Zigzag

PITTSFORD, N.Y. — Fred Jackson's path to the NFL was much like one of his long, serpentine touchdown runs, the ones where he zigzags across the field and beats defenders not with blistering speed but an uncanny feel for changing directions at precisely the right time. That Jackson made it to the Buffalo Bills — and became one of the better running backs in the league — is an inspiring testament to his determination, because a lot of other players would have long since given up. His career didn't route him through Los Angeles, Ann Arbor, Columbus, Baton Rouge or any other big-time college football hub. Jackson went to Coe College — a Division III school in Cedar Rapids, Iowa — wasn't invited to the scouting combine and barely got a sniff from anyone in the NFL. He's now a centerpiece of the Bills, who open the regular season Sunday at the New York Jets.

In addition to that famously steep takeoff from John Wayne Airport, passengers aboard some departing jets in Orange County might be asked to endure multiple turns as pilots take a zigzag course as they lift off over Newport Beach. The zigzag takeoff pattern - meant to reduce jet noise in the beach city - would be a first in the continental U.S. Over the decades, the city has fought and sued in an effort to tame noise from the commercial airport, and flights in and out of John Wayne are now some of the most strictly controlled in the country.

"ZigZag" is a small movie with a big impact. It represents an astute directorial debut for screenwriter David S. Goyer, who made his mark with strong action-adventures, often comic-book-inspired, most notably "Blade" and "Blade 2." Although a distinct departure from the thrillers he scripted, "ZigZag" is anchored, as was "Blade 2," in a potent father-son relationship. In the "Blade" films, it was between title character Wesley Snipes and maverick scientist Kris Kristofferson.

Keeping up with James Franco isn't easy. He can currently be seen in theaters as the Wizard in “Oz the Great and Powerful” and as an outrageously scary-funny rapper-gangster named Alien in “Spring Breakers.” In the last few weeks, Franco has promoted both films while pursuing his wide-ranging outside artistic and academic pursuits.  He released multiple music videos, including one starring the infamous filmmaker and author Kenneth Anger,...

Failure to Zigzag by Jane Vandenburgh (North Point Press: $16.95; 329 pages) If you saw 14-year-old Charlotte and her mother, Katrinka, at the soda fountain in Montrose, you'd think they were winding up a mother-daughter shopping trip, but if you were within earshot, you'd soon realize that this was no ordinary excursion. Katrinka is loudly insisting she's being pursued by teams of psychiatrists from Camarillo; Charlotte is desperately trying to calm her down. After the first few sentences, it's plain that Katrinka is no delightfully madcap mom but a woman temporarily furloughed from the mental hospital; not madcap but truly mad. From that point on, pleasure in the mordant satire and witty dialogue is edged with guilt and pity for the child who so valiantly attempts to understand and cope.

My wife Heather and I kayaked a grueling one-way, 17-mile trip along the rugged and scenic Na Pali coast of Kauai. Wind and white-capped waves repeatedly capsized other kayakers in our group, requiring lots of "self-rescue" maneuvers. Huge swells made our kayaks zigzag to where we must have actually paddled nearly 25 miles! We launched at 7:30 a.m. and landed six hours later, while exploring several sea caves, rocky reefs and lava tubes with occasional sea turtles watching us. Bartley D'Alfonso Orange

What's wrong with this trail?" the perspiring young sportsman in the Boston Red Sox baseball cap complains to me as I catch up with him at the one-mile marker on Echo Mountain Trail, which ascends the steep slopes of the San Gabriel Mountains above Altadena. "It doesn't seem to be leading anywhere. And it's got too many of those . . . turning things, those--" "Switchbacks," I offer. "Don't you just hate them?"

Don Sorenson, whose vibrant abstractions led to his winning the Los Angeles County Museum of Art's Young Talent Purchase Award last year, is dead of pneumonia at 36. He died Dec. 14 in an Encinitas Hospital. A graduate of California State University, Northridge, who exhibited extensively at the Nicholas Wilder and Roy Boyd galleries and at Mount St. Mary's College, Sorenson was known for his interlocking zigzag stripes and whorl patterns, which he formed with masking tape.

MAYFLOWER, Ark. - On warm spring evenings, North Starlite Drive buzzed with children. They cycled around the cul-de-sac at the end of the wide, block-long road, shot baskets in driveways and inevitably wound up on the swing set and trampoline behind the Bartletts' large brick house. These days, there are no children. Yellow police tape stretches across the turns from the main road onto the street. All 22 families who lived there are gone. About 2:45 p.m. on March 29, an underground ExxonMobil oil pipeline ruptured in the woods behind the cul-de-sac.

"Two-two Tim" coolly coaxes his modified mountain bike across two lanes of moving traffic, cranking up speed as he bumps over cable car tracks and turns into oncoming traffic on a one-way street. Narrowly missing a jaywalker, Tim yanks his bicycle over a curb and dismounts at the rear of a shiny skyscraper.

In the 15 years since Matt Damon and Ben Affleck won the Academy Award for their "Good Will Hunting" screenplay, Damon has worked with some of Hollywood's best directors, become a humanitarian in Africa and even parodied himself with the help of Kevin Smith and Jimmy Kimmel. What he hasn't done is write another script. Until now. In partnership with John Krasinski of "The Office," Damon, 42, has returned to the blank page, co-writing "Promised Land," a script that he initially intended to direct, about a young comer in the natural gas industry who is selling the controversial practice of "fracking" to homeowners in struggling rural communities.

PITTSFORD, N.Y. — Fred Jackson's path to the NFL was much like one of his long, serpentine touchdown runs, the ones where he zigzags across the field and beats defenders not with blistering speed but an uncanny feel for changing directions at precisely the right time. That Jackson made it to the Buffalo Bills — and became one of the better running backs in the league — is an inspiring testament to his determination, because a lot of other players would have long since given up. His career didn't route him through Los Angeles, Ann Arbor, Columbus, Baton Rouge or any other big-time college football hub. Jackson went to Coe College — a Division III school in Cedar Rapids, Iowa — wasn't invited to the scouting combine and barely got a sniff from anyone in the NFL. He's now a centerpiece of the Bills, who open the regular season Sunday at the New York Jets.

What would you do if seven miles of city streets stretched out before you and there wasn't a car in sight? Hop on your bicycle? Drop into a yoga pose? Samba? Salsa? Sing? These are the sorts of choices Angelenos will have Sunday, when the city boots vehicles from several major thoroughfares and urges its citizens to come out and play. From 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., portions of a dozen streets will be closed to car traffic on a zigzagging route that extends from East Hollywood through Westlake and into downtown and Boyle Heights.

Driving around Southern California, you never know where you'll find oil. Drilling platforms, for example, can be seen on the Coyote Hills golf course in Fullerton, in the parking lot of Huntington Beach's City Hall and outside Curley's Cafe in Signal Hill. There's even a derrick tucked inside the Beverly Center, near the parking area for Bloomingdale's. But one of the area's most unusual drilling sites is just a memory now. It was a well that stood in the middle of La Cienega Boulevard from 1930 to 1946, forcing drivers to zigzag around it. "Pictures and stories about it have been sent all over the globe," The Times noted in 1945.

There's a museum in Budapest called the House of Terror. It has a metal awning with the word "terror" carved out of it, and when the sun is high, the people below step on terror, pass through terror, because the shadow of the word hangs in the air before it hits the ground. Twenty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall signaled the end of Soviet dominance in Hungary, Russia's ghosts linger in a fledgling political system, and its oil and gas muscle spooks the Hungarian government.

NEW YORK -- Stocks fluctuated in a tight range Friday as investors found some positives for the market in a surprisingly weak jobs report. The Labor Department said employers cut more jobs than expected in October, pushing the unemployment rate above 10 percent for the first time since 1983. However, the pace of job losses slowed. The rise in joblessness, while not welcome news for the economy, reassured some investors that the Federal Reserve will have to hold interest rates lower for some time.

For anyone who has felt exiled from the rest of the family while trying to soothe or feed a fussy infant, the new Brentwood nursery of Giuliana and Bill Rancic will be a welcome design. The nautical theme may have been inspired by the television personalities' love of the ocean, but their interior designer, Lonni Paul of Lonni Paul Design , knew from personal experience that the nursery needed to be more than just a pleasant place for a baby to sleep. “There needs to be a place for the family to get together," said Paul, the mother of 6-year-old twins.

An investor's apparent attempt to sell a significant chunk of Alliance Imaging Inc. sent its shares to new lows Tuesday, but stock in the medical technology company nearly regained its value by the close of trading. At one point, shares dropped as low as $3.25--a loss of more than a quarter of its value. The stock was down 25 cents when it closed at $4.25 on the NASDAQ exchange. The company has about 6.4 million shares outstanding.

Stocks finished mixed Wednesday after another session of earnings-driven trading. The Nasdaq composite index rose for the 11th straight session, but the Dow industrials and the Standard & Poor's 500 index slipped. Apple rose 3.5% after the company late Tuesday reported that robust sales of laptops and iPhones pushed its profit and revenue above analysts' estimates. Starbucks surged 18%.

When John Melfi, the New York producer of "Sex in the City," "Rome" and the upcoming Showtime series "Nurse Jackie," decided to become a true Angeleno, he asked Steven Shortridge to build a house for him here. The Culver City architect, however, was a little apprehensive. The daring design he had in mind was for a narrow lot in Venice where he proposed jettisoning the traditional town house layout of small rooms stacked three stories high.