Rocky

Holy mix-up, Batman! Stately Wayne manor is still standing, despite an erroneous report by Pasadena city officials and neighbors that the sprawling mansion used in the Batman TV series had burned to the ground Wednesday night. It turns out that the 1920s English baronial-style home gutted by flames was a few doors down tree-lined South San Rafael Avenue from the "real" manor occupied by Bruce Wayne, aka Batman.

The music in any Quentin Tarantino film is an adventure unto itself, a tradition that continues with “Django Unchained,” Tarantino's movie opening on Christmas Day. The soundtrack album was released a week ahead of the film itself, and Tarantino took time to walk listeners through the music in a Sirius XM satellite radio special, “Quentin Tarantino Unleashed,” that aired Dec. 14 on Little Steven's Underground Garage show, which Tarantino...

The 18,000-plus fans who crammed into Staples Center didn't want to leave, lingering to digest what they had seen and savor an improbable moment. Who could blame them for trying to prolong a moment so stunning that it was at least the equal of the many feats the Kings pulled off last spring in winning the Stanley Cup for the first time in 45 years? The Kings won a game they seemed bound to lose Thursday, rallying for two goals in the last two minutes for a 4-3 victory over the San Jose Sharks to take a solid 2-0 series lead.

Most of us know the scent of lavender from soap. Putting the best and strongest flower smells in cleaners is such an old practice that it gave lavender its name: It comes from the Latin lavare -- to wash. But with all due respect to lavender's preeminence in antiquity's laundry room, and to its continuing glory in English toiletries, it merits pointing out that there is another way to enjoy it. Grow it. Grow a lot of it. No plant is better suited to California gardens than this fragrant beauty.

SAN ANTONIO - The Mexican businessmen in Rolexes and Burberry ties meet on the north side of town, at Cielito Lindo Restaurant, or at new neighboring country clubs. Their wives frequent Neiman Marcus, Tiffany's and Brooks Brothers at the nearby mall. Their children park Porsches with Mexican license plates in the student lots at Reagan High School. They are part of a wave of legal Mexican immigrants who have been overlooked in the national debate over how to deal with their largely impoverished illegal compatriots.

On a recent beautiful and sunny day, I strolled into my local gym to lift some weights. The gym is near Nose Hill Park, which is one of the largest municipal parks in North America. It has majestic views of the city of Calgary and the Rocky Mountains, which can be seen from endless miles of paths and trails. As I made my way toward the room full of heavy things I intended to pick up and put back down, I spied the double line of high-tech treadmills. Most of them were occupied. I looked at the indoor running enthusiasts and thought, Are you people on dope ?

Only four people live in the village of Machuca, 13,000 feet up in the Chilean Andes, and all of them are related to Joel Colque. Colque, who grew up in this stone village that hugs the side of a volcano, is our guide for a daylong trek in the altiplano -- the high rocky plateau -- above the Atacama Desert, the driest spot on Earth, ringed by 19,000-foot volcanoes where rain evaporates long before it reaches the crusty salt flats far below. We're shivering here on a June winter morning, the short alpine plants frozen sharp as needles.

The theme park industry will take a deep breath in 2013 after the launch of several landmark attractions and with more groundbreaking projects on the horizon. The last few years have seen several theme park additions that have altered the industry landscape and set attendance records -- from Cars Land at Disney California Adventure to Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal's Islands of Adventure. The future promises even more theme park innovation in the form of Shanghai Disneyland in China and Avatar Land at Disney's Animal Kingdom in Florida.

Ruben Blades--salsa star, Hollywood actor and Panamanian presidential candidate--is walking along the cracked red-brick streets of San Felipe, the ramshackle barrio in Panama City's old quarter where he grew up. "Hey, Ruben!" residents call out from their stoops and cluttered balconies. "Va pa'lante?" they ask, an inquiry about the state of Blades' campaign. Is it going well? "We're behind, but don't give up," he tells them.

Advertising company Lamar sued the city of Los Angeles two months ago, demanding the right to install new digital billboards in such neighborhoods as Sherman Oaks, Silver Lake, Glassell Park and the Fairfax district. Lamar's involvement in city politics did not stop there. Since it filed that lawsuit, the company has financed scores of billboards for candidates in the May 21 election - 100 for mayoral hopeful Wendy Greuel, 100 for city controller candidate Dennis Zine and 20 apiece for City Council candidates Curren Price, Nury Martinez and Gil Cedillo.