Near Miss

I was appalled that you would devote so much time and space to maligning the great unwashed for "misusing" the compound word "near-miss" (Editorial, July 27). According to my dictionary, "Near-miss--n. Hit, nearly." It has meant thus since the earliest days of aerial bombing when there were not enough aircraft to pose collision dangers. So what is the big deal? L.D. SMITHEY Pacific Palisades

During a recent interview with England's Daily Mail newspaper, Steven Spielberg revealed his one-time desire to direct a James Bond movie. "I went to [Bond producer] Cubby Broccoli and asked if I could do one and he said: 'No,'" Spielberg told the paper . "I've never asked again. " It worked out OK for Spielberg; he went on to direct the first film in his own globe-trotting franchise, "Raiders of the Lost Ark. " But what if Spielberg had directed a Bond film? What would that have looked like?

A jumbo jet approaching John F. Kennedy Airport missed a commuter plane by 100 feet Sunday, while in another incident a commercial jet reported coming within 400 yards of a private plane near a suburban airport. In the first near-miss, a TWA 747 jumbo jet on a flight from London came within 100 feet of a turboprop commuter plane, said Kathleen Bergen, a spokeswoman for the Federal Aviation Administration. Both planes were being monitored by air traffic controllers and preparing to land at Kennedy, she said.

WASHINGTON - Before the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill, BP and drilling rig owner Transocean focused their safety efforts on curtailing worker injury rather than preventing catastrophic well blowouts, all but ignoring critical lessons from two near-misses just before the Deepwater Horizon explosion, according to a new federal investigation of the disaster. The report issued Tuesday by the Chemical Safety Board is the latest in a string of federal and independent inquiries into the blowout of BP's Macondo well, which killed 11 workers in the ensuing blast and spewed nearly 5 million barrels of oil into the sea, making it the country's worst offshore environmental accident.

The media need to stop using the "near-miss" phrase. It is misleading and incorrect. A near miss is a hit. If aircraft do not collide, that should be called a near hit. Or the FAA phrase "near mid-air collision" should be used. ADAM M. SANDLER Beverly Hills

Nearly 10% of Nevada's 122,000 slot machines are being retrofitted after a decision by gaming authorities that players were being misled by a "near-miss" feature into thinking they were about to hit jackpots. A computer within the machines was responsible for jackpot symbols appearing much more frequently on the pay line than random selection would dictate, according to testimony at a hearing. But the computer, while tantalizing customers with near-jackpots, does not pay off any more frequently than other machines.

Re the recent article ("Passenger's Air Safety Crusade Born in Terror of Near-Collision," Dec. 2) on air safety and Gregory C. Krug's efforts to find out why neither pilot filed a near-miss report when it was clear that a collision almost occurred on July 24. We cannot expect pilots, whether commercial or private, to police themselves and file near-miss reports when they face possible civil and legal ramifications if they did something wrong!...

During a recent interview with England's Daily Mail newspaper, Steven Spielberg revealed his one-time desire to direct a James Bond movie. "I went to [Bond producer] Cubby Broccoli and asked if I could do one and he said: 'No,'" Spielberg told the paper . "I've never asked again. " It worked out OK for Spielberg; he went on to direct the first film in his own globe-trotting franchise, "Raiders of the Lost Ark. " But what if Spielberg had directed a Bond film? What would that have looked like?

Quite possibly the ugliest 15-point win in the history of UCLA basketball began with a bus trip to bonkers. Every team in the Pac-12 tournament is staying in a hotel across the street from Staples Center, and every team but one simply walks to the arena. Ben Howland's Bruins are the exception. They travel the block by bus. Before their first-round game with USC on Wednesday, Bruins center Josh Smith was four minutes late for that bus. Smith walked across the street and arrived at the locker room before the team, only to discover he was being benched in the first half because he was late for a bus that was, well, later than him. There's something really weird about all this, right?

Every week, some celebrity-connected or luxury properties of note just don't quite make it into the Hot Property   column. Among recent near-misses: The Sunday Home of the Week may have looked vaguely familiar as it was a film location for last year's “Atlas Shrugged Part 1,” which used the rebuilt Victorian home in Piru for some scenes. An estate that recently closed at $21.75 million in gated Beverly Park is leading the big-sales-so-far-this-year race in Los Angeles County among properties on the Multiple Listing Service.

An Emmy nod may be in store for a dark drama about an antihero rising to the top of an all-American industry during a tumultuous historical epoch. And, no, we're not talking about ethically compromised adman Don Draper, bedding his way through the '60s on "Mad Men. " When the Emmy nominations are announced Thursday morning, many TV pundits expect that HBO's "Boardwalk Empire" will land among the six nominees for drama, most likely putting the...

In the final hours of a chaotic presidential campaign in a country that needs no more drama this year, candidate Michel "Sweet Micky" Martelly sent out a "breaking news" announcement: He had survived an assassination attempt by a member of the nation's leading party. His campaign called a news conference in the capital Saturday, and Martelly's cousin ? the manager of a hotel immortalized by Graham Greene as a place where you expect to be greeted by "a maniac butler, with a bat dangling from the chandelier" ?

Afederal report on air safety released Wednesday was notable not only for its conclusion that near misses among planes on the ground are soaring nationwide, but for pointing out that Los Angeles International Airport is the U.S. headquarters of potential disaster. LAX had the most close calls of the country's busiest commercial airports over the last eight years, according to the Government Accountability Office, and the highest number of incidents considered the most severe.

Joe McKnight brought the fire, but don't be blinded by it. This USC team barely smolders. Mark Sanchez brought the cheers -- San-chez, San-chez -- but don't be deafened by them. This USC team is not yet worth shouting about. Those who watched only the fourth quarter of the Trojans' 20-13 escape from Arizona on Saturday will rave about the snapshots of McKnight and Sanchez. But those who witnessed the previous three hours saw the bigger picture. These Trojans are more ordinary than outstanding.

Todd Rogers had been replaying the last four AVP Pro Beach Volleyball tournaments in his head. He and Phil Dalhausser had finished second or third in each of those, which wasn't bad, but not exactly the five victories in six events they posted to start the season. So before the Long Beach Open final Sunday at Marina Green Park, Rogers approached Dalhausser with a game plan: Fire up! It worked.

A small airliner coming in for a landing at Los Angeles International Airport early Friday narrowly missed a helicopter flying about 1,200 feet over the city near La Tijera Boulevard and the 405 Freeway, officials said. An alarm sounded in the cockpit of American Eagle Flight 3034 from Santa Barbara, warning the pilot that he was too close to the helicopter and prompting him to abruptly pull up, said Dave Jackson, a spokesman for American Eagle.