Saga

By the time Anchee Min made it to America in 1984, she was "considered a 'cooked seed' - no chance to sprout. " As she explains in her new memoir, "I was 27 years old and life had ended for me in China. I was Madame Mao's trash, which meant I wasn't worth spit. " Min's unforgettable first book, "Red Azalea" (published in 1994), chronicled the hardships of her childhood during China's Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. In the simple, straightforward declarative sentences of someone new to the language, she wrote about how her teacher parents - considered "bourgeois sympathizers" requiring reeducation - were sent to work in factories, and how she, at 17, was sent to a farm labor camp.

Re "Girl's transplant reignites debate," June 13 It is hard to begrudge 10-year-old Sarah Murnagh for receiving a lifesaving lung transplant. But I seriously question the wisdom of her family and friends creating a campaign that resulted in Dr. John Roberts, president of the United Network for Organ Sharing, receiving tens of thousands of e-mails. His e-mail inbox crashed after it received 48,000 messages. How many pleas from other transplant patients was Roberts unable to read because of the campaign for little Sarah?

Re "Girl's transplant reignites debate," June 13 It is hard to begrudge 10-year-old Sarah Murnagh for receiving a lifesaving lung transplant. But I seriously question the wisdom of her family and friends creating a campaign that resulted in Dr. John Roberts, president of the United Network for Organ Sharing, receiving tens of thousands of e-mails. His e-mail inbox crashed after it received 48,000 messages. How many pleas from other transplant patients was Roberts unable to read because of the campaign for little Sarah?

The odyssey of the New York Jets' crowded offensive backfield took another turn Friday when running back Mike Goodson was arrested by New Jersey state police on suspicion of possessing drugs and a weapon. Goodson was with Garant Evans, a 31-year-old man from Roselle, N.J., when state police discovered Evans' vehicle stopped on Interstate 80 in Denville after receiving a 911 call from a tow-truck driver. A police report said marijuana, drug paraphernalia and a 45-caliber semiautomatic handgun were found.

Shame on you for devoting so much valuable space to the sorry saga of Tom Sizemore ["Filled With Drama," by Robert W. Welkos, March 23]. He continues to play the victim in a pathetic drama of his own creation rather than accept responsibility for his actions. Barbara Tuss Glassell Park

What appears to be the fiery finale to Christopher Dorner's violent rampage across Southern California nearly upstaged President Obama's State of the Union address. As the seconds ticked down to the start of the speech, it seemed as though Anderson Cooper and the folks at CNN were awfully reluctant to break away from the burning cabin near Big Bear where the disgruntled, unhinged ex-cop from the Los Angeles Police Department appeared to be holed up.  Nevertheless, the cable news organizations did their duty and switched from the sensational to the substantial.

If Jamie McCourt was as claimed, "the face of the Dodgers," the organization is badly in need of a face-lift. Scott Buehner Calabasas :: Given that this is a community property state, 50% of what I say is directed to Frank and 50% is directed to Jamie: Please sell the Dodgers. Now. Darren Pollock Los Angeles :: How life imitates art: My late father Philip Rapp's creation, the Bickersons, has come to life starring Frank and Jamie McCourt. Dad and the original John and Blanche Bickerson, Don Ameche and Frances Langford, must be rolling over -- and laughing -- in their graves!

One of the best stories of this week's Northern Trust Open is the saga of Blayne Barber, a rookie from Auburn. Barber made news last fall when he disqualified himself from the second stage of PGA Tour qualifying school. Barber was haunted after the first stage when he realized a one-stroke penalty he called on himself should have been a two-stroke penalty. He finished the first stage but then, nine days later, called the DQ on himself and forfeited the chance to make this year's PGA Tour.

SERIES Everest: Beyond the Limit: In the third-season premiere of the unscripted adventure series, an avalanche buries a team of climbers (8 p.m. Discovery). In a second new episode, at 9, a storm front closes in on Mt. Everest as climber John Golden presses on to reach the summit on a surgically reconstructed knee, and in a third new episode, at 10, astronaut Scott Parazynski and senior citizen Dawes Eddy attempt a history-making summit bid. Emergency Level One: In the premiere of this unscripted series, two pregnant women are involved in a car crash and a police shooting puts a patient's life in the hands of the trauma team (8 p.m. TLC)

Thanks to your magazine and writer Michael A. Hiltzik for the article on the "Spider-Man" screenplay saga ("Untangling the Web," Special Hollywood Issue, March 24). One fact seems to get lost in the myriad complications: no one at the Writers Guild has ever read the screenplays concerned. Barney Cohen, Ethan Wiley, Neil Ruttenberg, Frank LaLoggia, several others and I were never afforded a hearing by our peers--that is, other writers. The accepted process of arbitration was circumvented by a toss of a coin in the credits administration, which didn't read the scripts either.

Just two days before "Arrested Development" would release its first new episodes in seven years, creator Mitchell Hurwitz called David Cross with a frantic request: Could the actor do a quick reshoot? Cross, however, was sporting a full, dyed beard for another project and looked nothing like his "Arrested" character. No matter, Hurwitz told him, "We'll figure it out. " The next day the actor found himself on a hastily arranged set, filling in a gap on the series that would premiere in Hollywood the following day. "It's crazy!"

By the time Anchee Min made it to America in 1984, she was "considered a 'cooked seed' - no chance to sprout. " As she explains in her new memoir, "I was 27 years old and life had ended for me in China. I was Madame Mao's trash, which meant I wasn't worth spit. " Min's unforgettable first book, "Red Azalea" (published in 1994), chronicled the hardships of her childhood during China's Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. In the simple, straightforward declarative sentences of someone new to the language, she wrote about how her teacher parents - considered "bourgeois sympathizers" requiring reeducation - were sent to work in factories, and how she, at 17, was sent to a farm labor camp.

A $4.2-million settlement between the city and two women mistakenly shot by Los Angeles Police Department officers will hopefully close a chapter on the Christopher Dorner story, officials said. The money would compensate a mother and daughter who were shot by police in February during the manhunt for Dorner, an ex-LAPD officer who authorities say was hunting officers and their families. The settlement announced Tuesday was remarkably speedy compared with other LAPD civil lawsuits, which can take years to be resolved.

Today, 19 months after her death, we may finally have a good idea of what killed Paula Rojeski. According to a lawsuit and public autopsy records, the causes included her doing business with the 1-800-GET-THIN folks and the slicing of her aorta during weight-loss surgery at one of their affiliated surgical centers. There was also regulatory indifference on a truly majestic scale. Rojeski, 55, died Sept. 8, 2011, shortly after surgery to implant a Lap-Band at Valley Surgical Center in West Hills, which her family's lawyer says is affiliated with 1-800-GET-THIN and the two brothers behind it, Julian and Michael Omidi.

The mood was electric that crisp, clear February day as couples lined up at San Francisco City Hall to be among the first to get licenses for same-sex marriages in California. Nine tortuous years followed: The state high court halted and invalidated the San Francisco licenses, then later ruled gays and lesbians could marry. Some 18,000 couples rushed to do so before voters put a stop to the ceremonies by passing Proposition 8 in 2008. Then a federal judge and an appeals court threw that ballot initiative out. On Tuesday, the two sides rested.

- NFL owners will kick off their annual meetings Monday at the Arizona Biltmore and discuss all sorts of issues, including player health and safety, possible rule changes and new business opportunities. And, yes, the ongoing saga of Los Angeles without an NFL team will come up. Eighteen years have passed since the Raiders and Rams pulled up stakes and bid adieu, leaving the nation's second-largest market vacant and triggering dozens of plans - some creative, but all ultimately fruitless - to fix the relationship.

Sweeden's Swamp is not a very pretty name, and it covers only 32 acres. Still, the boggy area near Attleboro, Mass., is an important part of the nation's dwindling wetlands. Environmentalists estimate that commercial development, farm drainage, highway construction and the like are destroying 500,000 acres of wetlands a year. As those sloughs, swamps and bogs are paved over or otherwise disappear, so too does the habitat of wildlife and waterfowl.

For tennis fans, for sports fans, for fans of drama and skill and guts, what great luck that the Taj Mahal of tennis would produce a second straight match-for-the-ages in the men's final at the All England Club. We thought we'd seen it all last year, a marathon finished in darkness, the Swiss king finished off by a Spanish prince, 9-7 in the fifth set.

Summit Entertainment's “Twilight Saga” vampire series landed two titles on the most recent top 10 DVD sales charts, while the tense dramas “Taken 2” and “Flight” retained their top positions on the rental charts. Here are the top selling and renting titles for the week ending March 2 (sales) and March 3 (rentals), according to Rentrak. TOP 10 DVD and BLU-RAY SALES 1. “The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2” Summit Entertainment. Week 1 2. “Argo” Warner Bros.

When California's government employee pension system was established in 1932, it was a model of restraint. Private-sector pensions were still rare then, but California lawmakers had a particular reason for wanting a public-sector pension system: Without one, unproductive older workers had an incentive to stay on the job and just "go through the motions" to get a paycheck, as a 1929 state commission put it. Pensions would encourage those workers to...