Treasure Island

Casino operator MGM Mirage Inc. is selling the Treasure Island Hotel & Casino on the Las Vegas Strip to billionaire Phil Ruffin for $500 million, the company said Monday. Ruffin, whose interests include casinos and greyhound race tracks, purchased the property through Ruffin Acquisition for $500 million cash and $275 million in secured notes issued by Ruffin Acquisition and secured by Treasure Island's assets, MGM Mirage said. The combined value of the deal, including debt, is $775 million.

Robbie Knievel has less than a month to study the fire-spewing volcanic terrain around his next motorcycle stunt. Luckily for him, it's Las Vegas, where eruptions between now and then are scheduled hourly, every night. Knievel, the 46-year-old son of the late daredevil Evel Knievel, will jump the refurbished volcano at the Mirage hotel-casino on a motorcycle as part of a television special on New Year's Eve. Mirage officials unveiled a $25-million face-lift for the casino's iconic erupting volcano on Monday night, a five-minute fire and water spectacle to a custom soundtrack co-written by former Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart.

THE photos hanging on the wall at Shanghai Tang show familiar faces: Michael Douglas, Angelina Jolie, Keanu Reeves, Kate Moss, Jodie Foster. Each is wearing a Chinese jacket or cheongsam -- dress -- from the Hong Kong store. Similar dresses and jackets, many priced at well over $1,000, line the racks. The store is full of browsers and buyers. Welcome to Hong Kong, where the A-list does its luxury shopping.

Motion Picture Masterpieces Collection (Warner Home Video, $50) Treasure Island After teaming them in the 1931 hit "The Champ" and 1933's "The Bowery," MGM tapped blustery Wallace Beery and child actor Jackie Cooper once again for this enjoyable 1934 adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's pirate tale. Director Victor Fleming, who excelled in this early action genre, helmed the handsome production. He also gives free reign to his actors, who devour the scenery whole.

AS the ferry from Hong Kong pulled into the terminal slip, I peered through the rain-fogged windows at a huge, glowing red sign: "SANDS." Farther along the waterfront, I could make out the looming hulk of a volcano -- of the man-made variety, erupting daily on schedule. In the taxi on the way to the hotel, I gawked at the towering skeletons of hotels and casinos that have turned Macao into a giant construction site.

San Francisco's plans for Treasure Island (Jan. 9) sound great, but I'm concerned that the only mention of earthquake safety is buried near the end of the article. Treasure Island is man-made, the worst possible place to build in a seismic zone. Much of the earthquake damage that occurred during the 1906 San Francisco earthquake was on man-made land near the bay. And the Marina District, site of extensive damage from the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, was built on landfill from debris from the 1906 earthquake.

Here in one of America's most densely populated cities, there are more than 15,000 people per square mile. Land values soar as high as skyscrapers. There is little room to grow in any direction except up.

To say that EGREM, the great Havana-based record company, is the Motown of Cuba is to sell it short. This is not a label that specialized in a sound or a certain subculture. This is Cuba's national monopoly of music, a state-owned enterprise that for many years was the only game not just in town but in the entire country.

From the western shores of Treasure Island in San Francisco Bay, the view stretches past Alcatraz Island to the muddy-red span of the Golden Gate Bridge and the expanse of Pacific Ocean. To the left, the Bay Bridge leads to the hilly San Francisco cityscape. The surprisingly unspoiled Marin County headlands rise to the north of the Golden Gate Bridge. For half a century, this stunning view belonged to thousands of sailors en route to World War II, Vietnam or other duty assignments.

Stuart Appleby had every reason to be concerned. Five shots ahead with five holes to play Sunday in the Mercedes Championships, Appleby started playing it safe as Vijay Singh began pouring in birdies. Momentum was on the side of the tall Fijian, but Appleby never flinched. "I really felt like it was up to Vijay to catch me," Appleby said. "I wasn't going to let him have anything for free. I didn't make any mistakes. And unfortunately -- to the benefit of me -- he ran out of holes."