Noses

Researchers have some reassuring news for the legions of coffee drinkers who can't get through the day without a latte, cappuccino, iced mocha, double-shot of espresso or a plain old cuppa joe: That coffee habit may help you live longer. A new study that tracked the health and coffee consumption of more than 400,000 older adults for nearly 14 years found that java drinkers were less likely to die during the study than their counterparts who eschewed the brew. In fact, men and women who averaged four or five cups of coffee per day had the lowest risk of death, according to a report in Thursday's edition of the New England Journal of Medicine.

UCLA was working on goal-line plays during practice Thursday when, suddenly, the wrong guy was in the backfield. Nose tackle Brandon Willis shed a block, then wrapped up running back Johnathan Franklin as he got the handoff. "He's an anvil, he's a piece of metal in there," defensive line coach Angus McClure said. "He's hard to move. " Willis is done moving. He crisscrossed the nation three times the last two years, from North Carolina to UCLA and UCLA to North Carolina.

Most of the people who work in the Lakewood City Hall seem to be nice folks. In fact, you might say the Lakewood city government projects the image of a well-behaved little boy who doesn't stick raisins up his nose or snore in church. But even nice little boys can sometimes be spiteful. Recently I received, as I have for the past 30 years, a billing for our Lakewood city business license. But this year our license fee was almost double the amount we have paid in the past. When I phoned City Hall and inquired about the fee increase I was told: "We have changed your license classification because it has been brought to our attention that you run a full-time business, and quite a sizable one at that."

The longest graded stakes race in North America ended Sunday at Santa Anita with a furious two-horse charge down the stretch that was so close at the finish line it took six minutes to decide whose nose crossed the line first. Bourbon Bay and jockey Joel Rosario were determined the winners of the 13/4-mile $150,000 San Juan Capistrano Handicap by a nose over Eagle Poise and jockey Alex Solis. "That's a heart attack horse," a Bourbon Bay supporter quipped in the winner's circle after his No. 2 was posted on the tote board in the first-place position.

Most hospital Staphylococcus aureus infections--best known for causing toxic shock syndrome--are caused when bacteria lodged in the noses of patients spread out of control, according to a study by German scientists in today's New England Journal of Medicine.

Obviously, Jim Wahler isn't majoring in philosophy. RON FOWLER Newbury Park

Eugene Passer had never heard of the turbinates, a set of tissues that lie in the nasal cavity. Then a doctor removed much of them, he says, and life became a mess. A New York college professor, Passer says he can no longer teach organic chemistry labs because he cannot detect the smell of dangerous fumes. Head and eye pains are constant. On cold days, the air leaves him dizzy and weak. He rarely travels anywhere without a humidifier, which eases some of his symptoms.

Barbra Streisand has been a nose revolutionary, a nose nationalist and liberator, a preacher of proboscis pride, a nostro-terrorist, a prophet who saw the pert, snub, freckled, upturned, tidy, tiny, cute all-American cheerleader popularity of the ideal nose personified by Doris Day back in the 1950s, and she bloodied it. "I kept my nose to spite my face," she sings in "I'm Still Here," with new lyrics by Stephen Sondheim.

So your daily attempt at perfection already includes brushing and flossing, exercising, meditating, eating fruits and veggies, and overall clean, healthy living. Here's one more health habit you might consider: nasal lavage -- also known as nasal irrigation or sinus rinsing.

Many Americans need look no further than their own noses to find the new bug among us. Even as area hospitals and doctors report an increase in the number of people showing up with telltale signs of a drug-resistant form of the bacterium Staphylococcus aureus, a new study has found that the strain is finding a cozy home in the nostrils of about 2 million Americans. The study, published in the Jan.

Talk about a bad break. Well, two actually, both involving Alejandro Moreno's nose. That has kept the hard-working Chivas USA forward on the sidelines for the first two weekends of the Major Soccer League season. And it has kept him guessing as to when he might finally get into a game. "This is not fun, obviously. It's not what I would have wanted to have to go through in the beginning of my year," said Moreno, whose team took on the Vancouver Whitecaps on Saturday at a soggy Home Depot Center (see latimes.com for results)

It's Mask Madness in Los Angeles. Apparent trendsetter Kobe Bryant started the look less than two weeks ago, using the facial accessory to protect a broken nose, concussion and a neck injury. Then on Sunday, Chris Paul gave the fad some additional star power by wearing a clear model in the Clippers' 97-93 loss to the Golden State Warriors in front of 19,183 at Staples Center. Yet his fashion statement, which serendipitously occurred just days before L.A.'s 10-day Fashion "Week" begins Thursday, didn't result in too stylish a show.

These have been silent nights with no lights in Kobe Bryant's dwelling, the darkness surrounding him as he pushes through a whiplash injury and recovers from a concussion and broken nose. But he's plenty lively on the court, managing to avoid the glare of hyperbole before Sunday's game against the Miami Heat. His revenge came not in a retaliatory foul against Dwyane Wade but in his own stat line and on the scoreboard. The Lakers beat Miami, 93-83, Bryant blowing through the 30-point barrier for a third consecutive game since Wade's hard foul in the All-Star game caused his nasal fracture and concussion.

It's official: The Lakers are 1-0 in the Mask Era. Kobe Bryant and his plastic protective piece were a large part of the Lakers' 104-85 victory Wednesday over the Minnesota Timberwolves at Staples Center. Bryant had 31 points and eight assists but there's no need to send the item to the Hall of Fame. Mask Mania certainly isn't Linsanity. In fact, Bryant fiddled with it often in his first game since sustaining a broken nose, concussion and soft-tissue damage in his neck after taking a hard foul from Miami guard Dwyane Wade on Sunday in the All-Star game.

  Game stories -- The Times' John Cherwa reports that Lakers guard Kobe Bryant suffered a nasal fracture during the 2012 NBA All-Star game and would be evaluated Monday in Los Angeles by an ear, nose and throat specialist. -- The New York Times' Howard Beck focuses on the Bryant passing Michael Jordan for the most points in NBA All-Star history. -- The Orange County Register's Janis Carr noted it was a rough night for Bryant and Andrew Bynum in the 2012 NBA All-Star game.

Mark Trumbo's workout got cut short Friday morning when the Angels infielder took a bad-hop ground ball to the nose. Though the impact caused quite a bit of bleeding, Trumbo's injury is not believed to be serious. "I was on my 30th repetition, turning double plays; the ball hit the lip [where the grass meets the dirt], shot up and got me in the nose," said Trumbo, a first baseman who is trying to make the transition to third base this season. "But I'm not going for X-rays, and the doctor said it's not broken.

As it turned out, the famous nose was disappointingly ordinary. It wasn't tiny, nor anywhere near big enough to earn the label "honker." It was not bulbous and did not possess flaring nostrils of Napoleonic proportions. Instead, it merely was elegant, slender and amazingly average--except that it wasn't. For 19 years, the nose has toured the world--attached to a person, of course.

Scientists long have suspected that dinosaurs were land animals. Only recently, however, have the giants of the Earth been depicted as the terrestrial creatures they were. To get a true picture, a small but significant change needed to be made in the dinosaurs' appearance. They needed a nose job. A study by Ohio University paleontologist Lawrence Witmer found that the traditional depiction of dinosaur nostrils was wrong.

Federal researchers say an infectious and lethal cold-loving fungus sweeping through parts of North America and Canada has killed millions more bats over the last five years than previously estimated. The rapidly spreading fungus responsible for white-nose syndrome is now believed to have killed 5.7 million to 6.7 million bats, a count several times higher than earlier estimates, across 16 states as far west as Oklahoma. The fungus, which scientists know as Geomyces destructans, seems to prefer the 25 species of hibernating bats.

Month after month, the financial forecasts for the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum seemed as sunny as could be. General Manager Patrick Lynch would tell his bosses on the Coliseum Commission that the box office from rave concerts was brisk and a lucrative deal for naming rights to the stadium could be just around the corner, records show. For the most part, the nine-member commission took the affable Lynch at his word. And why not? As L.A. County Supervisor Don Knabe, who sits on the panel, said: "We were making money.