Wallet

A fascinating underwater trip I would like to compliment Nancy Baron for her incredible, gutsy and courageous underwater trip ["Blue Magic," March 10], which fascinated me. (I'm a former Italian navy frogman.) In her description of the underwater exploration, she made it look like an easy hobby. Scuba diving is very difficult and requires hard training and a very healthy body. John Rosati Simi Valley Kudos to Amtrak My husband, 10-year-old granddaughter Alyssa and I returned home Feb. 26 from a trip to the Bay Area on Amtrak Train No. 1. On Friday of that week, my daughter Chris received a call from her children's school in Ventura.

While in Barcelona, waiting to board the Splendour of the Seas to Miami Nov. 1 to 16, I had two scams attempted. While standing on a bridge admiring the view, I was "sprayed" by a young man. When I turned around, he pointed up in the air. He said "birds." After a few steps, he stopped and came back to offer me some clean-up wipes. I took off my jacket. The young man pointed to my wet pants and offered to wipe off the worst. I reached around and got his wrist jas he removed my wallet.

A Canyon Country man was stabbed in the back and robbed Sunday morning after he met a woman in a bar and went with her to a Lancaster motel, where four people attacked him, authorities said. Ronald Lee Gorecki, 27, was treated at Antelope Valley Hospital and released after the 3:45 a.m. stabbing, said Deputy Ronald Thomason of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. Authorities were looking for Lisa Pardee, 21, of Littlerock and four men in their mid- to late 20s who are suspected of holding Gorecki down, stabbing him and taking his wallet as he lay in bed at the Valley Motel in Lancaster, Thomason said.

In "Wild Grass," legendary French director Alain Resnais has created a quirky, comic tragedy about the ways in which the aging brain of a mild-mannered gent named Georges begins to come apart in the end. It's not dementia exactly, but a deterioration of thinking that shifts thoughts, ideas, actions and reactions in unpredictable, and unsettling ways. That didn't seem to have been the intention of the director, who was 87 when he completed the film in 2009 in time to take it to Cannes.

Welfare recipient William Murphy searched his soul when he found a lottery ticket worth $5.4 million on a Montreal street. Then he decided to give the jackpot to its rightful owner. The door was slammed in his face. Not to be turned away, Murphy returned to the owner's home the next day and repeated his story. The reward for his honesty was a one-sixth share of the check--$900,000. Murphy, 28, found a wallet containing identification, $18 (about $13 U.S.) and six Lotto tickets last Sunday.

Police in Florida say a burglar who made off with a man's valuables returned to the home later and snatched what he couldn't carry on his first trip: a 100-pound plasma-screen TV. A Pensacola police investigator was on the scene when the robber came back hours after the first burglary. The man who lived at the house, Steve Fluegge, said he was shocked the burglar came back. Fluegge's wallet, watch and video game system had already been taken. Investigators had left the TV in the backyard, where the burglar had put it, so they could dust for fingerprints.

Although until now I never paid a great deal of attention to the celebrities who endorse an endless array of products, your article on the fight for the Olympic advertising dollar ("Mr. Robinson vs. Air Jordan," by Edward Kiersh, March 22) struck a nerve in my wallet. I was raised to believe that the quality of merchandise was usually tied to the quantity of money one had to spend. Now it seems that instead of getting what you pay for, one must pay $75 to $150 for a pair of tennis shoes so that their makers can pay ridiculous sums to athletes and their agents.

London in winter may be chilly, but the airfare savings on a cold-season trip can warm your heart and your wallet. You can fly round-trip from LAX to Heathrow on Air New Zealand for $828, including all taxes and fees, departing Mondays-Thursdays from Jan. 14 to March 19. Tickets must be purchased by Jan. 14; you must stay over at least a Saturday night but may not stay more than a year. Info: Air New Zealand , (800) 262-1234 Source: Airfarewatchdog Follow us on Twitter @latimestravel , like us on Facebook @Los Angeles Times Travel.