Stairway

NEW YORK -- Pity the poor stairway, relegated in this high-rise city to the dank and dismal corners of most buildings, invisible and ignored save for the occasional fire drill. But Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, building on an anti-obesity drive that has added bike lanes, reduced fatty foods, and tried to take away super-sized sodas, wants to make stairs stylish. On Tuesday, he announced plans to introduce the country's first legislation aimed at steering people away from elevators and escalators and toward staircases.

So this guy goes to the doctor for back pain and the diagnosis is pretty awful: The patient is going to need spinal surgery again, for the third time in three years. Charles Fleming thought back on all the misery he'd endured the first two times he was cut open like a Christmas goose. He gave about two seconds' worth of consideration to the doctor's proposed disc-ectomy and said thanks, doc, but not just yet. He couldn't face the knife again. Just one problem: What to do about the crippling pain?

In the last decade, Apple made the 99-cent download the standard unit of music sales. Now, Apple is reportedly poised to try a second transformation, enticing music fans to store songs online — "in the cloud" — instead of on a hard drive. If the company's iCloud helps persuade the masses to embrace cloud-based services, that could help reverse more than a decade of sliding music sales. That's a big "if," however, and much depends on the labels' willingness to change. The shift from physical CDs to digital files has been a mixed blessing for the music industry, opening the door to rampant online piracy as well as promising new business models.

Tom Wilson, 5th District supervisor and chairman of the Orange County Board of Supervisors, returns to Laguna Beach for a talk at the Laguna Canyon Conservancy meeting Monday. He returns with no explanation of why the county-owned stairways -- left under county ownership when South Laguna was annexed to Laguna Beach, close to the new $200-million Montage Resort & Spa -- have no handrails, need paving and are dangerous and unsafe, especially for older walkers. Come on, Supervisor Wilson, either represent Laguna Beach on the Board of Supervisors or explain what's happening.

The writer Gay Talese once remarked that the pull of a great city arises, in part, from its power to pose mysteries. You can spend your entire life in such a city, walking its streets, only to turn a corner one day and encounter something you had never noticed before, something new and enigmatic. Why did that church become a nightclub? What's the story with the old mansion tucked between the office towers? Stuff like that. Talese, of course, was talking about his native New York.

A five-story stairway will connect the new law offices of McKenna, Conner & Cuneo, designed by the Los Angeles office of Gensler Associates/Architects. The stairway rising from the elevator lobby is a new design approach for modern buildings, the architect said, and serves an important function in unifying the offices. The law firm will occupy five floors of the fully renovated building at 444 S. Flower St. that once housed the Wells Fargo Bank.

Twenty-eight children were crushed to death Monday in a narrow stairway while running to answer a school assembly bell, the China Youth News said today. The children, most under 10, became jammed into the unlit stairway because school authorities had not unlocked the door at the other end. Some fell, and those behind piled on top of them.

Leo Carrillo State Beach: 36000 block, PCH. Nicholas Canyon County Beach: PCH, 1 mile south of Leo Carrillo beach. El Pescador State Beach: 32900 PCH. La Piedra State Beach: 32700 PCH. El Matador State Beach: 32350 PCH. Stairway: 31300 block, Broad Beach Road. Walkway and steps: 31200 block, Broad Beach Road. Zuma Beach County Park: 30000 block, PCH. Westward Beach and Point Dume State Beach: south end, Westward Beach Road. Paradise Cove: 28128 PCH. Escondido Beach: 27200 block, PCH.

I read with interest Robert Lloyd's article about the "Tim and Eric Awesome Show" tour ["Foolish Pleasure," March 15]. I would like to make a suggestion regarding Mr. Lloyd's choice of words in one section. In describing the "Oooh, mama!" segment, he says "the pair wreck a basement rec room, chanting 'Oooh, mama!' while a large woman looks on from the stairway." May I suggest this simple change: "The pair wreck a basement rec room, chanting 'Oooh, mama!' while 'Mama,' portrayed by the voluptuous character actress, Judith Goldstein, looks on from the stairway."

So this guy goes to the doctor for back pain and the diagnosis is pretty awful: The patient is going to need spinal surgery again, for the third time in three years. Charles Fleming thought back on all the misery he'd endured the first two times he was cut open like a Christmas goose. He gave about two seconds' worth of consideration to the doctor's proposed disc-ectomy and said thanks, doc, but not just yet. He couldn't face the knife again. Just one problem: What to do about the crippling pain?

Update: Actress Deborah Pratt, who wrote, appeared in and co-produced the time-travel drama "Quantum Leap" (1989-93), has sold her Holmby Hills-area home for $2.9 million. The traditional house, built in 1936, has a curved stairway off the entry, an elevator, high ceilings, a step-down living room and a formal dining room with a silver closet. The main house and separate guesthouse have six bedrooms and 5 1/2 bathrooms in 4,555 square feet. There is a pool. Pratt, 58, purchased the property in 1996 for $1.27 million, according to public records.

I read with interest Robert Lloyd's article about the "Tim and Eric Awesome Show" tour ["Foolish Pleasure," March 15]. I would like to make a suggestion regarding Mr. Lloyd's choice of words in one section. In describing the "Oooh, mama!" segment, he says "the pair wreck a basement rec room, chanting 'Oooh, mama!' while a large woman looks on from the stairway." May I suggest this simple change: "The pair wreck a basement rec room, chanting 'Oooh, mama!' while 'Mama,' portrayed by the voluptuous character actress, Judith Goldstein, looks on from the stairway."

Let's BE clear about one thing: They were a great band. I thought so wholeheartedly in 10th grade. But then my musical taste broadened, grew more "sophisticated" or "adult." They became a guilty pleasure, a reminder of my adolescence, the kind of band I was embarrassed I ever liked. But man, Led Zeppelin could play. When they were on, they produced heavy metal with nuance, with roots in not just the blues but Middle Eastern music, flat-out cranking rave-ups and English folk rock.

One . . . more . . . step. Almost there. Top of the hill. Don't step on the smashed guavas. Step over the giant philodendron. Ignore the snapping dog. More than 75 years ago, Laurel and Hardy struggled to maneuver a piano up these 131 Silver Lake steps in the classic comedy "The Music Box," cementing the staircase in cinematic history. Hauling an oversized load up the oxygen-depleting ascent hasn't gotten any easier, but it's worth the trip. Huff. Puff.

A stairwell on a TWA jet popped open during a flight, and a crew member with a tether around his waist to keep him from being swept out had to pull the hatch closed. None of the 72 people aboard were hurt and the plane landed safely in San Antonio. The Boeing 727 from St. Louis was flying at 35,000 feet, at least 100 miles from its destination of San Antonio on Tuesday night when a cockpit light indicated the rear stairway under the tail was open. The crew discovered it had dropped about 2 feet.

The coastal protection agency that secured a public beach path last year through entertainment magnate David Geffen's Malibu compound now is being asked to approve several projects that previously had been constructed there without permits. Officials said Geffen built a 42-foot-long deck extension, a private stairway to the beach, a large storage shed, fencing, a gate and a concrete walkway without California Coastal Commission permission.

BEFORE the age of photography, fame was a small club. God and the gods were founding members; there were kings and queens. Education was only for the privileged, and there was no need to know the masses because they had no power. In our cultural history, rumors were the first attempts to generate "legend" or stories among the unknown. A rumor might spread about how, seven leagues from here or there, lived a beautiful woman -- or she might be ugly. Tales, fairy tales, might be told about her.