Weston

A couple from Hesperia walked into our restaurant and presented us with a copy of your Oct. 2 "Best Shot" of the restored sawmill in Weston, Vt. They said they saw the picture and decided to find the place that looked so wonderful and welcoming. I just wanted to let you know that someone crossed the United States to find Weston because of your selection. PATRICIA and MARTIN GARVEY Weston, Vt.

Modernist architect Eugene Weston III was in his early 30s when he declared that "the house is the last of the handcrafted objects" in an industrial age. The year was 1956, and he argued in The Times that even a modest house could be "more beautiful and meaningful" if it was built with post-and-beam construction that opens up interiors and invites the outdoors in through walls of glass. A third-generation Los Angeles architect, Weston built a string of midcentury homes here before spending three decades with a San Diego firm known for such large-scale commissions as the Old Globe Theatre, San Diego Wild Animal Park and several major buildings at UC San Diego.

A citizens group claimed Wednesday that about 300 voters in Venice cast ballots even though the addresses for them on precinct ballot rosters were wrong or in some cases, were for residences that have been vacant for years. The Committee for Election Integrity, which includes former workers or supporters of South Bay congressional candidate Susan Brooks, called on the Los Angeles County registrar-recorder to investigate their claims to see if any instances of fraud can be confirmed.

Beth Gates Warren, a former director of Sotheby's photographs department, exhumes details about Edward Weston's lost years in Los Angeles from 1906 to 1923 and his relationship with a highly influential model, muse, photographer and lover in her new book, "Artful Lives: Edward Weston, Margrethe Mather and the Bohemians of Los Angeles" (J. Paul Getty Museum). Why was so little known about Edward Weston's early years in Los Angeles? He basically wanted it that way. He destroyed virtually all of his autobiographical writing prior to 1923 when he departed L.A. for Mexico.

Re: Liz Pulliam Weston's Money Talk column "Seeking a student loan cut," May 17: Weston's response to a borrower seeking her advice regarding a possible payoff discount was immoral. The borrower is expecting to receive a substantial amount of money soon and desires to repay the entire student loan in a lump sum but seeks a 35% discount. Weston suggests that because the U.S. Department of Education has "extraordinary powers" to force repayment, it would probably not agree to a discount.

With regard to the request for a Bavarian-type village (Travel Tips, May 19), there is one that comes to mind: Frankenmuth, Mich. It has all the ambience and food one would associate with Bavaria and would make for a lovely visit. A.E. VINCENT Weston, Canada

They were three young soldiers who shared a foxhole in the humid jungles of Vietnam. They knew each other as simply Wes, Sarge and Doc--because, they said, they did not want to get emotionally attached in combat. They'd been together for only a few months when a mortar hit their foxhole at 3:30 a.m. on May 13, 1969. The men were scattered by the blast and suffered serious injuries. Each believed the others had been killed.

No one writes about Carmel like Chris Reynolds ["Suitable for Framing," April 15]. What a beautiful piece, text and photos and nuggets of info only people who care would take the time to discover. I phoned my friend Sue McCloud, Carmel's mayor, to tell her to call Carmel Drug and be sure they have a copy of the Travel section intact. SHARON LAWRENCE Los Angeles Thanks for a wonderful and comprehensive travel article on the Weston family legacy and Point Lobos.

Parents who prayed as their 11-year-old daughter died March 23 of untreated diabetes were charged with second- degree reckless homicide. Family and friends had urged Dale and Leilani Neumann of Weston to get help for their daughter, Madeline, but the father considered the illness "a test of faith" and the mother never considered taking the girl to the doctor because she thought her daughter was under a "spiritual attack," the criminal complaint said....

Re the article titled "Capitol Suspect Had Made the 'List'," July 27: "Democracy" in the United States appears increasingly to have been replaced by an insidious status quo based on a sort of politics of fear, in which a person could unwittingly find himself on the Secret Service's "list" as a potential security threat for expressing dissent--in essence, exercising one's freedom of speech. Clearly there's evil in the world, as amply demonstrated by the horrendous actions of Russell Eugene Weston Jr. in the Capitol building.

With his film finance and production company short on box-office successes over the last few years, New Regency Productions founder Arnon Milchan is replacing his leadership team. Milchan, whose company has been partnered with 20th Century Fox since 1998, will assume a more hands-on role overseeing operations as its chairman. Co-Chairmen Bob Harper and Hutch Parker, who have jointly run the film and television outfit since 2008, will be leaving. Milchan is close to hiring former Paramount Pictures production President Brad Weston as president and chief executive of the company, in which 20th Century Fox parent News Corp.

Watching the warmly nostalgic "Troubadours" is like going to a reunion of old friends. You're so happy to see them again that you are willing to forgive whatever lapses and flaws there are in the experience. The old friends in "Troubadours" are the singer-songwriters who flourished roughly between 1968 and 1975, people like Joni Mitchell, Kris Kristofferson and Bonnie Raitt. It was a time when, says Carole King, "there was a hunger for the intimacy, the personal thing we all did," a moment when, says James Taylor, "the authenticity of telling your own story" mattered a great deal.

The Premise Dr. Paul Weston (Gabriel Byrne) is worried that his slowing movements mean he may have inherited his recently deceased father's Parkinson's disease. In this episode, Paul's new 16-year-old gay patient, Jesse (Dane DeHaan), has been contacted by his birth mother and wonders if she may hold some genetic clues to his erratic behavior. He pushes people away, is prone to impulsive behavior (he wonders if this is a symptom of Tourette syndrome), has frequent bouts of unprovoked rage and is sexually promiscuous.

Happiness is overrated. At least, that's what Gabriel Byrne believes. "There's too much pressure to be happy in this culture," insists the Irish star of HBO's therapy drama "In Treatment. " "We're constantly told that happiness is so accessible, but life isn't like that. Life is a gradual process of acceptance. Once you understand that, you can find some measure of contentment. " As he lounges on an old sofa at HBO headquarters in New York ? the kind of couch that Freud could've read a lot into ?

A former Orange County high school football star was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison this week for killing a Newport Beach liquor store owner while shoplifting an adult magazine. Weston Scott Kruger, 31, was sentenced Tuesday for the 2007 killing of Hao "Tony" Huynh, the longtime proprietor of Sportsman's Liquor Store on Newport Boulevard. A jury found Kruger guilty of first-degree murder in May. "We'll never see him out of prison," Kruger's maternal grandmother said before the sentencing.

Benny Powell, a veteran jazz trombonist who played with Count Basie from the early 1950s to the early 1960s, taking a solo turn in the band's 1955 recording of "April in Paris," has died. He was 80. Powell died June 26 at Roosevelt Hospital in New York City after undergoing back surgery, said publicist Devra Hall Levy. The cause has not been determined. A native of New Orleans, Powell had a varied career that ranged from Lionel Hampton's big band in the late 1940s to modern jazz with pianist Randy Weston and his African Rhythms ensemble for the last quarter-century.

According to playwright Tracy Letts, T.S. Eliot got it wrong. August, not April, is the cruelest month, especially if you're experiencing a spiraling domestic crisis in the sweltering heat of Pawhuska, Okla., with the locusts raging outside and the old family pathologies running amok in the even more stifling climate indoors. The occasion for all this flamboyant and sensationally entertaining misery is Letts' highly decorated play "August: Osage County," the 2008 Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winner that opened Wednesday at the Ahmanson Theatre.

The typical real estate sales contract includes not just a price and a closing date but also a number of clauses, any of which can trip up the buyer or seller and scuttle the deal. Although contract language may vary from one place to another — not just state to state but also county to county, and sometimes even from one company to another — here's a quick rundown of some clauses or "conditions" that are likely to cause the most trouble: • Financing. Perhaps the most common contract condition makes the transaction contingent on the buyer obtaining either a mortgage or a written commitment in the amount required to complete the purchase within a certain time frame.

Dear Liz: As part of our mortgage refinance, my wife and I were provided copies of our credit reports and scores by the credit union making our loan. Our scores are great, ranging from 777 to 819, but I was surprised to see in the negative remarks section a note that I had "too many inquiries." Reviewing the list I saw one business I recognized (a new brokerage account), one of our credit card issuers and four inquiries from CBC Innovis. What is CBC Innovis and how can I tell them to butt out of my credit history?