Surprise

You look fat in that. Of course I'll be late. Your baby reminds me of Gollum's uncle. This is what the 2013 Subaru BRZ might say if it could talk. The all-new, rear-wheel-drive sports car starts at $26,265, and boy is it honest - perhaps more so than any other car on the market today, save for its mechanical twin, the Scion FR-S. The two were jointly developed by Subaru and Scion's parent company, Toyota, with both assembled by Subaru in Japan. The question about the BRZ is, can you handle the honesty?

LAS VEGAS -- Dana White was upset and wanted to make something clear. Last Friday night, as White attempted to lounge inside his office building where cable network FX films live fights for the Ultimate Fighting Championship's reality show, "The Ultimate Fighter," he wanted to return to the topic of mixed-martial-arts journalism. As president and chief promoter of the UFC, White seeks as much attention as possible for his organization, but occasionally — if not often — he is chafed by the accuracy of online reporting by MMA writers.

Bob Baffert and Wayne Lukas were sitting next to each other at a recent racing function when Baffert said to Lukas, "Everyone used to hate you. Now they hate me." It's as clear as a giant flowered hat, and just as ugly. At rowdy Churchill Downs today, the only thing more quietly despised than Bob Baffert will be a Breathalyzer. The 128th Kentucky Derby will feature 19 horses, 150,000 fans, and one villain. Baffert will saddle longshot War Emblem.

SAN DIEGO -- Bud Black was a member of Mike Scioscia's original coaching staff with the Angels. Three of those coaches ascended to managerial jobs - Black with the San Diego Padres, Joe Maddon with the Tampa Bay Rays and Ron Roenicke with the Milwaukee Brewers. Never in Scioscia's 13 years had one of his coaches left involuntarily - until this week, that is. Hitting instructor Mickey Hatcher , another of Scioscia's original coaches, was fired by General Manager Jerry Dipoto . "Your initial reaction is surprise," Black said.

Don't tell Anne Smith that a weekend game of mixed doubles is supposed to be fun. She'll just hit the ball harder. Ask Stan Smith, one of her opponents in the semifinals of the Ford Sports Tennis Championships Saturday. After he lobbed a shot into the stands and jokingly told her to "hit it!" she fired back with a forehand so powerful that it almost took his ear off. "C'mon," he said. "We're supposed to be having fun out here."

The lead paragraphs of your April 3 article on "surprise" tax bills are a definite attention grabber ("A Surprise Plucking: Loss of Deductions, Shelter Benefits Begin to Take a Toll From Some Taxpayers"). Someone's tax jumping from $4,300 to $27,000 is shocking. However, what I find amazing is that on a net income of over $82,000 (estimated from the $27,000 tax bill, using my handy 1987 tax rate tables), which implies a gross income of near $100,000, that the taxpayer used as an example was truly surprised that the very well-publicized tax law changes of last year would affect him. Perhaps he should fire his accountant for not warning him that all those nice tax shelters had been axed.

Over the years, Comic-Con's movie-centric Hall H has offered some pretty great surprises. Robert Downey Jr. has been involved with a few of them. Hugh Jackman, who unexpectedly turned up at a "Wolverine" panel back in 2008 and sent the crowd into a tizzy, helped make for a classic moment. But lately the Comic-Con surprise has felt about as fresh as your Uncle Murray's surprise birthday party. The problem? So many of these types of moments have been orchestrated over the years that they've ceased to be, well, surprising.

As Newt Gingrich took the stage Saturday in South Carolina to the cheers of enthusiastic supporters, tweets about him rose sharply, as did expressions of shock, according to an analysis by San Francisco-based Kanjoya. “If Barack Obama can get reelected after this disaster, just think how radical he would be in a second term,” Gingrich said. Gingrich's victory and his words afterward took many people by surprise, Kanjoya reported. Its engineers found tweets such as: "You never know what will happen until it does.

Vice President Joe Biden has arrived in Baghdad for a surprise visit ahead of the drawdown of U.S. forces from Iraq. Biden arrived at Baghdad International Airport at 6:32 p.m. local time and traveled directly to the U.S. Embassy. It's Biden's eighth trip to Iraq since being elected vice president. According to the White House, Biden will co-chair a meeting of the U.S.-Iraq Higher Coordinating Committee and meet with senior Iraqi officials during his time there. He'll also speak at an event marking American sacrifices in the more than eight-year conflict.

The forecasts called for a strong chance of rain , but so far it hasn't appeared.  Instead, the sun is out for the 27th annual L.A. Marathon that began Sunday morning.  The elite women's runners started the 26.2-mile run at Dodger Stadium just after 7 a.m. and Misikir Mekonnin of Ethiopia took an early lead. But the women's race has so far been dominated by 20-year-old Fatuma Sado of Ethopia. She took the lead in the seventh mile and has started to pull away, separating herself in the 12th mile by opening up a 25-second lead over the runner in second place, Ethopia's Belainesh Gebre.  Sado is on pace to break the course record of 2 hours, 25 minutes, 10 seconds, set by Lidiya Grigoryeva of Russia in 2006.  The men began just short of 7:30 a.m. and Elias Kemboi, a top contender from Kenya, held a lead after the first two miles.

Kings left wing Dwight King could have given the expected answer when he was talking about previous influences in his life, namely if any of those folks reminded him of Coach Darryl Sutter. Rich Sutter, right? Rich, the younger brother of Darryl, was an assistant coach when King played junior hockey for Lethbridge, Canada, of the Western Hockey League. King called both Sutters "great men," but thought of someone else from back home in Saskatchewan who comes close to Darryl.

Mike Bresnahan covers the Lakers for The Times and ties up loose ends before all their playoff games. The Lakers trail Oklahoma City, 1-0, in their best-of-seven series. The Lakers pulled off a stunner: Andrew Bynum talked on the day of a game. It's not the shocker Lakers fans hoped to see two days after their team got bludgeoned by the Oklahoma City Thunder, but I was definitely surprised. Before every game, Bynum acts like the starting pitcher in Game 7 of the World Series.

When the Dodgers signed Chris Capuano over the winter, their expectations for him were modest. He was supposed to be their fifth starter. If not for Ted Lilly starting the season on the disabled list, his first turn in the rotation would have been skipped. But something unexpected has happened. Capuano is pitching like an ace. The 33-year-old left-hander was again spectacular in the Dodgers' 7-3 victory over the Colorado Rockies on Tuesday night, limiting the visitors to a run and four hits over seven innings.

"Here we are - no, I mean there we were… Flash! The distant shipping in the Thames is gone. Whirr!… Dustheaps, market gardens, and waste grounds. Rattle!...Shock!...Bur-r-r-r! The tunnel…I am… flying for Folkestone…Bang!… Everything is flying. " -- "A Flight," by Charles Dickens, describing a rail trip from London in the journal "Household Words," 1851 :: Who knew that Charles Dickens, master scribe who brought us Scrooge, Copperfield and tale upon cautionary tale of hard 19th century life, was a transit aficionado with a story to tell traffic-snarled Angelenos about their plight?

BRISTOL, Conn. - In the bid to build the perfect sports talk show, competition abounds - from the Web, talk radio and, most important, from established ESPN shows such as "Pardon the Interruption. " And yet within this crowded field, ESPN2's sports-debate show "First Take" - a daily two-hour program that alternates between rancor and depth - has flourished. Featuring the commentator Skip Bayless and a rotation of guests that includes pundit Stephen A. Smith, the show with a mix of hectoring and (sometimes)

Health Net Inc.shares plunged 25% as the Woodland Hills insurer posted disappointing first-quarter results and slashed its full-year profit outlook. The company surprised analysts and investors by disclosing an additional $67 million in medical claims that hadn't been reported in the fourth quarter because of errors in processing claims. Health Net said outside vendors that handle those claims for the company experienced problems with a new industrywide billing format. Health Net also cut its 2012 profit forecast to a range of $2.35 to $2.50 a share, excluding certain items.

For sheer tumult and unpredictability, the 2012 campaign may top them all, says James Carville. Carville, of course, is the Democrat who masterminded Bill Clinton's winning campaign in 1992. That race was hardly dull, with Ross Perot waging a competitive third-party bid and incumbent President George H.W. Bush losing office to the young upstart from Hope, Ark. But Carville is bracing for a campaign season that defies much of what we know about American electoral politics. “This is going to be the most tumultuous thing you can imagine," Carville said in an interview Tuesday.

KABUL, Afghanistan — Putting a symbolic seal on a long and brutal conflict, President Obama made a dramatic overnight visit to the Afghan capital, signing an accord meant to offer assurances that the United States is not abandoning Afghanistan but also acknowledging that the massive Western military presence is coming to a close. After landing on a darkened runway late Tuesday night, Obama rushed to the heavily fortified presidential palace of Afghan President Hamid Karzai to sign a strategic partnership accord that sets the broad outlines of U.S. engagement for a decade beyond the completion of NATO's combat role in 2014.

WASHINGTON -- The plan was for the debate on the controversial Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act to take place on Thursday, with the vote the next day. As it turns out, the legislation came to a surprising vote after the debate tonight, eventually passing in the House by a vote of 248-168. The bill's passage, despite a veto threat from the White House Wednesday, now places the responsibility in the lap of the Senate, which has its own cybersecurity legislation in the works.