Vibrations

'Yes, there is some unknown rule that requires weathercasters to have quirky names," said an e-mailer by the name of Scharkie, referring to Storm Field, Dallas Raines, Larry Sprinkle and the others mentioned here. But Scharkie pointed out that the name game isn't confined to TV cloud-gazers, asking, "How else would you explain the spokesperson for that national earthquake agency?" Scharkie was referring to the director of the National Earthquake Information Center in Golden, Colo.

It was Sunday night on the bluffs overlooking Zuma Beach in Malibu. The red carpet was duct-taped to the driveway as caterers put the finishing touches on vegan tofu cakes and root vegetable sautees. As the sun dipped into the Pacific, in strode a small man with a disarming smile. Presidential longshot Dennis J. Kucinich was a long way from Cleveland.

Change came in a broad-shouldered power forward and a sunken-chested point guard. Seventeen games later, the Lakers swing the basketball, seem to like playing defense and have won 14 times. No one doubts what Shaquille O'Neal is in the middle and what that would mean in the playoffs. When Kobe Bryant shimmies his shoulders on the perimeter, opposing coaches still go stiff with dread. But an organization had grown, well, predictable. It was Shaq. Or Kobe. Or home for May.

Cars and trucks roar along a freeway a few steps away. The whump-whump-whump of a helicopter rumbles somewhere overhead. But inside Hollywood's miniature Taj Mahal, there's a surprising serenity. Its swamis say that's because of the vibrations. Those that are spiritual, not secular. The good vibrations. The onion-domed Hollywood Temple is filled with them, according to those who come to meditate with the Vedanta Society at its Southern California headquarters.

Mention vibration and fitness and most people conjure up those useless jiggle belts women wore decades ago to try to shake away their flab. That visual image may soon disappear. The Power Plate, a device about the size of a medical upright scale, sends vibrations through the body, promising to improve flexibility, strength, bone density and help heal certain injuries.

There's not much missing from "Good Vibrations," Brian Wilson's 1966 Beach Boys masterpiece that took six months, miles of tape and an everything-but-the-kitchen-sink approach to realize. But it turns out that the song can stand the addition of one more thing: some blues guitar licks. At least it can if the person providing the licks is Eric Clapton.

Re "Virtuoso on the Vibraphone, One of the Last Giants of Jazz," Sept. 1: It was during a trip from Hoboken, N.J., aboard the Rijndam in December 1956 that I met Lionel Hampton. I was in the Palm Court of the ocean liner when, after the dance, Mr. Hampton took a seat at the bar next to me while his band was engaged in a jam session. I was a young man then, finishing my studies in Europe, but he took time to engage me in many conversations during the six-day journey. On the eve of the arrival in Rotterdam, he wrote me an inspiring note, which I still hold dear, and signed it, "To Ben, from your friend Lionel Hampton."

As part of an ambitious plan to move more trains at faster speeds along the Southern California coast, Caltrans is considering a two-mile tunnel that would add two sets of tracks near San Juan Capistrano's historic downtown district. The added tracks would involve the demolition of a downtown parking structure. The tunnel, one of several considerations for handling trains along the Los Angeles-to-San Diego corridor, is part of a $10-billion proposal for improving rail transportation statewide.

Wayne Coffey of the New York Daily News has written a book, "Winning Sounds Like This," an account of the season he spent with the women's basketball team at Gallaudet in Washington, D.C., the world's only university for the deaf. He had perhaps his most memorable experience on the first night he spent in a Gallaudet dormitory. He was warned that some students liked to crank their stereo bass settings to the max, the better to feel vibrations. He paid no heed until he was jolted awake at 4 a.m.