Trailers

The Federal Emergency Management Agency has scrapped plans to evict 3,000 Mississippi households suspected of being ineligible for post-Hurricane Katrina emergency trailers after some recipients said that the government's mistaken determination had left them facing homelessness. Last month, the Los Angeles Times interviewed a number of Mississippians who said they had received eviction notices in error. Others cited what they described as gray areas in FEMA's eligibility requirements.

"The Avengers," as you may have heard, is the biggest thing to happen to America since World War II but, you know, louder and more troubling. At the end of the matinee I witnessed, audience members actually cheered, believing what they'd just seen was some sort of documentary. Manhattan had been saved, which is almost always a cause for celebration, though I met this one New Yorker the other day at the rent-a-car place: swaggery young Italian guy, you know the type. The New Yorker said he didn't like L.A. because "ders nuttin' to do hair," which translates roughly into "there is nothing to do here.

BARDY AZADMARD never wanted a trailer, never even set foot in one until seven years ago, while driving to land he'd just bought in Leona Valley. That's when he spied an oddly shaped hulk alongside a dusty canyon road. "It was beat up and had 'for sale' spray-painted in huge letters all across its side. But it had an amazing shape. Like a yacht, or something that floats. It was retro and futuristic all at once, like something from 'Star Wars,' " he says. Azadmard, 53, is sensitive to such things.

Reporting from Sacramento -- A loophole in the state's mobile-billboard law has spawned fleets of motor scooters, bicycles and sleds hitched to large signs and parked along streets. On Thursday, the state Senate approved a measure that would give Los Angeles and other cities broader powers to get rid of the mobile ads. "We need to go after the new generation of mobile billboards, which are more annoying and dangerous than ever," said Assemblyman Bob Blumenfield (D-Woodland Hills)

For weeks, Scoutmaster Carl Martinez helped his six Boy Scouts organize a camping trip. They created a budget, planned meals and tried to be prepared for anything that came their way. That didn't include having their camping gear stolen during the night, forcing Martinez to cancel the much-anticipated trip to Joshua Tree National Park last weekend.

At Uncle Henry's Smokehouse Bar B Que in Hope, Ark., the lunchtime crowd filled every table Thursday -- all 10 of them. At City Hall, the phones were ringing off the hook. And out at the airport, a private pilot who just turned 45 said she didn't expect to live long enough to see things get back to normal. All because of the latest example of how federal, state and local officials have responded to Hurricane Katrina. Time was, Hope was known primarily as the childhood home of President Clinton.

Lyle Waggoner hit pay dirt when he made the worst decision of his acting career. The decision to leave "The Carol Burnett Show" in 1974 was something he did because he thought the show would never make it into the lucrative realm of reruns. "As it turned out, 'The Carol Burnett Show' went on to become one of the most successful syndicated shows in the history of television," Waggoner said, grimacing. "But my decision was a good move for me.

Lyle Waggoner--Hollywood actor--has more of a ring to it than Lyle Waggoner--builder of makeup and wardrobe trailers for the movie industry. But for Waggoner, who spent eight years on "The Carol Burnett Show," trading in stardust for sawdust has meant more financial stability than he ever knew in the film industry. Waggoner's 13-year-old business, Star Waggons in Sylmar, leases custom-made trailers and motor homes to movie studios and television production companies for location work.

Tailgating isn't just for tailgates anymore. What used to be a simple pregame picnic lunch served out of the back of a pickup truck or station wagon has become a multibillion-dollar business that, to some fans, is more important than the game itself. And few people know that better than Jeff Campbell, owner and, until recently, sole employee of Gameday Customs of Long Beach. Campbell outfits trailers designed specifically for the care and feeding of tailgaters.

There are those who like to take along the modern comforts -- the microwave, the icemaker, the satellite receiver -- when they hit the road in their modern motor homes. And then there are a growing number of nostalgia buffs who prefer pulling old house trailers that sport knotty-pine interiors and wood-burning stoves with chimneys. "It's like having a bungalow on wheels.