Shapes

SAN DIEGO - In the ocean off Coronado, a Navy team has discovered a relic worthy of display in a military museum: a torpedo of the kind deployed in the late 19th century, considered a technological marvel in its day. But don't look for the primary discoverers to get a promotion or an invitation to meet the admirals at the Pentagon - although they might get an extra fish for dinner or maybe a pat on the snout. The so-called Howell torpedo was discovered by bottlenose dolphins being trained by the Navy to find undersea objects, including mines, that not even billion-dollar technology can detect.

I couldn't have imagined saying this a few years ago, but I wish Antonio Villaraigosa could run again for mayor of Los Angeles. You can look at broken promises and judge the mayor a flop: too many potholes, and not enough cops. But I think his legacy is bigger than that. And most Angelenos, it seems, agree. More than half the voters surveyed by Times pollsters last week said they view Villaraigosa favorably. FULL COVERAGE: L.A.'s race for mayor That public endorsement shocked local pundits, who consider the mayor all style and no substance.

When I was growing up in Tokyo in the '60s, we had bento day at school once a week. This meant mother had to get up early and fix lunch for her five children. We were proud of her bento, which might include a little leftover meat, such as sukiyaki, yakitori or tonkatsu, as well as a vegetable dish, such as kinpira (stir-fried carrots and burdock), and fresh fruit - often a tangerine or apple. But onigiri was the centerpiece of the bento. I would show it off to my friends at lunchtime, and, of course, my friends reciprocated with their mothers' creations.

Noel Greenwood, a former senior editor at the Los Angeles Times who helped shape local and California coverage as the newspaper outgrew its modest local ambitions and transformed itself into one of national stature, died Sunday at his Santa Barbara home. He was 75. Greenwood had prostate cancer for seven years, said his daughter, Diana. "He was from the old swashbuckling school of journalism," said Times Sacramento columnist George Skelton. "What he would always tell me was 'You know more about this stuff than the people you're interviewing - so just say it.' He didn't pull any punches.

Photographer Arthur Tress has covered a lot of ground in the course of his nearly 50-year career, from sultry black and white to vivid color and back again, from social documentary to allegory, spontaneous street scenes to meticulously staged tableaux. In his latest series at Louis Stern Fine Arts, he takes a surprisingly formalist turn, producing elegant sepia toned prints reminiscent of Stieglitz, Weston and Strand. His subject, however, is not what you might expect.

Shapes can make a difference in the world of food. Animal shapes, floral designs, hearts, diamonds and other familiar forms send pretty pictures to mind. For the skilled, all it takes to create shapes for picturesque eating is the masterful manipulation of a sharp knife. The less-fortunate majority can avail themselves of myriads of garnishing tools and all-purpose cutters found in any cookware shop.

Soft-spoken, tousle-topped, pale and slim, Elizabeth Murray can melt right into a crowd. Her paintings, on the other hand, have punched their way to the top of the heap of contemporary art. Big oils on canvas often composed of several odd-shaped parts, the New York artist's works pile up and twist and crack as if propelled by some uncontrollable force. Richly painted in the center, they may blast off in all directions or drip off their edges.

With his slash of red lipstick and eye makeup and wild tangle of hair, the Cure's Robert Smith looked like a prototype for a line of "Eraserhead" dolls on Tuesday night at the Forum. But as unlikely as it might seem from appearances, this chubby harlequin is shaping up as a major rock god.

The numbers that relegated Kings goaltender Jason LaBarbera to second-tier status weren't his goals-against average or save percentage. LaBarbera, usually steady and occasionally exceptional, sabotaged his chances to excel by carrying too much weight and too high a body-fat percentage on his 6-foot-3 frame. His mass allowed him to cover a lot of net, but his bulkiness hampered his lateral movement. He knew it but couldn't motivate himself to do anything about it. "It's always kind of been a black cloud over me, I think, my whole career," he said.

What happens when an architect and a food editor team up to bring taste to bland walls? They make geometric decals in mint, lemon and tomato. Scott Flora and Jerinne Neils, who share a 1980s duplex in Venice and a fondness for Pop Art, have blended computer-generated images with vinyl film to create colorful adhesive polka dots, blocks, bolts, even invading aliens, that can be stuck on walls -- and later easily pulled off.

Los Angeles' mayoral race has kicked into full gear in recent days, with new polls, ads, debates and a weekend appearance by a former president at a pastrami landmark. Eric Garcetti leads Wendy Greuel by 10 points among likely voters in a new poll by the Los Angeles Times and the University of Southern California. The two candidates sparred over each others' integrity in a debate on Spanish-language television, and will meet in another face-off Monday night. Greuel launched an ad attacking Garcetti.

We all know that smoking is bad for us, that exercise is good for us, and that we should eat vegetables, whole grains and other nutritious foods. All of this advice is even more true for people who have had serious health scares due to heart disease or stroke. And yet, 14% of people who have had a heart attack, stroke, heart surgery or serious chest pain continue to ignore these common sense recommendations, according to new research in the Journal of the American Medical Assn.

  Miami held Dwyane Wade, LeBron James and Chris Bosh out of Wednesday's game in Washington. A couple of hours later the Nuggets, who recently lost Danilo Gallinari for the season, played the banged-up Spurs without Ty Lawson. And the Knicks expect to be missing Marcus Camby, Tyson Chandler and Kenyon Martin on Thursday in Chicago, where the Bulls will be without Joakim Noah. With the end of the regular season just a week away, several playoff teams are limping toward the finish line, struggling to either manage injuries or to rest key players in preparation for the postseason.

Louise Nevelson is undoubtedly one of the titans of modern sculpture, but I always found her best-known works to be a bit staid. Grids of interlocking boxes populated with all manner of geometric shapes painted black or white all over, they seemed regimented and a bit coffin-like. This exhibition at L&M Arts focuses on her work from the 1970s and breathes new life into her legacy. Most of the works are large wall pieces. While still rectangular and matte black, their constituent shapes have broken free of the grid, interlocking and overlapping in a way that is almost painterly.

The big question facing the Lakers on the heels of their loss to the Washington Wizards: Did Antawn Jamison seriously injure his right wrist? The Lakers has as close to a full roster as Coach Mike D'Antoni has gotten this season on Friday night. Reserve big man Jordan Hill has been declared out for the season, although he's still putting in a lot of work just in case the Lakers make a deep playoff run. After the loss to the Wizards, advancing in the playoffs seems somewhat far-fetched, but a lot can happen in the coming weeks.  D'Antoni gave an idea of what kind of rotation he'll use moving forward, assuming Jamison isn't out for an extended period.

Joe Weider, a Los Angeles-based bodybuilding pioneer who created a multimillion-dollar fitness publishing empire and mentored a young Arnold Schwarzenegger from the time the future actor and California governor was a struggling unknown, died Saturday, a family spokeswoman said. He was 93. Weider, who discovered a teenage Schwarzenegger at a bodybuilding contest in Europe and sponsored the young Austrian's move to the U.S., died of heart failure at a Los Angeles hospital, said Charlotte Parker, his longtime publicist.

Jan Baum Gallery kicks off the fall season with an exhibition of three young artists, all of whom take a relatively formal approach to art-making. Rochelle Caper describes her work as being about "fantasy that has to do with primitive instincts" but her vibrant abstractions are in fact much more controlled than that comment implies.

Louise Nevelson is undoubtedly one of the titans of modern sculpture, but I always found her best-known works to be a bit staid. Grids of interlocking boxes populated with all manner of geometric shapes painted black or white all over, they seemed regimented and a bit coffin-like. This exhibition at L&M Arts focuses on her work from the 1970s and breathes new life into her legacy. Most of the works are large wall pieces. While still rectangular and matte black, their constituent shapes have broken free of the grid, interlocking and overlapping in a way that is almost painterly.

WASHINGTON -- One of Ben Rhodes' first tasks when he followed Barack Obama to the White House in 2009 was to help craft the presidential speech, delivered in Cairo, that urged a restart of Mideast peace talks, called America's alliance with Israel “unbreakable” and described Palestinian statelessness as “intolerable.” Four years and a stillborn peace attempt later, Rhodes accompanies the president to Israel, the West Bank and Jordan this...

California school districts are slowly emerging from financial crisis, with the number in danger of running out of cash dropping by one-third over last year, state education officials announced Monday. "I can say with growing confidence that the worst of California's school funding crisis is behind us," state Supt. of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson said in a statement. The number of school districts that won't or may not meet their financial obligations this year and the two subsequent years dropped to 124 from 188 last May, according to the report released by the state Department of Education.