Nonsense

When I think of actress Lupe Ontiveros, who passed away from liver cancer at 69 Thursday night, what stays with me most is her strength. Her women tended to be strong and resilient, no-nonsense types, whether they were running a theater company as she did in "Chuck & Buck," dealing with a rebellious daughter in "Real Women Have Curves," or picking up after some well-heeled white family, as she did in"The Goonies. "There was a "I have seen it all" quality that danced in her eyes, more bemused by the frailties of the human race than bitter about them.

David Mamet's "American Buffalo" is set in a junk shop, but there are jewels to be found in the play and they are thrillingly laid out for us in the Geffen Playhouse's dynamically acted production directed by Randall Arney. What a pleasure to experience again the ferocious gusto of Mamet's language when it was still being composed for individual characters. Lately, Mamet seems to be writing for his own bullhorn, but this relatively early work, which had its Broadway premiere in 1977, reminds us of the reason his style set off a revolution in American playwriting.

In honor of this year's "eat healthier" resolution, my teenage son and I drove over to a local bakery in the first week of January. On the shop's window, someone had painted the words "Whole-grain bread. " So far, so good. The next line read "No preservatives. " And the third — I did a double take — "Chemical-free. " My son, slouching next to me, heard me inhale and hastily looked for the cause. "Mom," he said urgently. "Mom! Let's just leave quietly. " Of course, he was remembering — and who could really forget?

WASHINGTON - Rocker Ted Nugent heard little to like in President Obama's State of the Union address, dismissing the president's proposals to stem gun violence as "more nonsense. " "Nothing he proposed, or nothing that has been proposed, would have stopped any of the shootings," Nugent told reporters after watching the speech from the House chamber as the guest of a Republican congressman. "Who doesn't know this? Who doesn't know that registration and limitation on magazine capacity and the color of guns has anything to do with saving lives or reducing crime?"

Gov. Jerry Brown has been in office for only about a month, and it's way too early to make a call about his effectiveness. But his decision this week to cancel his predecessor's wrongheaded plans to sell off 11 state-owned office buildings to help balance the budget is a sign that at long last, California may have a leader who puts the state's long-term interests first. Former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's proposal to sell the buildings and then lease the office space back from private owners always struck us as self-destructive, a move we likened in October to a homeowner who sells his appliances, furniture and clothes to pay the mortgage; eventually, with all his assets gone, the bank will foreclose anyway.

Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified School District President Jeffrey Younggren's reference as "this nonsense" (Times, Sept. 10) to the efforts of those who oppose his voting to close Miraleste and to sell Dapplegray and other school properties is a personal affront to me. It must also be an affront to the many other Palos Verdes residents who have collected money and spent considerable time gathering information, preparing analyses and communicating with...

The content of the article on blaxploitation film was utter nonsense. ("Blaxploitation Cinema: Can You Dig it?" Oct. 11) To denigrate Sidney Poitier as if he wasn't black enough to elicit respect for his film career is ridiculous. The impact he had on black pride in the 1950s and 1960s was immeasurable. The actors listed would have been lucky to have shared a frame of film with such an outstanding actor and humanitarian. The story also failed to mention the likes of Forest Whitaker, Jamie Foxx and Don Cheadle.

So John Bennett of North Hollywood enjoyed going to the Extasy club in Northridge for what he feels is healthy, nonviolent and disease-free fun (Letters to the Editor, Valley Edition, Feb. 8)? And he believes that protests from those of us who live near the establishment are nonsense, dreamed up by politicians? I live half a mile from it and was accustomed to taking our young children to the family restaurants nearby. Not any more. What may be fun to a grown man is wholly unsuitable for young children and has no business operating where it does.

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)

Re "We fight, Jenna writes," Opinion, March 19 I can't believe The Times published this Kitty Kelley diatribe. Aside from the valid issue of government support for military veterans, comparing Iraq or Afghanistan with World War II is ridiculous. No Hollywood stars have enlisted recently. Kelley doesn't mention that. Prince Harry will be extremely well-guarded by his own men if or when he goes to Iraq. Kelley's doesn't mention that. She fails to mention that Chelsea Clinton was not sent to the Balkans.

Flaked with offbeat witticisms, cheese ball effects and fanboy splatter gore, the surreal "John Dies at the End" has the vibe of a shaggy dog story, which works both for and against it. Cynical slacker Dave (Chase Williamson) meets jaded journalist Arnie (Paul Giamatti) to tell him about a powerful street drug called "soy sauce. " After Dave and buddy John (Rob Mayes) have ingested the substance, they find themselves on an adventure involving co-opted life-forms, mind reading and dimension-traveling insects.

Dear Abby: "What would you do with a man who refuses to use a deodorant, seldom bathes, and doesn't even own a toothbrush?" "Absolutely nothing," she replied. The wry answer from Abigail Van Buren - the pen name of Pauline Friedman Phillips - was typical of the advice she dispensed for more than 40 years to newspaper readers around the world through her "Dear Abby" column, which debuted in 1956 in the San Francisco Chronicle. She got the bug to write it from her identical twin, who was already providing more homespun counsel in a syndicated newspaper column as Ann Landers.

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)

Next spring, when the U.S. Supreme Court hears oral arguments in United States vs. Windsor, a case challenging the Defense of Marriage Act, one argument likely to be made by DOMA's supporters is that of "responsible procreation. " The theory, which has been embraced by some courts and rejected by others, holds that federal marriage benefits are offered because the government has an interest in promoting stable families in which children are raised by their two biological parents.

Re "Getting to heart of tax brawl," Column, Oct. 15 George Skelton says the "practical effect" of Proposition 30's defeat would be a shortened school year, increased class sizes and increased college tuition. He writes: "There's a lot of cynicism about this by Prop. 30's anti-tax opponents. If the measure failed, they assert, these trigger cuts surely would be rescinded by the Legislature and governor under pressure from the powerful California Teachers Assn. " Let's see if I have this right: The anti-taxers say it's OK to defeat Proposition 30, but don't worry, if it does fail, the all-powerful California Teachers Assn.

Love it or hate it, the one thing you can say for sure about California's ballot initiative process is that it's the absolute worst way to craft policy dealing with complex scientific issues. That doesn't stop advocates on one side or another from constantly trying, with the result that the public's understanding of the underlying facts plummets faster than you can say, well, "Proposition 37. " Proposition 37 is on November's ballot. The measure would require some, but not all, food sold in California and produced via genetic engineering to be labeled as such.

Charles Perry's Wednesday column (Forklore, Oct. 22) sullies the memory of one of the greatest suppliers of fishing, hunting, camping and cooking gear in the history of the West. So what if some of the twice-told tales in his cookbooks ("Bull Cook and Authentic Historical Recipes and Practices" by George Leonard Herter) are a stretch? He provided some of the finest quality mail-order goods I have ever purchased. I still have a pair of boots from Herter's that I can't wear out after 40 years as an exploration mining engineer throughout the West.

IT'S good to be queen. But do people really want to dress like her? Reportedly, one of the season's hottest coats in New York and Britain is the Barbour "Beaufort" wax hunting jacket with corduroy collar and cuffs worn by Helen Mirren in the Miramax film "The Queen" in several scenes on the grounds of the Balmoral estate. Retailers are reporting a run on the classic jacket (that sells for around $395). "The first thing customers say is, 'Have you seen "The Queen"?'

Whether you think that Apple is already too big for its britches or that Samsung deserved to get slammed for $1 billion by a Silicon Valley jury last week for infringing on the iPhone design, there's no doubt where the blame for this corporate firefight lies. The guilty party is the U.S. Patent Office. Actually, that's a bit unfair. The Patent and Trademark Office, as it's formally known, is understaffed and underfunded and not especially up to the task of judging increasingly complex patent applications.

Finally, a judge has put an end to the nonsense at Desert Trails Elementary School in Adelanto, where parents want to force major changes but have been blocked by the district. In addition to clearing the way for reform at the school, the ruling sends a broader message that school officials cannot undermine California's "parent trigger" law by making parents run around in bureaucratic circles. The trigger law allows parents at lower-performing schools to compel one of several possible reforms if half of them sign a petition.