Tiger

Reporting from New York Brian Bedford likes to joke that after playing King Lear at the Stratford Festival, it was a natural progression to take on the role of Lady Bracknell, that gorgon of Victorian society, in the Oscar Wilde comedy "The Importance of Being Earnest" — in full drag. But asked what his sequential roles might have in common, the actor pauses. "You know, I've never thought about it, but when Lear enters a room, that's all that matters to him," he says. "His presence is a very powerful influence on himself as well as everybody else.

Regarding "Face to Face" [March 29] about trackers who killed the tiger in Simi Valley: I am offended by romanticizing these tracker-thugs whose mentality is kill it if it moves, and if it doesn't move, shoot it anyway. Laurra Maddock Laguna Niguel As a Du-par's regular, I surmise the plastic bag found in the tiger's stomach bearing the restaurant's name originally came from the Du-par's on Thousand Oaks Boulevard in Thousand Oaks. Ruben Vassolo Hollywood

I can just see my golf partners giving me a free drop after I've hit my ball over a roof and into a parking lot. Only Tiger gets a break like that. TOM TURNER Dana Point What are they going to drug-test golfers for? NoDoz? BILL ADLER Granada Hills

A New York man who is recovering from injuries after he jumped into a tiger's pen in the Bronx Zoo will face trespassing charges, police said Saturday. David M. Villalobos, 25, of Mahopac, N.Y., told police he wanted “to be one with the tiger,” the Associated Press reported. Villalobos survived the jump and ensuing attack thanks to the tiger's less-than-ruthless reaction and the quick work of zoo employees, zoo director Jim Breheny said earlier . Villalobos suffered broken bones from the fall and bite wounds from the tiger but was recovering Sunday.

Charles R. Bond Jr., a retired Air Force major general and one of the last surviving Flying Tigers, died Aug. 18 from the effects of dementia at Presbyterian Village North, an assisted-living community in Dallas. He was 94. In September 1941, he left the Army Air Forces to volunteer for service in China as part of a secret program, the American Volunteer Group, nicknamed the Flying Tigers, under Gen. Claire Chennault. Made up of about 400 pilots and ground personnel and based in Burma and China, the Flying Tigers protected military supply routes between China and Burma and helped get supplies to Chinese forces fighting the Japanese.

Officials said Monday that the city is not liable for the death of a San Jose teenager who was attacked by an escaped tiger on Christmas Day at the San Francisco Zoo. The city instead referred a claim filed by the parents of 17-year-old Carlos Sousa Jr. to the San Francisco Zoological Society, which manages the zoo, and to the society's insurance company, according to a letter issued by City Atty. Dennis Herrera. Herrera responded in a similar fashion in May to claims filed by brothers Kulbir and Paul Dhaliwal, two friends of Sousa who were mauled by the tiger.

18th hole, South Course, Par 5, 570 yards Tiger's tee shot was a booming one, 309 yards, but to the left rough. He managed to avoid the trio bunkers on that side of the fairway. And his second shot was a pretty one and it got him back on the fairway, to the right. With his next shot he was on the green, about 18 feet away for a birdie. Will he make it this time or will it go long again? This time the putt was short, by about a foot and a half. Another collective sigh from the gallery.

The state wildlife officer who shot to death a 600-pound escaped tiger pleaded for people to stop calling him an "animal murderer." Jesse Curtis Lee, 24, was identified as the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officer who shot the big cat twice in the head July 13 after a 26-hour search. The commission released its review of the incident in Loxahatchee, concluding that Lee used sound judgment and complied with the agency's guidelines when he shot the Bengal-Siberian tiger named Bobo.

Having just returned from central India, where my wife and I were fortunate to view two tigers in the wild in separate sightings in Pench National Park, I am disheartened to see our state officials so flippantly take the life of the tiger in Ventura County (Feb. 24). I was not at the scene and did not have the details that the Fish and Game officials had after the tiger was spotted by a citizen. I am concerned, however, that it appears that the officer in charge thought no more of the situation than if it was a rabid dog he was facing.

A Bay Area couple admitted in federal court to trying to illegally import a real, stuffed tiger into the United States. The pair pleaded guilty to one charge each of trying to import an endangered species without proper permits in exchange for prosecutors dropping more serious smuggling charges. Nicki Phung, 31, and Steven Tieu, 38, are both expected to be sentenced to probation. Each has agreed to pay $5,000 to a nonprofit dedicated to protecting wild cats. The two were caught in December when a U.S. customs official at San Francisco International Airport inspected a box labeled "toy tiger" mailed from Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, and bound for the couple's home in Hercules, Calif.