Subtle

Phil Jackson never liked to compare Kobe Bryant to Michael Jordan. Believe me, I tried everything. Sometimes I'd ask him after random Lakers practices or before games against Charlotte, the team Jordan owned. Or after games in Chicago, where nostalgia hopefully would add to the mix. There would be a little nugget here, a tiny nibble there, but nothing that mattered. It's coming out now, though, in Jackson's 339-page memoir co-written with Hugh Delehanty and available Tuesday: "Eleven Rings: The Soul of Success.

SAO PAULO, Brazil - Shortly before Venezuela's presidential election, former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva recorded a video supporting Nicolas Maduro, saying he had "stood out brilliantly in the struggle" for a more democratic Latin America. Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, who was endorsed by Lula in 2010, kept silent on the ultimately victorious candidacy of Maduro, the hand-chosen heir of the late leftist Venezuelan president, Hugo Chavez. The difference in demeanor between the two Brazilian presidents was not surprising to Rousseff watchers.

How can you tell if you or someone you know is having a heart attack? Sometimes the symptoms can be surprisingly subtle. "They can be very different from person to person, between women and men and even within an individual who has more than one heart attack," says Dr. David Rizik, director of Interventional Cardiology for Scottsdale Healthcare Hospitals, in Scottsdale, Ariz. Men and women may experience atypical heart attack symptoms. In contrast to the "classic" chest-splitting, gasping-for-breath symptoms, many heart attacks begin with symptoms that are so mild they are often mistaken for indigestion or muscle ache.

  For anyone who loves a leaner, more elegant style of Chardonnay, this is the one. Liquid Farm proprietors Nikki and Jeff Nelson are going for Chardonnay with less oak influence and lower alcohol. Bingo. That's a recipe for a food-friendly wine, and with the help of winemakers Brandon Sparks-Gillis and John Dragonette of Dragonette Cellars, they're making this terrific Chardonnay from Santa Rita Hills grapes. I love its minerality, the sharp, fresh scent of citrus and, well, grape that comes through loud and clear.

Re "White America Needs Its Bigotry," Commentary, June 21: In his attack on subtle racism, Crispin Sartwell states, "White people take themselves to be the opposite of whatever they think black people are. Thus white people only understand themselves in what they exclude or segregate from themselves." Well, you've got to hand it to those white people, so subtle they are. No other race, of course, could be this subtle in its racism. But didn't I read the other day in The Times about separate graduations at UCLA for certain ethnicities?

There was an interesting juxtaposition of film advertisements in the Jan. 12 Calendar: Paramount's "Juice" on Page 10 and Universal's "Kuffs" on Page 12. Paramount's recent removal of the revolver from the hand of the character in the "Juice" poster is revealing when compared to Christian Slater's grip on a semiautomatic in the "Kuffs" promo. Why is it OK for a white guy to hold a gun, but not OK for a black guy? The saga of Hollywood's subtle (and not so subtle) racism continues.

I wonder how Tommy John might react when he learns from Jim Murray's May 16 column that only one active pitcher (Nolan Ryan) has won more games than Bert Blyleven's 258. Is this Murray's not-so-subtle way of suggesting that John is over the hill and only "technically" active? GERRY SCHWARTZ Los Angeles Editor's note: It's no technicality that Tommy John has won more games than Bert Blyleven and Nolan Ryan, but he has not reached 300 yet. He has 288. Ryan has 277. The only person who has been not so subtle about John's ability is Dallas Green, the New York Yankees manager who said before spring training that he didn't want John in the rotation.

Your Dec. 24 editorial "Parental Advisory" on the proposed Illinois laws limiting minors' access to certain video games raises several valid points. However, you struck an oddly anachronistic note by mentioning Vladimir Nabokov's acclaimed work of literature "Lolita" alongside Hustler magazine and the game "Doom 3," which you rightly call "disgusting." One would be hard-pressed to observe the roots of human emotion in Hustler, and I am confident that no critic has yet found a subtle interplay of remembrance and imagination in "Doom 3."

Bravo for your Nov. 2 article "Quiet Zone." If only more schools would take the lead of Assistant Principal Jim Morris and Coldwater Canyon Avenue School in North Hollywood, I am sure it would be only a matter of time before other school officials would witness the improved classroom performance that can be produced by this subtle arts education. ANNE DUNKIN Tarzana

I'd like to commend the cast and crew of "Frank's Place." The Oct. 5 episode was a fine example of the delicate play between high drama and subtle humor. Kudos to Tim Reid--the cast and writers deserve the highest praise. I hope we'll still be enjoying "Frank's Place" on Monday nights a year from now! Sally M. North, Santa Monica

It was a reign of terror that reeked of rednecks and white hoods. Tires were slashed, rocks hurled through windows and acid pellets fired at the car of a black family, who finally fled their neighborhood in November after months of attacks and racial taunts. They were the sort of family you might like to have as neighbors: The husband and wife are law enforcement officers; they have two well-mannered sons. And the Orange County city of Yorba Linda is the sort you might like to live in, where the median income is $115,000 a year and almost half the adults have college degrees.

TEHRAN - His son is named after the river born where the Tigris and Euphrates meet. His wife once complained that he loved a rare species of yellow deer more than her. His realm runs from sprawling salt deserts to the snowcapped peaks of the Zagros Mountains, from southern marshes along the Persian Gulf to damp northern forests known as the "cloud jungle. " Mohammad Darvish, 47, is Iran's green gladiator, engaged in a quixotic, often lonesome quest to elevate his homeland's environmental IQ. In a nation where security and economic concerns overshadow threats to a varied and fragile ecosystem, he even dares to oppose nuclear power, sacrosanct to Iran's leaders.

News reports of economic woes and misbegotten corporate schemes play like a soundtrack in "Killing Them Softly," a moody crime noir starring Brad Pitt as a New Orleans hit man dealing with a down market, bad bets and loose change. Though the notion of crime as a business is nothing new, the film uses the machinations and motivations of the Big Easy's underworld to mirror contemporary corporate America's decline down to the difficult bosses. Yes, the "layoffs" tend to be more lethal, but the severance packages often call for delicate negotiations that sound all too familiar.

TORONTO -- Alan Arkin knew he wanted to act by his 5th birthday. He dragged his mother to the Crossroads of the World on Sunset Boulevard when he was 11 so he could sign up for a specious organization called The Screen Children's Guild. Nothing came of that, but the 78-year-old actor has been making a pretty good living for nearly half a century. Arkin has seen a thing or two, and he has a few thoughts about why movies connect with audiences. Sitting in the back row of the cavernous Roy Thomson Hall Theatre for the Toronto Film Festival's gala screening of Ben Affleck's politically tinged thriller "Argo," Arkin watched and listened while the audience cheered the story.

One of Southern California's most successful denim kingpins is jumping back in the jean pool. Peter Koral, who co-founded the 7 for All Mankind premium denim label in 2000 and built it into a business that VF Corp. purchased in 2007 for $775 million, has teamed up with his eldest son, 29-year-old David Koral, and fellow 7 for All Mankind alumnus Rick Crane to launch Koral Los Angeles. The line of women's premium denim started hitting retail shelves in late July. During a recent visit to the label's downtown showroom, father and son sat down to explain how the denim trade became a family business.

The child who is routinely yelled at, demeaned, ridiculed, ignored or terrorized by a parent may bear no outward signs of abuse. But abused he is, and the negative consequences for the child's mental health as well as his future relationships and sense of self-worth are generally significant, says a new clinical report from the nation's pediatricians. Psychological maltreatment of children by their parents or caregivers is "harder to identify" and "possibly the most underreported" to authorities, especially when it happens without physical or sexual abuse, write the authors of the report , published Monday in the journal Pediatrics.

There is a lot of hoopla about low interest rates on home loans but what everyone fails to disclose is that if you are a single woman trying to buy a home for yourself and your child you should just forget it. They are more subtle in their discriminatory practices, but not that subtle. Returning my call inquiring about loans one lender said "Hello, Mrs. Singer?" What a nervy presumption! It is apparent the bank wanted to know my marital status but couldn't ask directly. They then told me I could not qualify for their loan based on my "vital statistics."

Julie Cart's article on her experiences in sports while she was growing up was very interesting ("Game of Life," Feb. 1.) But why was it buried in the back pages? I almost missed it, never expecting to find a thoughtful essay in that place. Such placement seemed like a subtle corroboration of a main theme of the article: When it comes to sports, sometimes the message to the ladies still is "Move to the rear." RICHARD HOLLIS Los Alamitos

Anna Faris, was that really a baby bump you were flashing at “The Dictator” premiere in London on Thursday? Well, OK, we'll go along with it if you say so - especially after you did say so when you let the world know Wednesday that you're pregnant. Faris, 35, is expecting her first child with husband Chris Pratt, 32, of “Parks and Recreation” fame, her rep confirmed  to Us Weekly, citing a fall due date. The couple tied the knot in Bali in July 2009; it was a second marriage for Faris, who divorced actor Ben Indra in 2007.

Wrinkly Chinese fermented black beans look as though they have just emerged from an archaeological site. Indeed, the salty, pungent little bits are an ancient Chinese staple. Made of black or yellow soybeans, they were once the only soy-based seasoning used all over China but nowadays are mostly employed in southern Chinese cooking. Called dou chi in Mandarin and dul see in Cantonese, you may know them as the punchy dark flecks in the sparerib nuggets at dim sum. But fermented black beans are remarkably versatile.