Pint

British beer drinkers found a measure of good news amid a flood of economic downers: The fabled pint won't have to be renamed. After a long debate over whether the European Union would force pubs to serve beer by the half-liter, the European Parliament decided to let Britain retain the pint, the mile and other imperial measurements. The bill scraps a 2009 deadline to end the use of imperial measurements alongside metric units.

Valentine's Day shouldn't be followed by bitterness — unless, of course, you're visiting Santa Monica's Library Alehouse beginning Feb. 15. That's when the Westside's craft beer destination will launch its 11-day HopHead Heaven festival, which is specializing in hoppy beers. Things will be kept close to home on opening day, which the bar has dubbed "local bitterness" night, featuring India pale ales from nearby brewers such as Eagle Rock, Bootlegger, Smog City, Cismontane and Ladyface.

Thank you for the delightful article by Jon Gardey on England, "Lifting a Pint to Ansty" (May 12). I had to write to say it's the first really accurate account of a visit to my country that I've read. Most "I was there" articles seem to have been taken straight out of a travel brochure, but this was a wonderfully evocative memory of an England that is my home. Every detail had been noticed with warmth and humor, and the photos captured the moments as they really are. I've been visiting Los Angeles and have enjoyed reading your paper very much.

Penny Puckett came to Slab City and fell in love. After four years of "bumming around and hopping freight trains," the 25-year-old from Kansas City arrived at this hardscrabble section of the Imperial Valley desert and immediately embraced its sense of liberation from society's rules and norms. What others might view as desolation and deprivation, Puckett saw as a way to reduce life to its essence: water, food and shelter (plus Internet and cellular phone service). PHOTOS: Slab City "Slab City people have a great need to live with just the bare necessities and are happy about it," she said.

The two men drink standing near the back of the long bar at Davy Byrnes, one of the many watering holes in this city that, in the words of writer Samuel Beckett, who once lived upstairs, have been known to house "broken glass and indiscretion. " In the back, because that's well away from the "whippets" and "blow-ins" who tend to wander in, armed with neither intellect nor wit, if one distinguishes between the two, settle on the first available stool and ask for a "Boodweiser" from the barman.

As picked by bartender and brewer Tanner Worth, 30. Duvel Green from Duvel Moortgat Brewery, Belgium A complex golden ale, this version comes only in kegs. Chef Brendan Collins says it is ultimately drinkable, calling it, "a nice six- or seven-pint kind of beer. " $10 pint Green Flash West Coast IPA from Green Flash Brewing Co., San Diego A crisp and super-hoppy India pale ale, among the top sellers. $4 pint La Chouffe, from Brasserie d'Achouffe, Belgium A rich Belgian dubbel, lightened up with spice and clove.

A teen-ager committed suicide by swallowing a pint of gasoline, making him the 18th youngster in New York City's northern suburbs to take his own life since early 1984, authorities said today. Andrew Budow, 17, of Garnerville swallowed the gasoline at 4:43 p.m. Sunday while he was home alone, police said. He was found moments later by his parents and was pronounced dead at 6 p.m.

Re "Relax the Ban on Gay Blood Donors," Opinion, April 30: Douglas Starr's reliance upon "deferring gay men a year from their last homosexual contact" says more than I want to know even though "they'd be rigorously screened." Driving a vehicle is a privilege. If blood is needed, simply grant the privilege and renewal thereof dependent upon a pint of blood. Deferment for medical reasons can be made. If the driver needs deferment for religious reasons, the driver is never a blood recipient.

There's a holiday in December that comes way before Hanukkah or Christmas and might be a whole lot  jollier: It's Repeal Day, and it's Monday. As Ken Burns reminds us in his documentary "Prohibition," there was a time in this country when a glass of wine or a pint of beer could land you in the slammer. It was against the law, specifically the 18th Amendment. Bootleggers, speakeasies and all sorts of black-market goings-ons defined the Prohibition era from January 1920 to Dec. 5, 1933, when the law was repealed.

Given the temptations to goof it up, Joe Pesci's performance in this 1992 movie, itself a very mixed bag, is something of a triumph. As a swaggering pint-sized New York lawyer who only recently passed the bar on his sixth try, Pesci modulates his usual psycho-nuttiness and gives it some recognizably human, even melancholy, undertones. With its predictable city-slicker vs.

There's a holiday in December that comes way before Hanukkah or Christmas and might be a whole lot  jollier: It's Repeal Day, and it's Monday. As Ken Burns reminds us in his documentary "Prohibition," there was a time in this country when a glass of wine or a pint of beer could land you in the slammer. It was against the law, specifically the 18th Amendment. Bootleggers, speakeasies and all sorts of black-market goings-ons defined the Prohibition era from January 1920 to Dec. 5, 1933, when the law was repealed.

As picked by bartender and brewer Tanner Worth, 30. Duvel Green from Duvel Moortgat Brewery, Belgium A complex golden ale, this version comes only in kegs. Chef Brendan Collins says it is ultimately drinkable, calling it, "a nice six- or seven-pint kind of beer. " $10 pint Green Flash West Coast IPA from Green Flash Brewing Co., San Diego A crisp and super-hoppy India pale ale, among the top sellers. $4 pint La Chouffe, from Brasserie d'Achouffe, Belgium A rich Belgian dubbel, lightened up with spice and clove.

The girl who helped change children's TV wasn't originally conceived as a fearless bilingual character. In fact, she wasn't always a girl. In the original concept, she was a rabbit … a male rabbit. But the creators finally fixed on doe-eyed Dora Marquez, who kicked off the first show with three simple words: "Hi, I'm Dora." Dora began traveling through the jungle — speaking bits of Spanish along the way — and onto the nation's television screens in August 2000.

If you're at all squeamish about seeing someone get cash staple-gunned to his privates or 4-foot-tall wrestlers mauling each other while beer-drinking bar patrons egg them on, you might not be the target for the Spike network's new late-night series, "Half Pint Brawlers." But if you're into "Jackass"-style stunts, choreographed grappling matches and pants-dropping spectacles, you may have just found your new appointment viewing. Spike, the testosterone-fueled home of "The Ultimate Fighter," "1,000 Ways to Die" and "Manswers," launches the six-episode show at 11 p.m. Wednesday.

If you go THE BEST WAY TO PORTLAND, ORE. From LAX, Alaska and United offer nonstop service to Portland. Southwest offers direct service (stop, no change of planes). Alaska, Southwest and United also offer connecting service (change of planes). Restricted round-trip fares begin at $256. BREW PUBS Upright Brewing, 240 N. Broadway, Suite 2; (503) 735-5337, http://www.uprightbrewing.com. In addition to offering free samples at the Saturday Portland Farmers Market, Upright operates a tasting room on weekends.

Franklin and Bart are 3-month-old brothers abandoned in a park, left to watch as their mother got run over by a car. Itchy has arthritis and requires medication to stave off kidney failure. Brad and Angelina are a bonded pair, and now that their pups are weaned and Brad has been neutered, they're ready for a fresh start in a new, loving home. Sure, dog and cat rescue listings have an unmistakable ring. The amusing names (Chandler and Joey, Mimosa and Margarita). The endearing habits (loves to beg for treats!

If you go THE BEST WAY TO PORTLAND, ORE. From LAX, Alaska and United offer nonstop service to Portland. Southwest offers direct service (stop, no change of planes). Alaska, Southwest and United also offer connecting service (change of planes). Restricted round-trip fares begin at $256. BREW PUBS Upright Brewing, 240 N. Broadway, Suite 2; (503) 735-5337, http://www.uprightbrewing.com. In addition to offering free samples at the Saturday Portland Farmers Market, Upright operates a tasting room on weekends.

A fruit smoothie is just about the easiest dessert you can make with the abundant fruits now available at supermarkets and farmers markets. All you have to do is blend fruit, milk and yogurt together into a thick froth. The secret to a great frosty smoothie is to skip the ice that can dilute the drink and use frozen fruit instead. To do so, spread sliced, peeled peaches, nectarines or plums on a baking sheet and place in the freezer for a few hours.

A New York state man is donating his 320th pint of blood, making him one of two people in the U.S. to give 40 gallons. Al Fischer, 75, of Massapequa plans to reach the milestone today, 58 years after he started giving blood. According to a New York Blood Center official, only Maurice Wood, 83, a retired railroad inspector of St. Louis, has donated more blood than Fischer. Fischer, a print shop operator, donates blood about six times a year. He says he and Wood are engaged in a friendly rivalry and last spoke to each other a few months ago.