Mud

Bob Baffert and Wayne Lukas were sitting next to each other at a recent racing function when Baffert said to Lukas, "Everyone used to hate you. Now they hate me." It's as clear as a giant flowered hat, and just as ugly. At rowdy Churchill Downs today, the only thing more quietly despised than Bob Baffert will be a Breathalyzer. The 128th Kentucky Derby will feature 19 horses, 150,000 fans, and one villain. Baffert will saddle longshot War Emblem.

Whose stupid idea was this? Stupid mine. In another outbreak of arrested development, I ran a five-kilometer "mud run" the other day, down in toasty Temecula, the kind of place where the wiper blades melt right into your windshield. This was one of those days. By my 9 a.m. race time, it had to be pushing 90. This is my first mud run, and what I immediately like is that as soon as you get a little warm, the course takes a turn and you're splashing across a pond, or bellying through some glop.

Whose stupid idea was this? Stupid mine. In another outbreak of arrested development, I ran a five-kilometer "mud run" the other day, down in toasty Temecula, the kind of place where the wiper blades melt right into your windshield. This was one of those days. By my 9 a.m. race time, it had to be pushing 90. This is my first mud run, and what I immediately like is that as soon as you get a little warm, the course takes a turn and you're splashing across a pond, or bellying through some glop.

                                       HOUSTON -- Texas authorities are investigating the death of a 30-year-old man whose body was recovered Sunday from Dallas-Fort Worth's Trinity River after he disappeared while competing in an outdoor obstacle race called the “Original Mud Run.” It was still unclear Tuesday how Tony Weathers died, investigators said. Staff at the Tarrant County Medical Examiner's Office conducted Weathers' autopsy Monday, but Fort Worth police were still awaiting toxicology results Tuesday, Sgt. Pedro Criado told the Los Angeles Times.

An unexpectedly powerful rainstorm unleashed a torrent of mud that inundated more than 40 houses Saturday, leaving La Cañada Flintridge's northernmost neighborhood awash in boulders, dented cars and broken homes. The force of the mudflow appeared to catch residents and officials off guard, as the forecast initially called for a light to moderate rainstorm. No evacuations had been ordered Thursday or Friday, when the rain began to fall. But before dawn on Saturday, an intense band of rain cells formed over the mountains burned in the massive Station fire.

Neil Dukas knew little about health insurance because he had always been healthy. When he and his wife bought a high-deductible policy in 2008, he didn't know the difference between a deductible and an out-of-pocket limit. He simply assumed that when he needed care, the insurer would cover it. But when he injured his knee in July 2008, Dukas, 50, a professional writer in Larkspur, Calif., discovered how difficult it can be to understand and use insurance benefits and get clear, reliable information from an insurer.

Ryan Braun held a news conference Friday, with his Milwaukee Brewers teammates in attendance, to discuss his  positive drug test in October. After the test results were revealed, he was dealt a 50-game suspension. He took his appeal to an arbitration panel in January and it was sustained Thursday, overruling the suspension. "My name has been dragged through the mud,” said Braun, the reigning National League MVP. “I've lived this nightmare every day for the last four months,” he said in Phoenix.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao on Sunday toured an area in north-central China racked by an avalanche of rain and mud that killed at least 127 people and left hundreds missing, the latest disaster in a summer that has brought the nation's worst flooding in a decade. Wen's visit came as rescue teams franticly searched flooded homes for survivors in Zhouqu county in Gansu province. Authorities were reportedly trying to find 1,300 people, down from an earlier estimate of 2,000.

The heavy rains that unleashed a massive mudslide earlier this month also left nearly 2 million tons of mud in foothill communities -- enough to fill the Rose Bowl twice. With heavy rains forecast for Saturday morning, officials have been working furiously to remove mud from debris basins, giving neighborhoods below the Station fire burn area a measure of protection. Hauling away all that muck requires some science, some logistics and a lot of heavy lifting. It also requires a place to dump the debris.

Costumed runners will splash and crawl through two dozen mud and water obstacles at the Temecula Mud Run April 21. The inaugural event will be at Galway Downs, a 260-acre equestrian events center just east of Temecula off of Highway 79S. Entry fees are $60 for adults and $20 for kids ages 5 - 17. For more information or to sign up, click here . . . . Mountain High Resort in Wrightwood reopens Saturday and Sunday from 9 a.m. to...

There are muddy events for everyone - from 5K to 12 miles, timed and untimed, and somewhat difficult to super difficult. All are very, very dirty. Some of the most popular series: Tough Mudder: 36 races a year, 10 to 12 miles long. Untimed, team-focused events founded by Will Dean, former counter-terrorism agent for British Special Forces. Upcoming California events: July 7-8, Snow Valley Mountain Resort at Running Springs; Sept. 22-23, Truckee; Sept 29-30, Patterson. http://www.toughmudder.com.

Her lips were blue. Her teeth were chattering. Her legs had become dysfunctional logs that could barely walk, much less run. For four hours on a sunless Arizona day in January, with 30-degree windchill over 121/2 miles of steep trails, 28-year-old Keri Dionizio of Fullerton was covered in mud, soaked to the bone and freezing. She had jumped with three teammates off a 30-foot plank into a muddy pond. She'd crawled on hands and knees through water-filled tunnels, scaled 12-foot wooden walls and 40-foot nets, carried a giant log over her shoulder for 100 yards and plunged into a pool of ice water, fighting through 3 feet of giant ice cubes to reach oxygen.

Located in a narrow canyon four miles north of Santa Paula, Mud Creek Ranch combines a historic family homestead, a commercial organic citrus and avocado orchard and a mystery zone where the usual rules of farming do not apply. It is a one-family experiment station where Steven and Robin Smith grow all manner of fruits, from apples to wampees, in some 400 varieties, very likely the most of any vendor at farmers markets. It's a mixed bag, but many are delicious and exotic, like the Tahitian pummelo, now in season, one of the most underappreciated forms of citrus in California.

Ryan Braun held a news conference Friday, with his Milwaukee Brewers teammates in attendance, to discuss his  positive drug test in October. After the test results were revealed, he was dealt a 50-game suspension. He took his appeal to an arbitration panel in January and it was sustained Thursday, overruling the suspension. "My name has been dragged through the mud,” said Braun, the reigning National League MVP. “I've lived this nightmare every day for the last four months,” he said in Phoenix.

Eating Mud Crabs in Kandahar Stories of Food During Wartime by the World's Leading Correspondents Edited by Matt McAllester University of California Press: 214 pp., $27.50

Goodbye annoying, nasty ads, so long dirt-flinging rhetoric and farewell to the constant assault of pounding negative nonsense into our heads minute by minute, hour after hour and month after month. Now we can go back to the really important ads: being brainwashed about being sick and needing every single pill that has been manufactured in the universe for illnesses we never even knew we had. Can't wait. Even that will be a relief after this very long and latest political mud fest.

When the rain started to fall, Janet Blake started to worry. From the picture window of her home, she could see the stream that was once her street become a torrent of stones, branches and mud. The fire was easier, she thought; that was only six days of worry. The possibility of the mountain sliding down upon her is indefinite. Her husband, Brian Hodge, worked in the other room, and Cooper, their yellow lab, stood beside her, his tail merrily striking the ornaments on the Christmas tree.

As I drove away from South Carolina's sea islands, I found myself saying aloud, "If I ever get to heaven, I hope it's a little bit like Kiawah. " It wasn't the golf. I don't play, but I respect the five courses created by master designers, the toughest of which - Pete Dye's Ocean Course - will host the 2012 PGA Championship. In our villa overlooking Jack Nicklaus' Turtle Point course, we could smile at a foursome fudging the rules to hurry their game at dusk. Don't like the ball's position?