Vain

TEMPE, Ariz. -- The most pained expression worn by any Angel last season was the one worn by catcher Bengie Molina in July -- not from physical pain on the day he strained his hamstring, but from mental anguish the next day. For the second consecutive season, he had suffered a hamstring injury that put him onto the disabled list in the heat of a division race. "It's ... embarrassing," Molina said that day. "I'm ... letting the team down. I can't even pick up my head.

Paseo Colorado, the $130-million TrizecHahn retail development in downtown Pasadena, is yet another example of the now familiar formula: mixed-use urban malls that seek to replicate the experience of a real city. Designed--again--by Ehrenkrantz Eckstut & Kuhn Architects, this one is cloaked in a veneer of Spanish colonial imagery. But its essential features are indistinguishable from Hollywood & Highland: a multiplex theater, chain restaurants and rows and rows of shops.

The U.S. military assault on Afghanistan entered a new stage today as an assault force, including Army Rangers, attacked the airport in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar, the heart of the Taliban regime, U.S. officials said. Moving under cover of darkness, a force of more than 100 helicopter-borne troops staged the attack, then withdrew after several hours, a U.S. official said.

At my writers' workshop, Peggy began her reading, "They have not died in vain," and went on to say how, after the Sept. 11 disaster, flags were sold out in the stores and are being displayed all over town. I felt myself growing angry, and when she repeated, "They have not died in vain" at the end of her essay, the fury rose in my chest. We have a rule: no cliches and I can't think of a worse one. Five minutes later, when it was my turn to critique her work, I exploded. "I'm furious!

Frustrated high school tennis players in Tennessee can yell "Jesus!" or "Christ!" without censure. What they can't do is scream "Jesus Christ!" Those two words were shouted by Bearden High's Cameron Boyd after he lost serve in the third set of the Class AAA championship doubles match--and he and partner Brandon Allan were disqualified. Jan Genosi, the Tennessee Secondary Schools Athletic Assn.

Robert S. Mata wears a bracelet inscribed with the badge number of his son and the "end of watch" date when the police officer died in a car crash en route to assist another officer. "When you lose a son, you lose a part of yourself," Mata said Friday after a ceremony to honor Los Angeles Police Department officers who have died in the line of duty, including his son, Robert J. Mata. "I was sorry to see what happened to my son but I'm glad he was an LAPD officer.

He has been so much a symbol that he's almost seemed anonymous: the young black man killed by a white police officer, the spark for three nights of rioting that tore this city apart. On Saturday, though, Timothy Thomas was eulogized. And hundreds upon hundreds saw his face. For nearly two hours, mourners filed past his open coffin, some pausing to make the sign of the cross, others reaching in to caress his face, in repose on a white satin pillow. His mother's sobs ripped the air.

Michael Bransome figured the harshest penalty for breaking the law to protest the Vietnam War would be a few years in jail, not a nearly lifelong separation from his mother, his family, his country. On May 21, 1969--a day that he recalls was bathed in warm sunshine--he and two companions poured black paint over draft registration papers at the draft board office in Silver Spring, Md. No one was injured. They politely waited to be arrested. He was six days past his 18th birthday.

When Jochen Rindt died in a Formula One crash, the great driver Jackie Stewart spent the week before the funeral fulfilling obligations. He did a fashion show, filmed a television commercial, met with lawyers. As to why he did all that in a time of grief, Stewart said, "The funeral is less important than the accident." A racer who lived on the razor's edge, he wanted to know why Rindt's accident happened. He wanted to know why his friend died with medical attention within reach.