Mute

Television viewers are a notoriously dissatisfied bunch, complaining often about lousy programming, foul language, superficiality and assorted other irritations. Although most of these shortcomings are matters of individual taste, on one point viewers are unified: TV commercials are too loud. That complaint has been voiced almost since the dawn of advertiser-supported TV, yet neither broadcasters nor advertisers have put a stop to the volume surges. On Tuesday, the House approved a bill to turn down the advertisers' volume.

Annette Bening, Al Pacino, Ed Harris and several other celebrities helped power a surge in feature film shoots on the streets of Los Angeles last month, but film industry officials were hardly star-struck. Thanks to a flurry of low-budget celebrity-packed pictures, location shoots jumped 74% in April over last year, continuing double-digital gains from the first quarter of the year, according to FilmL.A. Inc., a nonprofit group that handles film permits for the city and the county.

Having learned long ago to have my finger on the mute button when watching any basketball game in which Dick Vitale is involved, I can honestly say that I have no idea whether Howard Rosenberg's column was a parody or a direct quote ("Hey, DV, Gimme Some QT!," Feb. 25). BILL McKIM Sun City

Caught between a bunny and a new girl, the talk of TV this season has been double-X, as in chromosome. What's up with all the women? They're saying "vagina" and going all Count of Monte Cristo! "New Girl" is adork-able (or is she?), "Pan Am" is a female-centric "Mad Men" (or is it?), "The Playboy Club" glamorizes sexism and "Charlie's Angels" is even more ridiculous the second time around! After the 2010-11 season proved dismal for non-males, women came back with a vengeance. We were all so busy talking about the Big Trend that we missed the revolution.

Davis' shortsighted diatribe against "mute" American intellectuals betrayed a fundamental misunderstanding of the intellectual's role in America. American intellectuals battle not in our headlines, but in our homework. The American intellectual has correctly targeted our schools and academies as the battleground of ideas. Our secondary schools and universities, riotously pluralist, rigorously permissive, are so successful at instilling in us a love of free expression that the most arcane censorship issues often end up covered by every major newspaper and magazine in the country.

A mute president is one we can all listen to. STANLEY C. MELLIN Rancho Palos Verdes

I'm Sue-Sue-Sick of Phil Collins and the Grammys. God bless mute buttons on TV sets. At least last year Prince's bodyguards beat some people up. GAGE FREEMAN Glendora

The announcers for the Olympic Festival opening ceremony were not qualified. Susan Anton just blew her own horn. After the flame was lit, Marc Summers announced the lighting of the flame was coming up. Finally, we just put it on mute and enjoyed the show. IDA MICHELANGELO Whittier

"It's the first time he's ever heard anything." --Dr. Jack Pulec, after physicians in Los Angeles completed an operation on the inner ear of Jesus Aguilar, a 10-year-old deaf mute who became an international celebrity after he was found wandering the streets of the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez.

Susan Carpenter McMillan is wrong ("Character Allows Compromise," Commentary, Aug. 8). Gays don't go mute and ignore President Clinton's broken promises because we hope when reelected he will promote an agenda of same-sex marriages and an open military (he may be spineless, but he never flip-flops on a flip-flop). We go mute and ignore his broken promises and will vote for his reelection because we know the courts are our best hope for equal treatment, and have been historically. Clinton's judicial appointments have done more for gay and lesbian equality than Bob Dole or his appointees would ever do. STEVE WAYLAND Los Angeles

After 33 years of piquant and sometimes irascible commentary, 92-year-old Andy Rooney will surrender his regular gig on CBS' legendary newsmagazine "60 Minutes" this weekend. Rooney will sign off with a final piece — his 1,097th — on Sunday's program, preceded by a retrospective segment on his career with longtime colleague Morley Safer, the network said in a news release Tuesday. FOR THE RECORD: A headline on this article says Andy Rooney is 93 years old. He is 92. In addition to his own often attention-grabbing views — he once scolded those who mourned the 1994 suicide of Kurt Cobain by saying he'd never even heard of the Nirvana frontman before then — the beetle-browed Rooney is one of the last on-air links to the glory days of CBS News, when "60 Minutes" regularly topped the ratings and anchorman Walter Cronkite was dubbed "the most trusted man in America.

In the 2008 presidential campaign, some Republican contenders called for millions of people living in the country illegally to return to their native lands before being able to seek legal status. As the next presidential election nears, would-be GOP nominees are emphasizing sympathy for some illegal immigrants, in what is either a strategic feint or a reflection of changed political terrain. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich opened the door to more flexible treatment of illegal immigrants who have been in the United States for decades, obey the law and are married with children.

Southern California's housing market lacked vitality in March, a sign that the year could be lackluster for the region's housing market as shoppers stay on the sidelines despite high affordability. The median price of a home in the Southland was $280,500 in March, a 2% increase from February and a decline of 1.6% from March 2010, according to DataQuick of San Diego. Sales were down 5.2% from March 2010 to 19,412 new and previously owned homes and condos. That tally represented a 35.1% increase from February, though sales typically jump from February to March.

The medical students marched and sweated in protest. "The fear is broken," yelled Bahaa Mohammed. "We want freedom. " "And Islam," said his friend. "We need Islam. " "Yes," said Mohammed, hushing the young man. "But first freedom and the will of the people. " The exchange in the streets of Cairo between the students, both members of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, is a telling glimpse into the Arab world's largest Islamic organization as it joins other opposition groups seeking to overthrow President Hosni Mubarak.

? If it's Friday, it must be London ? and so it was for Gustavo Dudamel. Halfway through a whistle-stop European tour, he found himself on a cold gray morning in the British capital before an orchestra full of young musicians, some hardly bigger than their instruments. With almost no preamble, he launched them into the fourth movement of Beethoven's Symphony No. 7, at the same flying tempo he'd used the night before with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at a sellout performance in London's Barbican Center.

Teachers unions have a well-deserved reputation for exercising political clout. With a nearly unparalleled ability to raise cash and organize their ranks, they have elected school boards, influenced legislation and helped set the public school agenda in major American cities for decades. Now, that clout is in question. A nationwide school reform movement with bipartisan support has collided head-on with unions over three ideas that labor has long resisted: expansion of charter schools, the introduction of merit pay for teachers and the use of student test scores in teacher evaluations.

The fans had the very best right to boo O'Connor off the stage. They paid their way in. Where does it say in the Constitution of the United States of America that only the "offender" has the right of free speech and the offended must stand mute? Is dissent censorship? Or is it only censorship when it is not politically correct? TERRENCE BEASOR Santa Monica

In Maria Elena Fernandez's piece "A 'Dance' Judge in La La Land" (June 29), producer Nigel Lythgoe (referring to "So You Think You Can Dance" judge Mary Murphy ) says, "Whether people like her or hate her, she polarizes an audience . . . but she leaves the audience with an impression." Not in our house -- when her image hits the screen everybody reaches for the mute button simultaneously. Robert McArthur Mar Vista

Although nicely acted and directed, "Cemetery Junction" is a thoroughly unremarkable coming-of-age dramedy that's barely distinguished by its 1973 England setting or by its name supporting cast. Not surprisingly, the film will be on DVD shelves mid-month. Co-written and co-directed by frequent collaborators Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant ("The Office," HBO's "Extras"), this memory piece nominally revolves around a mismatched trio of 20-ish mates navigating young adulthood in their working-class suburb of Cemetery Junction, a town that seems way more acceptable than its crummy reputation here implies.