Table

SACRAMENTO - Legislation aimed at curbing table-saw accidents that often result in amputations survived a party-line vote in a state Senate committee. The measure, approved 3 to 2 in the Senate Judiciary Committee, would make California the first state in the nation to require that table saws be equipped with "injury mitigation technology" to stop a blade quickly enough to avoid amputations and severe lacerations. The Assembly already passed the bill on a 64-4 bipartisan vote.

When people think of hunger, they might picture a starving Third World child. The makers of the new documentary "A Place at the Table" suggest the face of undernourishment can be found much closer to home: Tens of millions of U.S. citizens go to bed hungry every night. "Americans are for the most part unaware of how vast the problem is," said Kristi Jacobson. She co-directed the film, which premieres in limited release this weekend, with Lori Silverbush, who added, "You can't see hunger in America.

Farrow & Ball, the high-end British paint and wallpaper company, has a different way of adding glamour to your holiday house: a new, limited edition paper table runner. Forget about ironing last year's cloth runner. Farrow & Ball's paper simply unrolls on your table. The colors -- grays called Plummet and Calluna, plus festive silver -- are elegant complements to silver or gold table settings. And when you're done with dinner, perhaps you can use the paper to wrap gifts? The piece is inspired by Farrow & Ball's Ringwold wallpaper design.

A scrumptious blog from a couple traveling around the world with their mouths and their minds wide open. Name: TheRoadForks.com What it does: Joins beautiful photography with first-person travel stories and advice. Akila and Patrick McConnell have created a site that is one part cooking class, one part art show, two parts tour guide and three parts addicting. What's hot: You don't feel as if you're reading about an old trip. The vibrancy of TheRoadForks brings you right to their table whether the trip was in 2007 or last week.

One of the better-known community tables was established by the Chatham restaurant in Westwood Village back in the late '40s or early '50s. The Chatham was a favorite lunch spot for local professionals and the staff and faculty of UCLA. The community table was well utilized for 30 to 35 years. The community table seated 14 and had its own waiting area at each end. It was not limited to singles, but 80% to 90% of its diners were by themselves. The procedure was to sit in the first chair that became vacant.

It's always been a puzzle why here at the very edge of the continent, on this coast festooned with miles of beach, there are so few restaurants with a view of that very Pacific. You can practically count them on the fingers of one hand. That's why Studio in Laguna Beach is such a find. The setting is absolutely extraordinary. Tucked at the edge of the new Montage Resort, the restaurant sits on a 50-foot bluff a stroll away from the main buildings, directly on the ocean.

Nobody knows better than a restaurant critic about too much of a good thing. Who else would complain on her last night in San Francisco that she had already had more than enough expense-account meals? There I was, dreading one more grand dinner, even if it was to be with a colleague whose company I had always enjoyed. I grumbled as I waited for my guest at Jardiniere. I wasn't feeling sociable. I grew more irritable as time passed, and I kept recalculating how late the evening was likely to run.

When piped-in music and a bar's history perfectly align, it makes for a sweet cocktail of synchronicity, a besotted wink from the intimate interior that makes all the drinkers lean into their liquor just a little bit more. On a recent Sunday night, the ramshackle Chez Jay, a beachcomber bistro in Santa Monica with a legendary past, was packed. Glasses twinkled, waiters rushed through the room delivering steaming steaks, and the Doors' "L.A. Woman" played overhead. "Driving down your freeways," Morrison growled, and it seemed like the room was right there with him, careening down Pacific Coast Highway.

One Saturday night in May 1964, a group of friends from UCLA and their wives gathered together for a dinner that whimsically celebrated the French Revolution. There were crepes, fromages, French wines and true Champagne. It was so much fun they decided to do it again the following month. And the month after that. Now they're getting ready to celebrate their 45th year of regular monthly meals. And still they show absolutely no sign of slowing down.

Ding. Bzzzt. Bap. Beep. That's the sound of conversation in restaurants these days. Where cellphones once posed a nuisance as people chatted loudly into them during meals, they now present a whole new set of etiquette issues as entire tables disappear into the Internet via small glowing screens. Like an analog world-munching Pac-Man, the modern cellphone has morphed into instant messenger, mailbox, camera, flashlight, computer, map, dictionary, newspaper, personal assistant and social media portal.