Vultures

Turkey Vulture [ CATHARTES AURA ] As autumn arrives, many turkey vultures head south in search of thermals powerful enough to keep them aloft all day. Their very slow air speed makes flying in cold weather difficult but enables them to locate odors from decaying carrion as small as a single tadpole. Constantly on the verge of stalling and crashing, vultures rock from side to side to maintain balance.

The latest insult to Mitt Romney's pride is that he stands a good chance of losing the primary in Michigan, his boyhood home. His dad was a popular Michigan governor, but that was a long time ago and Mitt has not lived in the state for 46 years. The ties are growing tenuous. Four years ago he won the primary against John McCain, but, in that race, Romney was the favorite of the right wing. This time around, they have a new darling, Rick Santorum. Born-again voters are being reborn for Rick while shunning Mitt, the political apostate from godless Massachusetts.

In reviewing Peter Kurth's "American Cassandra: The Life of Dorothy Thompson" (Aug. 19), Chris Goodrich writes: "Her eclipse is due in some measure to her conclusion--following an interview with Hitler in the mid-'30s--that he would never come to power." Is this a gaffe on the part of Kurth or Goodrich? As we all know, Hitler was already firmly in power by January/February/March 1933. Whatever, the fact is that Thompson's star dimmed not just because of one wrong prediction but because as the years passed she lost all semblance of objectivity regarding both world events and personal contacts.

Rick Perry, the lone Republican campaigning for president Tuesday in South Carolina, likened Mitt Romney to a greedy Wall Street “vulture” who was indifferent to the plight of workers who lost their jobs in deals that enriched his investment firm. Seeking an early edge in South Carolina's Jan. 21 primary while his rivals were tied up with Tuesday's contest in New Hampshire, the Texas governor also ridiculed Rick Santorum's congressional spending record. Perry started slashing away at Romney's record as chief executive at Bain Capital on Monday, but was more caustic Tuesday in condemning the firm's practice of making money in corporate takeover deals that sometimes triggered job losses.

Lurch and Fester, the Orange County Zoo's newest residents, don't have the regal manner of the bald eagle, their neighbor across the pathway. They lope around their habitat of sycamore and oak with a noticeable lack of grace. But the turkey vultures make up for a lack of nobility through sheer force of character. "They have a lot of expression in their faces," zoo director Forrest de Spain said of the black-feathered birds that arrived two weeks ago. "They are very curious and very smart.

It requires only one UCLA defeat to bring out the egocentric vultures and amateur psychologists, who bray at Terry Donahue and pretend to understand a team's collective consciousness. RICHARD CHADWIN Porterville

More than 90% of India's vultures, a crucial link in the environment, have died, in large part by exposure to diclofenac, an anti-inflammatory drug and painkiller that is used in sick cattle but is toxic to the birds. Efforts to ban the drug had been hampered by the lack of a suitable replacement. But an international team reported in the current issue of the journal Public Library of Science Biology that the drug meloxicam is as effective as diclofenac, but harmless to the birds.

A sucker for chicken carcasses, he has ended his carefree days of freedom. Foster the vulture was recaptured nearly a week after he escaped from a British zoo. Foster had spent the last three days in a garden in Suffolk in eastern England, spurning all attempts of a team of falconers to bring him back to earth. But when his zoo handler turned up with the chicken carcasses, Foster fell for them.

Stacy Sims, chief of NASA's roadkill posse, was cruising the mist-shrouded highways that surround the space shuttle launch site when he spotted the mashed remains of a raccoon. A flock of big, black vultures watched from nearby power lines, like hungry diners waiting for their favorite restaurant to open. "Oh, this is a lovely job," said Sims as he scooped up the dead animal with a shovel and threw it into the back of his truck, depriving the birds of their meal.

With a loaded shotgun sitting next to her back door, Lynn O'Hara-Yates says she's living in terror of the dozens of black vultures that gather each morning on her back fence to stretch their wings, sharpen their talons and wait for lunch. Recently, "lunch" has meant assorted pets in her Stafford County, Va., neighborhood. When O'Hara-Yates tried to rescue one of her ducks last month, a vulture swooped down, whooshing within three feet of her head.

Here's a cool way to use your credit or debit card to gain a little cultural capital -- without spending a dime. Bank of America and Merrill Lynch cardholders can receive free entry to more than 150 museums nationwide on selected weekends merely by showing their cards. The deal: Museums on Us marks its 14th year of offering access to museums free of charge on the first full weekend of the month (meaning that April 30-May 1, for instance, is not included, but May 7-8 is)

On Jan. 29 and Aug. 27, the city of Berlin will stay up late to play. Nearly 70 of the German capital's museums, historical sites and other cultural centers will open their doors from 6 p.m. on Saturday to 2 a.m. on Sunday during the " Long Night of the Museums . " [ For the Record, 1:55 p.m., Jan. 20: An earlier version of this post said that the "Long Night of the Museums" would occur every weekend, beginning Jan. 29 and...

On Monday night, the new hard-rock supergroup Them Crooked Vultures played the coziest room of their very young career, charging through a semi-surprise 90-minute set at West Hollywood's Roxy, roughly 24 hours before the band was set to appear at the much larger Wiltern for a sold-out performance. Yet if a 500-capacity club seems like a strange domain for these A-list heavy hitters -- Vultures consists of Led Zeppelin's John Paul Jones on bass, Foo Fighters' Dave Grohl on drums and, as frontman, Josh Homme of Queens of the Stone Age -- they handily resolved the disconnect by treating the Roxy as they would a sports arena: At several points, it was hard to hear the music over the groan of a sound system pushed well beyond its limits.

Dave Grohl had a new rock 'n' roll dream, and it came true in a castle in Orange County. It was his 40th birthday, so the lead Foo Fighter and former Nirvana drummer celebrated with a January evening of jousting and costumed swordplay at the Medieval Times dinner theater, a venue promising a night "where honor was unquestioned and courage was unmatched!" Cardboard crowns were distributed and roasted chicken devoured with bare hands. Among the guests were his pal Joshua Homme, the singer-guitarist from Queens of the Stone Age, and Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones, on a visit from London.

Tom Barrack is considered one of the savviest commercial real estate investors of the last 20 years. But his bid to lure public investors to join with him fell far short this week. Barrack, the 62-year-old founder of L.A.-based real estate and private-equity giant Colony Capital, wanted to raise $500 million via a new real estate investment trust that would buy troubled commercial property debt. His Wall Street bankers could rustle up only half that sum from investors. The initial public stock offering of Colony Financial Inc. raised $250 million Wednesday by selling 12.5 million shares at $20 each, instead of the 25 million shares Barrack had wanted to issue.

In the shadow of a big blue inflated gorilla perched on the roof, bright yellow signs shouted "Ultimate Liquidation Event." Deep price cuts, painted in bold neon letters, adorned the windshield of nearly every car on the Garden Grove dealership lot. Janice and Yao Huang arrived on a hot afternoon looking for a bargain. "We're here for the sale," Yao told Danny Covin as he approached, squinting in the sun. "We heard you are closing down. Do you have things on sale?"

Dave Grohl had a new rock 'n' roll dream, and it came true in a castle in Orange County. It was his 40th birthday, so the lead Foo Fighter and former Nirvana drummer celebrated with a January evening of jousting and costumed swordplay at the Medieval Times dinner theater, a venue promising a night "where honor was unquestioned and courage was unmatched!" Cardboard crowns were distributed and roasted chicken devoured with bare hands. Among the guests were his pal Joshua Homme, the singer-guitarist from Queens of the Stone Age, and Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones, on a visit from London.

As it makes its annual fall migration from the West Coast to its wintering grounds in Mexico and South America, the turkey vulture is receiving a decidedly ambivalent California welcome this week.

"It's cheaper than going to Africa, I'll say that," Christine said as she scanned a rolling savanna where giraffes, gazelles and elephants ambled within a few dozen yards of a tent she shared with her husband, Jim. For the Claremont couple and more than 50 other safari wannabes like me who spent a chilly Saturday night in March at the San Diego Zoo's Wild Animal Park, the aptly named Roar & Snore camp out was also enlightening, fun and a little eerie. But not necessarily restful.

Residents in this quiet community are in a predicament that Alfred Hitchcock could have scripted. About 200 ravenous vultures have ripped shingles off rooftops, chewed on the rubber seals of car doors and windows, and left behind an overwhelming stench after covering cars, roofs and sidewalks with excrement. "They've multiplied. And multiplied.