UCLA.

J. Paul Reddam might not be the type of businessman for whom people suffering through the recession can bring themselves to root. Reddam, 56, is president of Anaheim-based CashCall, the mortgage refinancing and high-interest personal loan company who critics say has unfairly capitalized upon people's financial woes during the country's economic and employment crisis. But the Sunset Beach resident is also owner of Kentucky Derby winner I'll Have Another, who could provide horse racing with a huge shot in the arm Saturday with a victory in the Preakness Stakes at Pimlico.

Last week, news of Jared Paul Stern's Page Six payola scandal rippled through New York's media circles with all the force of an 800-pound bomb. The story has all the stranger-than-fiction twists you could ask for: media figures accused of Mafia-like strong-arm tactics, boldfaced names in compromising positions -- and at its core is a terrific Los Angeles story, hinging on a Southland billionaire and with tantalizing implications about the entertainment industry's backroom dealings.

In the Mood and Critic's Notebook have the week off. They will return Jan. 18.

There's a lot you can read about on Twitter — including, it now appears, the patterns of human moods. After analyzing two years' worth of tweets by 2.4 million people around the world, researchers at Cornell University have concluded that individuals wake up happy but that their mood deteriorates as the day progresses. That discovery, among others reported Thursday in the journal Science, will interest researchers who are trying to understand how circadian rhythms and other natural influences shape our states of mind.

Diary of a mad sports fan: Dear Diary, While buying beer at Angel Stadium last week, I was actually carded, another miracle in a baseball season that seems ripe with them. I'm 52, going on 102, and there is nothing young about me except maybe my bridgework. Oh, and my love of a festive ballpark. That night, Angel Stadium looked like Oz as we exited the 57, lighted as if by Spielberg. Me and the kid (my human rally monkey) were the last ones to arrive -- three stop-and-go hours from Pasadena; we should have walked.

If you're suffering from chronic systolic heart failure, tai chi may help. Although it may not improve your performance on a six-minute walk test, it will probably improve your mood, your daily activity and quality of life, according to a new study published online Monday in the Archives of Internal Medicine. Researchers from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital looked at 100 patients diagnosed with systolic heart failure.

Anyone who's had a bad day, then flipped the car radio on and caught the first notes of a favorite song knows how quickly music can lift the spirits. But can that momentary burst of musical power be tapped more strategically to make you a better, happier, more productive person? All that and more, say the psychologist-entrepreneur authors of the new book "Your Playlist Can Change Your Life. " Like sex, drugs or really good food, music causes the brain to release dopamine, a brain chemical key to addiction and motivation.

Cities are adding more special lanes and other bicycle infrastructure. The economy is improving, and higher gas prices are prompting people to think more about using bicycles for commuting and quick errands. Such positive trends are helping bolster a small cadre of crafts people who still build bicycles by hand. That's why the mood was upbeat at the industry's annual North American Handmade Bicycle Show, which concluded Sunday. More than 8,000 people attended the three-day affair in Sacramento, ogling the fancy polished and carved lugs, or sleeves that join bicycle tubes together; bicycle bags that would hold their own in a Coach store; and exotic bike frames made from bamboo, wood and other materials.

Among the fascinating outgrowths of the Facebook phenomenon are the psychological studies on what Facebook tells us about human behavior. One new study, published in the journal Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking , suggests that people experience an uptick in mood when they are on social networking sites. In the study, researchers exposed 30 healthy people to a slide show, the person's own Facebook account or a mathematical test. During each three-minute exposure, the participants underwent tests to measure several physiological processes, such as brain-wave activity, blood flow, pulse, respiration and pupil dilation, and other tests that indicated changes in mood and stress.

Dolores Merino of Los Angeles was on vacation in Cuba early this month when she came across these women in old Havana who brightened the mood.    

It may be the holiday season, but the public mood is grumpy. Californians are dispirited, especially about the state's direction and their own pocketbooks as the inequality gap between haves and have-nots steadily widens. Consider the views of people surveyed by the Public Policy Institute of California and reported last week: — Two-thirds of voters believe the state is headed in the wrong direction. That's up 11 percentage points from February. — Despite signs of slow economic recovery in California, two-thirds of voters think the state is headed for bad times next year.

The economy might be showing glimmers of hope, but don't expect one casualty of the recession - the company-sponsored holiday party - to bounce back any time soon. Under pressure to cut spending, many companies have cut out the catered lunches or off-campus bashes for employees and gone to potlucks instead - or nothing at all. Executive search firm Amprop Battalia Winston, which has been doing holiday office party surveys for more than two decades, found that in 2006, 95% of the companies it surveyed were planning an employee fete.

Fear and panic may finally be taking their summer vacation. The mood in financial markets worldwide brightened this week, no doubt to the great relief of the major central banks, which have been trying to halt a deepening credit crunch by pumping huge sums into the banking system. Never underestimate what hundreds of billions of dollars can do to make Wall Street feel better, at least for a time. The Dow Jones industrial average rallied nearly 143 points Friday to close at 13,378.

Could there be more to a chronic tanner's addiction than the allure of honey-colored skin? Researchers at Wake Forest University report that habitual tanners may be drawn to tanning salons because the ultraviolet light produces a "relaxing" effect. Their study is published in the July issue of the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology. "I ask my patients who come in with mottled, rubbery skin, 'Why are you doing this?' " said Dr.

A day after American Airlines parent company AMR Corp. filed for bankruptcy protection last week, the airline announced it had chosen a swanky interior for 10 new planes it plans to add to its fleet in 2012 and 2013. Despite its financial woes, American said it is pushing ahead with a massive modernization effort. The new Boeing 777-300ER jets the airline will acquire in the next two years are in addition to 460 narrow-body planes that American ordered in July. The 777 jets will include lie-flat seats in first- and business-class sections, mood lighting and a walk-up bar stocked with snacks and drinks, the airline said.

To its many issues — dysfunction, occasionally impaired judgment, an inability to get things done — Congress can add one more: Low self-esteem. Following yet another failure to come up with a plan to reduce deficits, the mood on Capitol Hill has switched from frustration and disillusionment to open self-loathing. Few came forward to defend the "super committee's" decision to deadlock rather than agree to a deal on the deficit. Congressional staffers, an idealistic bunch by nature, bemoaned another miserable end to a miserable task.