Shelf Life

Recently I went on a really good first date. All of the key components were there: He was smart, funny, attractive and interesting and, most of all, interested. We had a great time, or so I thought. We haven't been out since. It's not that he hasn't called -- he has. We've had plenty of contact, with the exception of human contact. After several weeks of phone and e-mail conversations, there has been no second date. So what is an acceptable duration between dates 1 and 2?

Ryan J. Kugler is known as the video industry's scrap collector, but he doesn't mind. He sees himself as doing studios a favor by buying up the surplus DVDs that they would otherwise be stuck with, then reselling them to retailers. Chances are that when you rummage through old movies in discount bins at Target, Wal-Mart, Best Buy or a local car wash, Kugler's fingerprints are on them.

Credit card? Check. Running shoes? Check. Helmet and elbow pads? Check. Check. Shopping isn't normally considered a contact sport, but when H&M, the Swedish cheap-chic chain known for whipping up retail frenzies, opens its first Southern California store Thursday in Pasadena, protective gear might be in order. When H&M opened in New York, lines snaked around a city block. In Chicago, the crowd rushed the doors with the fierce energy of Oklahomans at a land rush. In San Francisco last year, the bargain-hungry lined up before sunrise.

Shoppers won't find Raymond Chandler's "The Long Goodbye" on the picked-over shelves at Dutton's Books and Art on Laurel Canyon Boulevard. That's because bargain-hunters have swept up all the copies as the beloved North Hollywood emporium says its own long goodbye. After 45 years in business, the jumbled, rumpled-sweater shop is slated to close mid-month. For months now, customers have scoured the store's mismatched bookcases for unexpected treasures priced at 50% off -- soon to be 75% off.

"Share Now, Pay Later" (May 23) amply describes the risks of sharing medicines, but with the high cost of medicines, it's no wonder that patients take chances. The key is to prescribe the same medicines to each partner where feasible. The pharmaceutical industry wants the public to believe that every medicine is unique and irreplaceable. The truth is that all medicines in the same class of drugs are very similar in effects, with a few differences in side effects. Generic drugs are essentially exact reproductions of the brand name drugs and much less expensive.

Dad was a great guy. He taught me to throw a ball, respect my mother and tell a joke. What more could you ask of a father? I picture Dad, after having completed those tasks when I was young, rubbing his hands together and saying, "I've done all I can." Not quite. There was this one glaring omission.... This morning I ask -- make that beg -- all current or prospective fathers of young boys: Take 30 minutes with your son and show him how to lay down adhesive shelf paper.

You ate them up before the election. But can you stomach them now? They're the docu-propagandas spawned by the success of Michael Moore's loopy "Fahrenheit 9/11," which made $119.1 million in theaters. Most of these rotted on the vine -- "Celsius 41.11," a parboiled "Fahrenheit" response earned a mere $100,000 on its opening weekend -- but they're still out there. So, as a public health gesture, we took a guess at the agit-schlock's probable shelf life.

Dora Crouch cringes at the thought of Santa Paula's only public library closing, but says that is a possibility if the 93-year-old institution doesn't get financial aid soon. "We're desperate, and if we don't get some help it could happen," said Crouch, president of the Blanchard Community Library Board of Trustees. With a budget of $463,000 -- $50,000 less than the previous year -- and more cuts possible, the library board last week asked the Santa Paula City Council for help.

A little dab of sugar may double the shelf life of blood platelets, a lifesaving clotting component that is in chronic short supply because of spoilage. Harvard University researchers reported last week in the journal Science that laboratory tests show that putting a small amount of galactose, a type of sugar, into isolated platelets allows the blood components to be refrigerated and usefully preserved for at least 12 days.