Prize

Baby boomers remain shell-shocked by the devastating bear market that ended in 2009 — despite the impressive rebound in stock prices since then. According to a survey by Allianz Life Insurance Co. of North America, the generation that couldn't get enough of dot-com stocks in the late 1990s and McMansions a few years after that now prizes financial security above all else. A vast majority of those surveyed said they would prefer low-yielding but stable investments over those with better profit potential but more risk.

The newspapers and websites were full Monday morning with stories about Sunday's eclipse: finely done accounts with facts, figures, quotations and on-the-scene reporting. Will any win the Pulitzer Prize? Only time will tell. But if so, there is precedent: The 1924 Pulitzer Prize for reporting went to Magner White, a reporter for the San Diego Sun, for his account of a noontime solar eclipse that occurred Sept. 10, 1923. White's account, in the lean, vivid prose of the day, had weird gusts of wind hitting the city, circus animals pacing and roaring, prostitutes falling to their knees and vowing to change their wicked ways, and San Diego residents exchanging "ghastly smiles, pale lilies they are. " The Sun's story was on the stands within minutes of the eclipse becoming total.

A 19-month layoff hasn't changed this about Israel Vazquez: When he senses urgency, he's at his best. One round after a ringside physician inspected a troubling cut over his left eyebrow, and struggling through a ring-rusted performance, Vazquez rallied to knock down Angel Priolo three times in the ninth round before referee Pat Russell stopped the featherweight fight at the 2:10 mark Saturday at downtown L.A.'s Nokia Theatre. With his cut worsening and two judges scoring the fight even, Vazquez (44-4, 33 knockouts)

It was the end of a long day in a stuffy Simi Valley office building. Ann Romney had been under oath for more than four hours, testifying in a sometimes contentious deposition about a pricey horse she sold that may or may not have been afflicted with a condition that made him unrideable. In the airless room, Romney was getting annoyed. "That really is -- that really is irritating," she said when the opposing attorney implied she didn't know who looked after her horse in Moorpark when she was at her home in Boston.

"Whitney High School Seniors Rank No. 1 in State, Nerds of All They Survey" (Times, June 23) extends the silly season of The Times and local newspapers publishing CAP scores. The significant information in your report was in the column headed "% AFDC" (The percentage of parents in an attendance area who received benefits from the Aid to Families With Dependent Children program). Some of these students live in trailers, garages or hotel rooms with their families and have no place to spread out their homework.

Thank you for "The Prize Fight" [Oct. 10]: Now I don't have to wonder if I'm being too cautious and missing out on something cheap and fun by rejecting all those trip offers. I seldom read every word of such a lengthy article; this one was worth every minute. Lynn Maddox Burbank Thank you so much for investigating. We are bombarded with such offers for prizes. The elderly are vulnerable targets. Peggy Rothring Thousand Oaks I couldn't believe what I was reading because I am involved in a similar situation.

GolfWorld magazine reports that organizers of the recent Algarve Portugal Open didn't offer a new car as a prize for a hole in one. Instead, anyone acing the 210-yard 16th hole would have won a diamond tee worth about half a million dollars. The prize, displayed in a heated glass case inside the clubhouse, was guarded by a rattlesnake. The classy tee went unclaimed. Trivia time: What is regarded as the most famous shot in Masters' history? Unthinkable: Dave Hyde of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel says maybe the Marlins deserve contraction after--get this--running out of hot dogs in the fourth inning on opening night.

Coors will place computer chips on 30,000 cans of beer this summer that will tell the drinker he has won a prize. When one of the cans is opened, it triggers a light-activated microchip that informs the consumer what prize has been won. They will range from compact discs to stereos. More than 40,000 prizes worth up to $1 million will be awarded during the promotion.

Kazufumi Yamashita, 24, from Japan, took first prize in the Malko competition for young orchestra conductors. The contest, named after Nicolai Malko (1888-1961), a Russian maestro who was a founding father of the Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra, drew 30 competitors from 18 countries. In second place was Jules Van Hessen, 27, from the Netherlands. Third was Nicoletta Conti, 28, of Italy, the first woman ever to place in the competition. First prize was $4,000.

The West German film "Stammheim," about the Baader-Meinhof terrorist gang, has won first prize at the West Berlin Film Festival. Showings of the film outside the festival have been disrupted by demonstrators believed sympathetic to the West German left wing urban guerrilla band.

Up, up and not quite away. That's the frustrating story of human-powered helicopters and the prize coveted by virtually everyone who has designed the cumbersome beasts and tried to get them aloft. So far, nobody has come up with a muscle-driven machine capable of hovering for 1 minute and rising 3 meters - requirements for the Igor I. Sikorsky Prize, an honor the helicopter industry has dangled before aeronautics buffs for 32 years. The prize has been offered so long that the booty, initially $10,000, became embarrassingly small.

Alex Shakar's novel "Luminarium," about the role technology and spirituality play in shaping people's reality, and Stephen King's "11/22/1963," about a time traveler who attempts to prevent John F. Kennedy's assassination, were among the winners Friday at the 32nd annual Los Angeles Times Book Prizes. The awards to Shakar in the fiction category and to King in mystery-thrillers were among 12 presented at USC's Bovard Auditorium in a ceremony that launched this weekend's Los Angeles Times Festival of Books at the campus.

Can the house that Kareem built become the home that Shabazz renovated? Pauley Pavilion, rather the new Pauley Pavilion, is on schedule to reopen with a $136-million renovation by mid-October, an athletic department official said during a media tour of the arena on Friday. The refurbished digs will be inhabited by a highly publicized recruiting class, as was the case when Pauley Pavilion opened in 1965. The difference this time is that the incoming freshmen can play for the Bruins.

NEW YORK — The Pulitzer Prizes for journalism awarded here Monday demonstrated the resilience of old media and the ascendance of the new, as the venerable Philadelphia Inquirer won the prestigious public service medal and the 7-year-old Huffington Post took the national reporting prize for its exploration of the challenges that confront wounded U.S. service members. Digital-focused media first leaped into the Pulitzer winner's circle last year when ProPublica won the national reporting prize.

The 2012 Pulitzer Prizes were announced on Monday, with the Philadelphia Inquirer awarded the Gold Medal for public service for its reporting on pervasive violence in that city's schools. The reporting stirred reforms to improve safety for students and teachers. The local reporting prize went to Sara Ganim and other staff of the Patriot News of Harrisburg, Penn., for that newspaper's reporting on the explosive Penn State sexual abuse scandal. David Wood of the Huffington Post won the national reporting prize for his coverage of the challenges facing wounded American soldiers.

For millenniums, human beings have been ingenious in putting tree bark to a range of uses — as canoe coverings, containers, cork bottle-stops and even clothing. Among cultures that still make barkcloth, two have become well known: the Mbuti of the Ituri rain forest of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Ömie of Mount Lamington in Papua New Guinea, although these days they wear it mostly at ceremonial occasions. "Second Skins: Painted Barkcloth From New Guinea and Central Africa," an exhibition at the Fowler Museum at UCLA (through Aug. 26)

FOCUS: Donna Hasenstab's attention to details, such as this doll bearing a candle, helped her and her family transform their home into the top-prize entrant in La Palma's annual Christmas decoration contest. B2

A San Diegan has won top honors in one of Southern California's biggest songwriting competitions. Ric Kipker placed first in the rock category of the Club Songwriters Celebrations finals, held Sunday in Burbank, with "Dino, the Ghost of James Dean, and Me," a ballad about a real-life rebel without a cause whom the 28-year-old singer-songwriter had idolized in high school.

"Oh, strawberries don't taste as they used to," wrote John Steinbeck in "East of Eden. " Never mind that the chapter was set a century ago; many foodies believe that industrial varieties and practices have degraded the flavor of modern strawberries. This spring we have an opportunity to test that hypothesis, as Harry's Berries has resumed growing the Chandler variety, a longtime favorite at farmers markets for its tender, juicy flesh and classic strawberry flavor. "It reminds me of what strawberries used to taste like when I was a kid," says Kris Gean, 32, scion of the Harry's Berries dynasty.

The only woman in a sea of men in suits, Dorothy Townsend can't help but stand out in the official photograph of the Los Angeles Times team that won a Pulitzer Prize in 1966 for coverage of the Watts riots. The picture also inadvertently documents Townsend's other historic role at the newspaper. After insisting on being reassigned from "the women's pages" in early 1964, she became the first female staff writer to cover local news in a city room long populated only by men. Townsend, who wrote for The Times from 1954 to 1986, died March 5 of cancer at her Sherman Oaks home, said her cousin, Louise Hagan.