Prince

AUSTIN, Texas -- On the last night of this year's South by Southwest music festival -- when many attendees were probably thinking about spending the next several weeks lying down in a quiet room -- Prince threw a party that nobody wanted to leave. Headlining a double bill Saturday at La Zona Rosa that also included A Tribe Called Quest, the pop superstar took the stage after midnight and didn't get off until 3 a.m. Actually, he disappeared on several occasions, but each time the crowd -- which included Dennis Quaid, Paloma Faith and Questlove of the Roots, who apparently headed over after his gig across town with Justin Timberlake -- drew Prince back with cheers that felt more like a collective demand.

Kate Middleton and Prince William were off to the races Friday. Middleton, 31, who now goes by Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, and her hubby, the Duke of Cambridge, headed about 120 miles west of London for Gold Cup Day at Cheltenham Racecourse on the fourth and final day of the Cheltenham Festival. The pregnant royal was bundled up in her Lock & Co. bow-trimmed cap, gloves, Stuart Weitzman boots and a Joseph coat that concealed her growing baby bump during the rainy festival.

Put a bunch of brand new, high-tech tennis rackets in front of a handful of pretty good middle-aged 4.0 players (7.0 being Roger Federer and 1.0 being an untrained monkey), and they won't care what kind of Nobel Prize-winning innovations went into building them. But they will tell you what works. Here's how they rated the hottest new tennis technology, all about $200 retail, on a cold winter night in suburbia under the lights. The spinner Wilson Steam 99S: New racket with the fewest horizontal strings on the market (15, compared with the normal 19 or 20)

Kale, the king of greens, has been losing plot real estate to a close relative, collards. With better resistance to heat, collard greens do just fine in Southern California. And the occasional winter cold snap? It only makes collard greens sweeter. Half a world away, in the Kashmir Valley of India, the plant is often eaten roots and all, flavored by hot peppers and a ground spice called asafetida. Closer to home, collard greens are associated with Southern cooking, combined with Hoppin' John, the black-eyed peas and rice dish, for a New Year's tradition said to ensure good luck.

Attention, rock stars: When Jimmy Fallon introduces you on his chat show as "one of the most legendary and influential musicians of all time," apparently you've got the run of the place. At least that's the message suggested by Prince's appearance Friday on "Late Night," where the Purple One dropped by to perform two songs, including his killer garage-rock single "Screwdriver. " It's one of a handful of tunes Prince is selling through a recently launched website, 3rdeyegirl.com , named after his new all-lady backing band.

It was a wild Friday night of high school basketball in Southern California. Unbeaten Torrance Bishop Montgomery had its 29-game winning streak come to an end, losing to La Verne Lutheran, 63-59, in a Southern Section Division 4AA semifinal. McDonald's All American Isaac Hamilton scored 43 points to help Bellflower St. John Bosco hold off Huntington Beach Ocean View, 89-87, in a 3A semifinal. And, in the strongest division in Southern California, No. 2-seeded Long Beach Poly needed clutch free throws from Roschon Prince in the final 30 seconds to hold off Los Angeles Loyola, 75-69, in a 1AA quarterfinal.

It's always something of a surprise when a member of a prominent clan decides not to go into the family business. Imagine, for instance, if Eli Manning had decided to become an abstract expressionist painter? Or George W. Bush had become a mixed martial arts instructor? OK, you can stop imagining. Because Prince Jackson, the 16-year-old son of the late King of Pop, Michael Jackson, has taken a gig as a special correspondent for "ET. " The CBS show made the announcement Monday as the Twitterati gasped in astonishment.

Crying my eyes out the morning after, I replayed over and over the events of the previous evening when Mr. Latest Flame had calmly stated that his fondness for me had flickered out. Clearly, finding love was not in the cards for me. It was the mid-'80s, and at 31, I suddenly felt old and washed up, laden by baggage heavy with broken engagements and other failed relationships and even a brief marriage. This was the last straw. Whatever hope I still entertained for finding a soul mate was extinguished, and I just felt like locking myself in the divorce-settlement Toyota with the windows rolled up and the world shut out. Like a passenger in a sinking boat, watching her life flash before her eyes, I reviewed the minutiae of every event, every conversation, every development in what I thought had been a promising new relationship over the previous couple of months.

THE BEST WAY TO PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI From LAX, Spirit, American, Delta, United and Copa offer connecting service (change of plane) to Port-au-Prince. Restricted round-trip fares begin at $708, including all taxes and fees. Have connections lined up in advance, preferably with someone who will meet you at the airport. Public transportation is confusing, subject to change and often conducted in overcrowded pickup trucks and on undersize motorcycles. There are buses and taxis from the airport, and the prices are alluringly low (about $1 per ride in one of the colorful little trucks called Tap-Taps)

  So imagine being a big fan of Detroit's Tayshaun Prince, except you live in Indiana and don't get a chance to see your favorite player in person very often. You scan the NBA schedule to see when the Pistons will be coming to Indianapolis to face the Pacers, and you circle Jan. 30 on your calendar. You buy a ticket next to the aisle where the players come out so you can greet Prince when he comes onto the court. The big day comes. You put on your new Prince jersey, get to the arena a couple of hours later and start counting the minutes.