The Late Braking News

*****************
HEADLINERS....Complete Stories Follow..........

~~ Keith Richards Says He's Ready to Tour
~~ Possibly intoxicated pelican runs into windshield
~~ Accident - Prone Pelican Fumbles Take - Off
~~ Cat Burglar Suspect in Garden - Glove Thefts
~~ Hot Dog Eater Wins 6th Straight Contest By
~~ Autopsy: Steve Howe Had Meth in His System at Time of Fatal Crash
~~ McCartney Sang About 64 in '67, and Now It's Here
~~ Mike Hammer Creator Mickey Spillane Dies
~~ Red, white and blue hot dog eater seeks mustard yellow belt
~~ Death No Obstacle for Chart - Topper Johnny Cash
~~ Maine Lobsterman Pulls Up Rare Lobster
~~ Berlin Love Parade Back After Three - Year Absence
~~ It's an Auction, Jim, but Not as We Know It
~~ Video iPods Helping Rockies Get into the ``Swing'' of Things
~~ Willie Nelson Buys Hometown Church
~~ Researchers Say New Chip Breaks Speed Record
~~ 33 Innings, 882 Pitches and One Crazy Game
~~ Minor League Manager Throws Major Tantrum
~~ A Gift Between Friends
~~ Queen Elizabeth Spent More Taxpayer Money on Travel, Security
~~ Archaeologists Unveil Newest Pharaonic Tomb in Egypt's Valley of the Kings
~~ Paradise Bought in Los Angeles
~~ 10 Days That Changed History
~~ Newfound Island Graveyard May Yield Clues to Dodo Life of Long Ago
~~ Reappraising a Landmark Bridge, and the Visionary Behind It
~~ The Grinch Who Stole Golf
~~ It's My Funeral and I'll Serve Ice Cream if I Want To
*****************
Keith Richards Says He's Ready to Tour By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

MILAN, Italy (AP) -- On the eve of the relaunching of the Rolling Stones' European tour, Keith Richards said he's recovered completely from a head injury suffered in a fall -- and shrugged off a question about whether he had worried about dying.

''I feel great. I can't wait to get back on the stage again. Basically everything is cool,'' Richards said Monday. The 62-year-old guitarist fell from a tree April 27 while vacationing in Fiji, forcing the Stones to postpone their European tour.

He later had surgery in New Zealand to relieve pressure on his brain.

''Of course they put me out like a light. I was surprised myself. ... I had total comfort. When you got to do it, you got to do it,'' Richards said.

The Stones were to resume their ''A Bigger Bang'' tour Tuesday at Milan's San Siro stadium. The 21-date tour wraps up Sept. 3 in Denmark.

Asked what he's been doing since the fall, Richards responded, ''I recovered. ... Six weeks, I mean not bad for a brain job.''

Did he ever worry about dying? ''Good one,'' he said, good-naturedly.

The Stones were in a jovial mood, and when the inevitable question came -- what was Richards doing up in a coconut tree and did he find what he wanted? -- everyone was ready to set the record straight.

''That's a good one. If you saw the tree, you'd realize the joke. Fiji is not just made of coconut trees. It was a little tree,'' Richards said.

Mick Jagger and Ronnie Wood were eager to illustrate the point, indicating a height less than half of Richards.

Richards also confirmed his role in the third installment of the ''Pirates of the Caribbean'' series, saying he'd be filming for a week or so in September. Richards is to have a cameo role as the father of the flamboyant Captain Jack Sparrow, played by Johnny Depp.

''Now I know why (Depp) paid for all those lunches,'' Richards deadpanned.

Asked what success meant to the Rolling Stones after 44 years, Richards responded: ''The opportunity to continue.'' His bandmates nodded in agreement.
**************
Possibly intoxicated pelican runs into windshield

LAGUNA BEACH, Calif. (AP) -- The driver was sober. The bird he hit may have been under the influence.

A California brown pelican flew through the windshield of a motorist on the Pacific Coast Highway in Orange County Thursday, and wildlife officials said the bird was probably intoxicated by a chemical in the water.

Though toxicology tests take several weeks, the odd bird behavior was likely the result of poisoning from domoic acid, which has been found in the ocean in the area, said Lisa Birkle, assistant wildlife director at the Wetlands and Wildlife Care Center in Huntington Beach.

Birds can be poisoned through eating algae tainted by the acid.

The driver was not hurt. The pelican needed surgery for a broken foot, and also had a gash on its pouch.

"She's hanging in there," Birkle said.

The Wetlands and Wildlife Care Center has received 16 calls of strange bird behavior in the past week, and was holding three other birds found disoriented and wandering through yards and in streets.

Domoic acid poisoning was the most likely cause of a 1961 invasion of thousands of frantic seabirds in Northern California that inspired Alfred Hitchcock's film "The Birds."

Those birds flew into buildings and pecked several humans.

Pelicans have excellent eyesight and they are unlikely to have flown into a car without some kind of intoxication, Birkle said.
-------UPDATE---------
Accident - Prone Pelican Fumbles Take - Off By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

CORONA DEL MAR, Calif. (AP) -- There was good news and bad news when Crash, the California brown pelican that earned her nickname when she flew beak-first into a car windshield, was released back into the wild.

As soon as workers with the Wetlands and Wildlife Care Center released Crash on Big Corona Beach on Thursday, she stumbled and fell beak-first into a pile of rocks.

But after taking a few moments to gather her bearings, Crash shook her tail, bobbed in the surf and then headed for the heavens.

''She took off just fine and she was flying really well,'' said Debbie McGuire, the center's wildlife director.

McGuire blamed Crash's stumble on reporters and photographers who distracted her.

''What happened was, there were so many cameras,'' she said. ''She looked back and then took a step.''

That stumble was nothing compared to the June 22 encounter Crash had with a car on Pacific Coast Highway. The accident left her with a 4-inch gash in her pouch and a mangled toe.

After the wound was stitched and the toe stabilized, Crash was given time to recuperate, then turned loose on the beach.

Officials blamed the accident on domoic acid poisoning that they said likely came from eating tainted algae.

The condition, which can be deadly, leaves a bird with the same symptoms as a person who has had too much to drink.
**********
Cat Burglar Suspect in Garden - Glove Thefts By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

PELHAM, N.Y. (AP) -- A pink-and-white gardening glove was missing Thursday morning from Jeannine Goche's front porch. But there was absolutely no mystery about who had taken it. Willy, the cat who loves gloves, had struck again.

''It has to be him,'' said Goche, an attorney. ''I've heard about him.''

As if the gardeners of Pelham don't have enough to worry about, with the rocky soil and the slugs and the big trees casting too much shade, a feline felon has been sneaking into their back yards and carrying off gardening gloves.

Goche's flower-patterned number may soon take its place on the clothesline that's strung across the front fence at Willy's home, which he shares with Jennifer and Dan Pifer, their 19-month-old son Hudson and a mutt named Peanut Chew.

Above the line is a sign that says, in words and pictures, ''Our cat is a glove snatcher. Please take these if yours.''

On Thursday morning, nine pairs of gardening gloves and five singles were strung up, nicely framed by the Pifers' flourishing tomato and basil plants. Willy, looking innocent, was playing with a beetle under the Subaru in the driveway and occasionally dashing after Hudson.

''This all started about the time people began working in their gardens, I guess March or April,'' Jennifer Pifer said. ''Willy would just show up with a glove, or we'd see them on the front steps. I guess it's better than if he was bringing home dead birds.''

A friend, Claudia Bonci, said she was in the Pifers' kitchen recently and had noticed a single gardening glove on the sidewalk.

''Jennifer was telling me all about how Willy was bringing home all these gloves, and there was a small pile of them outside the door, and then here comes the cat with a glove in its mouth, proud as could be, like he was giving me a gift.''

Some of the gloves really are gift-worthy.

''A lot of these looked brand new,'' said Pifer. ''Some of them are really nice.''

She doesn't know how far afield Willy goes to find a glove, but she has learned it takes him two trips to bring home a matched pair.

Willy, born to a stray last spring and taken in by the Pifers as a newborn, stays out some nights but seems to assemble his collection in daytime raids.

''Mostly it happens on weekends, I guess when people are out gardening,'' Pifer said. ''Can't you just imagine people saying, `The gloves were right here, where'd they go?'''

John Cassone, who lives and gardens across the street, said he isn't missing any gloves. He uses ''the big, heavy leather kind'' and figures Willy, a wiry type, isn't strong enough to drag them away.

Guess again: There's a pair of the big, heavy leather kind among Willy's trophies.

Willy couldn't care less about the gloves after they're captured. On Thursday he could not be enticed into a grab-the-glove game.

In winter, when gardening gloves are hard to find, Willy switches to his offseason prey, dirty socks, which he brings from the laundry room.

''We find them in the hallway, on the stairs,'' she said. ''I used to think, `Oh, I must have dropped it on the way down.' But now I know better.''

Despite his criminal nature, neighbors get a kick out of Willy. Cassone said the cat likes to accompany the mailman up and down the block, all the way to each front door. Willy also likes to climb trees and bat at the heads of people below.

Since Pifer grows flowers and vegetables and herbs herself, isn't she tempted to make use of the endless supply of garden gloves that arrive at her doorstep free, shipping included?

''No,'' she said, a bit sadly. ''I do a lot of gardening but I don't use gloves.''
**********
Hot Dog Eater Wins 6th Straight Contest By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

NEW YORK (AP) -- A 160-pound wonder from Japan set a new record by devouring a sickening 53 3/4 frankfurters in 12 minutes to win the annual Independence Day hot dog eating competition on Coney Island.

The feat earned Takeru Kobayashi, 27, his sixth straight title in the event, held at the original Nathan's Famous hot dog stand on Brooklyn's seashore.

He broke his own record of 53 1/2 hot dogs, set at the same competition two years ago.

Thousands of raucous spectators jammed the streets in front of the hot dog stand, a block from the famed Coney Island boardwalk, to watch the competition and Kobayashi -- a top-ranked eater who once ate 17.7 pounds of pan-seared cow brains to win $25,000.

His strongest competition was Joey Chestnut, a 220-pound civil engineering student from San Jose, Calif., who set an American record by eating 50 hot dogs during a qualifying tournament in Las Vegas.

Chestnut jumped out to an early lead in the competition, sometimes jamming franks into his mouth with two hands as the crowd roared.

But Chestnut struggled, red-faced, with veins bulging in his forehead, the Japanese star methodically chomped dog after dog, often dipping them in a soft drink before cramming them into his mouth. Kobayashi passed Chestnut with about three minutes left in the contest.

When the clock expired, Chestnut had swallowed 52 Nathan's franks -- not quite enough.

Among the other competitors were another favorite, 100-pound Sonya ''The Black Widow'' Thomas, of Alexandria, Va., who once ate 65 hard boiled eggs in a little more than 6 1/2 minutes, and a local favorite, Eric ''Badlands'' Booker, a 425-pound subway conductor from Long Island who holds speed-eating records for pies and matzo balls.
**********
Autopsy: Steve Howe Had Meth in His System at Time of Fatal Crash

RIVERSIDE, Calif. (AP) - A coroner's autopsy shows former major league pitcher Steve Howe had methamphetamine in his system when his pickup truck drifted off a s desert highway and he was killed.

The coroner's office says Howe died of injuries suffered in the April 28th single-vehicle crash on Interstate tenth in Coachella. Howe was 48.

Toxicological results determined there was methamphetamine in his bloodstream. The amount of the illegal drug wasn't disclosed.

Witnesses told investigators Howe's pickup veered into the median and began to roll. Howe, who was not wearing a seat belt, was ejected from the truck and the pickup landed on top of him.

Howe was the 1980 National League Rookie of the Year with Los Angeles, closed out the Dodgers' 1981 World Series championship and was an All-Star the next year.

But for all of his success on the field, the hard-throwing lefty was constantly troubled by addictions.
***********
McCartney Sang About 64 in '67, and Now It's Here By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

LONDON (AP) -- ''When I get older, losing my hair, many years from now,'' sang Paul McCartney on ''When I'm Sixty-Four,'' a jaunty tune from The Beatles' ''Sgt. Pepper'' album.

The hair is intact, but the year is now -- McCartney turns 64 on Sunday.

A spokesman would not say how McCartney planned to spend the day, but he could be excused for skipping a party. It has been a traumatic year, in which the former Beatle split from his wife of four years, Heather Mills McCartney, amid lurid headlines about their relationship and her past.

''People seem to be interested in him as a celebrity, but not as a musician,'' said Beatles historian Peter Doggett -- a bitter blow for a man who with John Lennon formed rock's greatest songwriting partnership.

Beatles fans, however, seem determined to answer McCartney's question -- ''Will you still need me, will you still feed me, when I'm 64?'' -- in the affirmative.

The Beatles Story Exhibition in McCartney's home town of Liverpool was celebrating with cake, balloons and a weekend of events including a ''When I'm Sixty-Four'' karaoke contest.

The ''nice Beatle'' is widely revered in Liverpool for retaining strong links to the gritty port city, founding the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts and playing an outdoor concert for 30,000 people in 2003.

''There's tons of affection towards Paul personally,'' said Jerry Goldman, director of The Beatles Story, which draws 200,000 visitors a year. ''He doesn't forget that his home is here and his heart is here.''

A seemingly throwaway but strangely enduring Beatles song, ''When I'm Sixty-Four'' is a musical hall-style ditty evoking a quiet old age of gardening, holiday cottages and visits from the grandchildren -- ''Vera, Chuck and Dave.''

McCartney wrote the song when he was a teenager and recorded it at 25. Two years later, he married American photographer Linda Eastman. It was a famously happy union that lasted almost three decades. When Linda died of breast cancer in 1998, McCartney was devastated.

He eventually began a relationship with model and anti-landmine activist Heather Mills, 26 years his junior. The pair, who share a passion for animal rights and vegetarianism, married in 2002 and had a daughter, Beatrice, the next year.

But newspapers soon began running stories about trouble in the marriage. Mills McCartney was accused of meddling in her husband's career, persuading him to dye his hair -- he said he did it of his own accord -- and to undergo plastic surgery (he denied having any).

McCartney robustly defended his wife -- and continues to stick up for her. Since the split was announced last month, the tabloid press has been full of lurid allegations about Mills McCartney's past. She has been the subject of several unflattering articles which included pictures of her in naked or semi-naked poses.

A statement released last week by her lawyers said Mills McCartney was ''distressed'' by the stories and planned to sue for libel once divorce proceedings were over.

Despite his recent difficulties, there are few signs that McCartney plans to slip into quiet retirement. He toured last year, and released an album, ''Chaos and Creation in the Backyard,'' hailed as his best in decades.

Many listeners detected a melancholy and fragility missing from much of his solo work.

''Even though I'm essentially an optimist, an enthusiast, like anyone else I have down moments in my life,'' McCartney told The Associated Press last year. ''You just can't help it. Life throws them at you.''

Beatle-watchers say McCartney, who has also written an oratorio and a symphony, is still fired by musical ambition.

''He still has got it in him to write great songs,'' said Pete Nash, chairman of the British Beatles Fan Club. ''He thinks he can write another classic, and I think he will.''
**************
Mike Hammer Creator Mickey Spillane Dies By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) -- Mickey Spillane considered himself a ''writer'' as opposed to an ''author,'' defining a writer as someone whose books sell.

''This is an income-generating job,'' he told The Associated Press during a 2001 interview. ''Fame was never anything to me unless it afforded me a good livelihood.''

The macho mystery writer, who wowed millions of readers with the shoot-'em-up sex and violence of gumshoe Mike Hammer, died Monday at 88. Spillane's wife, Jane, told The (Myrtle Beach) Sun News he had cancer.

After starting out in comic books, Spillane wrote his first Mike Hammer novel, ''I, the Jury,'' which was published in 1947. Twelve more followed, with sales topping 100 million. Notable titles included ''The Killing Man,'' ''The Girl Hunters'' and ''One Lonely Night.''

Many Hammer books were made into movies, including the classic film noir ''Kiss Me, Deadly'' and ''The Girl Hunters,'' in which Spillane himself starred. Hammer stories were also featured on television in the series ''Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer'' and in made-for-TV movies. In the 1980s, Spillane appeared in a string of Miller Lite beer commercials.

''Thanks, Mickey, for giving the world so much pleasure during your time with us,'' actor Stacy Keach, who portrayed Hammer on TV in the 1980s, said in a statement Monday. ''We shall miss you, but we are comforted by the knowledge that your work and Mike Hammer will live forever.''

Besides the Hammer novels, Spillane wrote a dozen other books, including some award-winning volumes for young people.

Nonetheless, by the end of the 20th century, many of his novels were out of print or hard to find. In 2001, the New American Library began reissuing them.

As a stylist Spillane was no innovator; the prose was hard-boiled boilerplate. In a typical scene, from ''The Big Kill,'' Hammer slugs a little punk with ''pig eyes.''

''I snapped the side of the rod across his jaw and laid the flesh open to the bone,'' Spillane wrote. ''I pounded his teeth back into his mouth with the end of the barrel ... and I took my own damn time about kicking him in the face. He smashed into the door and lay there bubbling. So I kicked him again and he stopped bubbling.''

Mainstream critics had little use for Spillane, but he got his due in the mystery world, receiving lifetime achievement awards from the Mystery Writers of America and the Private Eye Writers of America.

''What I liked about him was he was always aware of who and what he was,'' said mystery writer Robert Parker, 73, whose novels feature Boston private eye Spenser. ''He said to me once, 'I don't have readers, I have customers.' And I don't think anyone, even in the solemnity of death, would argue that Mickey was a great writer, but he was a good guy and he was a successful writer and the combination ain't bad.''

Spillane, a bearish man who wrote on an old manual Smith Corona, always claimed he didn't care about reviews.

Spillane was born Frank Morrison Spillane on March 9, 1918, in the New York borough of Brooklyn. He grew up in Elizabeth, N.J., and attended Fort Hays State College in Kansas, where he was a standout swimmer, before beginning his career writing for magazines.

He had always liked police stories -- an uncle was a cop -- and in his pre-Hammer days he created a comic book detective named Mike Danger. At the time, the early 1940s, he was writing for Batman, SubMariner and other comics.

''I wanted to get away from the flying heroes and I had the prototype cop,'' Spillane said.

Danger never saw print. World War II broke out and Spillane enlisted. When he came home, he needed $1,000 to buy some land and thought novels the best way to go. Within three weeks, he had completed ''I, the Jury'' and sent it to Dutton. The editors there doubted the writing, but not the market for it; a literary franchise began. His books helped reveal the power of the paperback market and became so popular they were parodied in movies, including the Fred Astaire musical ''The Band Wagon.''

He was a quintessential Cold War writer, an unconditional believer in good and evil. He was also a rare political conservative in the book world. Communists were villains in his work and liberals took some hits as well. He was not above using crude racial and sexual stereotypes.

Viewed by some as a precursor to Clint Eastwood's Dirty Harry, Spillane's Hammer was a loner contemptuous of the ''tedious process'' of the jury system, choosing instead to enforce the law on his own murderous terms. His novels were attacked for their violence and vigilantism-- one critic said ''I, the Jury'' belonged in ''Gestapo training school'' -- but some defended them as the most shameless kind of pleasure.

While the Hammer books were set in New York, Spillane was a longtime resident of Murrells Inlet, a coastal community near Myrtle Beach.

He moved to South Carolina in 1954 when the area, now jammed with motels and tourist attractions, was still predominantly tobacco and corn fields.

Spillane said he fell in love with the long stretches of deserted beaches when he first saw the area from an airplane.

The writer, who became a Jehovah's Witness in 1951 and helped build the group's Kingdom Hall in Murrells Inlet, spent his time boating and fishing when he wasn't writing. In the 1950s, he also worked as a circus performer, allowing himself to be shot out of a cannon and appearing in the circus film ''Ring of Fear.''

The home where he lived for 35 years was destroyed by the 135-mph winds of Hurricane Hugo in 1989.

Married three times, Spillane was the father of four children.
**************
Red, white and blue hot dog eater seeks mustard yellow belt By LARRY McSHANE Associated Press Writer

NEW YORK (AP) -- The biggest challenge of his life awaits Joey Chestnut on the Fourth of July - and he doesn't want to choke.

It's a legitimate worry. Chestnut aims to inhale more than four dozen frankfurters in 12 minutes at the annual Coney Island hot dog eating competition. And there's the pressure of going jaw-to-jaw with the world's foremost competitive eater, five-time defending champion Takeru Kobayashi of Japan.

It's enough to give a guy indigestion, but Chestnut says his stomach is settled.

"Choking is not my worry," said Chestnut, taking a breaking from gorging - he calls it "training" - at his home in San Jose, Calif. "I've got a pretty strong throat."

And a pretty strong stomach. The 6-foot-1, 230-pound Chestnut is warming up for his East Coast showdown by downing 40 hot dogs (or more) in a single sitting, twice a week.

"If I'm not eating hot dogs, I'm not eating much," said Chestnut, whose U.S. record of 50 hot dogs in 12 minutes earned him a May mention in Sports Illustrated. "Everything is going pretty good."

Chestnut is the great American hope at reclaiming the mustard yellow belt symbolic of gastronomic greatness (or sheer gluttony). Since July 4, 2001, the belt - presented annually at the original Nathan's hot dog stand - has remained wrapped around Kobayashi's incredibly thin waist.

At 5-foot-7 and 144 pounds, Kobayashi doesn't look like a master gulper. But he's devoured the competition: Sonya "The Black Widow" Thomas, the world's premier female competitive eater; Eric "Badlands" Booker, the 6-foot-4, 400-pound subway conductor; even William "The Refrigerator" Perry, the ex-NFL star who managed to suck down an embarrassing four hot dogs in his Nathan's debut.

The history leaves a bad taste in Chestnut's mouth.

"Everybody knows that the Americans get beat by this little Japanese man," Chestnut said. "And not just beat, but slaughtered. A victory for me would be to even get close. He never lets an American get close."

Organizers at the International Federation of Competitive Eating (IFOCE) are playing up the East vs. West aspect of the contest, which launched in 1916. Nine of the last 10 winners hailed from Japan despite XXL-sized American competitors more than double their size.

Rich Shea, one of the founders of the sponsoring IFOCE, said the possibility of a Chestnut upset is piquing interest in this year's holiday extravaganza. Kobayashi is undefeated in eating competitions on American soil.

"People believe Joey can win this contest," Shea said. "How much can a human being eat? What is the capacity? I think we'll find out."

Frankly, there's no questioning Kobayashi's credentials. He remains the Nathan's hot dog record holder with 53 1/2 franks on July 4, 2004 - one frank every 13.45 seconds. Kobayashi is Michael Jordan slathered in mustard, the greatest performer in his field.

But there's no reason for Chestnut to feel cowed when he steps in front of the all-beef dogs. The one-man table for 10 has eaten 32 grilled cheese sandwiches in 10 minutes, 5 1/2 pounds of pork ribs in 12 minutes, 173 chicken wings in 30 minutes - all world records.

Last year, in his Coney Island debut, an admittedly unfocused Chestnut finished in third place with 32 hot dogs. It was a good experience for several reasons, but particularly because it offered him a close-up look at Kobayashi.

"He's a real humble guy," said Chestnut. "He's a sportsman, and he treats it like sport. He's a good guy, and I love competing against him."

Even if Chestnut gags this year, his future is as bright as the yellow championship belt. "There's a lot of eating to go for this kid," said Shea.
**************
Death No Obstacle for Chart - Topper Johnny Cash By REUTERS

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - In life, Johnny Cash was merely a legend. In death, he is proving immortal.

Almost three years after he died at the age of 71 after a decade of poor health, the country outlaw is the most popular artist in the United States, currently at No. 1 on the pop and country charts with an album of new material.

The album, ``American V: A Hundred Highways,'' recorded in Cash's final months as he looked forward to reuniting with his late wife, June Carter Cash, sold 88,000 copies in the week ended July 9. It's his first chart-topper since 1969's live prison album ``Johnny Cash at San Quentin.''

It also marks the fifth -- but not the final -- installment in the ``American Recordings'' series, which resurrected the singer's career in the last dozen years of his life. The comeback was masterminded by rock producer Rick Rubin, who has already topped the album charts this summer with the Red Hot Chili Peppers and the Dixie Chicks.

Cash and Rubin started work on the acoustic set the day they finished 2002's fourth volume, which featured one of the biggest hits of his career, a Grammy-winning cover of hard rock band Nine Inch Nails' ``Hurt.'' With a frail Cash sensing the end was near, he recorded 60 songs over eight months, often singing in an improvised bedroom studio at his home near Nashville.

REASON TO LIVE

While the sessions for the previous albums were straightforward affairs, Rubin said the ``American V'' sessions had a more important motivation -- to keep Cash alive.

``He was recording every day to communicate and to be alive and to have a reason to go on. Which was different than the other albums which were just about singing songs,'' Rubin said in a recent interview with Reuters.

Still, Rubin said Cash appeared to be on the mend, no longer confined to a wheelchair and enjoying a better diet. He was devastated to learn of Cash's death on September 12, 2003.

``He was able to walk again, and everything was turning around to the point of where the week after he passed -- the following Tuesday -- he was supposed to be coming to Los Angeles, and we were going to be working together again.''

Among the tracks on ``American V'' are covers of Gordon Lightfoot's ``If You Could Read My Mind,'' and the folk standard ''Four Strong Winds,'' as well as the last song Cash wrote and recorded, the train-themed ``Like the 309.''

His voice sounds eerily fragile on ``If You Could Read My Mind,'' but Rubin said it fits perfectly with the melancholy lyrics and melody. On the other hand, his reading of Hank Williams' ``Evening Train'' is full of gusto, in part because Cash knew the song by heart.

The album was originally envisaged as a black gospel release, and Cash recorded several such tunes including the strident ``God's Gonna Cut You Down'' before they decided to expand their horizons. His former Sun Records labelmate Elvis Presley had an earlier crack at the traditional tune on his gospel album ``Amazing Grace.''

READY TO DIE

Cash and Rubin, who developed an immensely close bond over the years, occasionally discussed death, and the singer had indicated that he was happy to go when his time was up.

``He was excited about working, but at the same time he was ready to meet June when it was deemed his time,'' Rubin saidStill, the sessions were not depressing affairs. While Cash's physical body may have been failing him, his intellect and sense of humor remained as sharp as ever. On ``Like the 309,'' he confronts his mortality with the opening line, ``It should be a while before I see Doctor Death.''

``He was really full of wisdom and he was really interested and he would still read, and listen to documentary programs. He was always learning stuff,'' Rubin recalled.

Rubin said he will issue a sixth volume with tracks from the same sessions, but has no idea what songs will make the cut or when the album will hit the streets. Currently he is working with rock bands Linkin Park and Metallica.

A more immediate possibility is another Billboard magazine advertisement ripping the country music world for its apathy toward Cash. After the overlooked 1996 album ``Unchained'' (U.S. sales to date: 152,000, according to Nielsen SoundScan) won the Grammy for best country album, Rubin controversially reproduced a famous photo of Cash hoisting a middle finger into the eye of the camera, and sarcastically thanked ``the Nashville music establishment and country radio for your support.''

``So much of the idea of that ad was really for Johnny's entertainment,'' Rubin recalled. ``It's a great idea, having the No. 1 album and the No. 1 country album, it's a great time for a f--- you from Johnny Cash!''

Reuters
****************
Maine Lobsterman Pulls Up Rare Lobster By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

BAR HARBOR, Maine (AP) -- An eastern Maine lobsterman caught a lobster this week that looks like it's half-cooked.

The lobster caught by Alan Robinson in Dyer's Bay that is a typical mottled green on one side; the other side is a shade of orange that looks cooked.

Robinson, of Steuben, donated the lobster to the Mount Desert Oceanarium. Staff members say the odds or finding a half-and-half lobster are 1 in 50 million to 100 million. By comparison, the odds of finding a blue lobster are about 1 in a million.

Robinson, who has been fishing for more than 20 years, said he didn't know what to think when he spotted the odd creature in his trap.

''I thought somebody was playing a joke on me,'' Robinson said. ''Once I saw what it was ... it was worth seeing.''

Bette Spurling, who works at the oceanarium, said lobster shells are usually a blend of the three primary colors: red, yellow and blue. Those colors mix to form the greenish-brown color of most lobsters. This lobster, though, has no blue in half of its shell, she said.

Bernard Arseneau, a former manager at the oceanarium's lobster hatchery, said lobsters also have a growth pattern in which the two sides develop independently of each other.

The oceanarium has received only three two-toned lobsters in its 35 years of existence, staff members said.
**************
Berlin Love Parade Back After Three - Year Absence By REUTERS

BERLIN (Reuters) - Berlin's ``Love Parade'' returned on Saturday with around half a million revelers attending the gigantic techno-music party on the streets of the German capital a mere one week after the end of the soccer World Cup.

Dancers wore elaborate costumes or gyrated in their under-garments to deafening bass rhythms produced by disc jockeys on giant flat-bed trucks riding along a 3-kmstretch near the Tiergarten Park and Brandenburg Gate.

Police said as many as two hundred thousand more could yet attend the party later on Saturday.

The parade was resuscitated this year after financial turmoil forced its cancellation in 2004 and 2005. ``The Love is Back'' is the motto of the 2006 version, which runs all day and into the evening before ravers move on to nightclubs.

``This is great! I've been waiting three years for this,'' said Berliner Nicole Koehler, 25. ``Hopefully it will be here every year from now on.''

With the help of a new sponsor, a German fitness studio, the party that traces its roots to 1989 is spreading beyond the techno music scene to include all forms of electronic music.

revelers from around the world arrived on Saturday morning with painted faces and wearing exotic garb.

``I think there are actually more strange-looking people this year. Maybe everyone is still in a festive mood from the World Cup,'' said New Yorker David Wollenberg, 24, who attended the 2003 parade.

Some, however, were disappointed. ``It's okay but not as good as before,'' said Patrick Blume, a 28-year-old from Nuremberg. ``There are not as many people, but that may be because it's the first one in three years.''

The parade gained immense popularity throughout the 90s, peaking in 1999 with 1.5 million attendees. It also inspired similar festivals across Europe, the Middle East, Africa and North America.

The event was stripped of its ``political demonstration'' status in 2001, and costs of essential services like blocking off roads, relocating bus stops and cleaning up debris were no longer covered by the city.
*************
It's an Auction, Jim, but Not as We Know It By JAMES BARRON

The stuff of "Star Trek" — uniforms, communicators and other props, including pointy rubber ears — has boldly gone to a place where the intrepid crew never took the Enterprise: the Bronx.

In a windowless warehouse in Crotona Park East, boxes of "Star Trek" memorabilia that were shipped from the part of the galaxy known as Hollywood are being cataloged and photographed. The catalogers and photographers work for Christie's, the auction house that more often handles impressionists and old masters.

The trove will be sold for dollars. Not Federation credits.

So, hanging on one coat rack in the warehouse are Klingon costumes. On another are the Enterprise crew's uniforms, even William Shatner's uniform. "It's a great" — long pause — "leisure suit," said Cathy Elkies, the Christie's official overseeing the sale.

"Star Trek" fans are passionate. They attend conventions. They know "Star Trek V: The Final Frontier" and "Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country." They correct dumb mistakes, no matter how obscure, in any articles having anything to do with "Star Trek." They take the idea of being a fan to extremes, and proudly so. And they are not Christie's usual crowd. No one dressed as a Klingon was in attendance when Christie's sold the dress Marilyn Monroe wore when she sashayed into Madison Square Garden and sang "Happy Birthday" to President John F. Kennedy.

So when Christie's marketers asked Ms. Elkies who was the intended audience for the sale, which is scheduled for Oct. 5-7, she did not have a ready answer. "I had to say, I really don't know," she said.

That is partly because so few actual props from the various television series and films have been sold before. The items in the sale had been stored in warehouses, some since the original 1960's television series went off the air. But after the cancellation of the UPN prequel "Star Trek: Enterprise" last year, Paramount decided to lighten its holdings.

Now Christie's is preparing descriptions for each item — descriptions that are decidedly different from the ones usually found in Christie's catalogs.

Consider this one, for a pair of items that Christie's expects to sell for $1,000 to $1,500: "Two tribbles of imitation fur stuffed with foam rubber, one gray and black, the other white, gray and brown."

Tribbles were small life forms that reproduced at remarkable rates, according to Memory-Alpha.org, one of many sites on the Web devoted to "Star Trek." Christie's says this pair was used in the "Deep Space Nine" episode "Trials and Tribble-ations" and also in a "Star Trek: Enterprise" episode.

Ms. Elkies said she was approaching the sale in "a democratic way" — meaning, she explained, "We are pricing it so there will be something for everyone." She said there would be items with estimated prices of $200 or so.

But the estimates on some items are far higher. Christie's expects to sell a model of the Starship Enterprise-A, made from a plastic hobby kit and used on "Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country" in 1991, for $15,000 to $25,000. According to the Memory-Alpha site, the Enterprise-A had made its debut in "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home" and had gone on a surprisingly speedy journey to the center of the galaxy in "Star Trek V: The Final Frontier."

Christie's also has a model of a Work Bee, which, according to Memory-Alpha, was "a small utility craft in use by the Federation since the mid-23rd century." Ms. Elkies said this one was used in the drydock sequences in "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" and also in the main title sequence of "Deep Space Nine." Christie's estimates that it will sell for $6,000 to $8,000 at the auction.

Ms. Elkies said she was impressed by the craftsmanship of the costumes and props. "If you see something on TV, you don't think there's a backside to it," she said. "But you see these things and you realize how much time and labor went into each object."

The Starfleet officer Worf's silver rifle "almost looks like an Uzi," Ms. Elkies said, lifting it off the shelf, "and it's heavy."

And then there was the Xindi alien in the stasis chamber from the series "Enterprise." The stasis chamber was a clear plastic cylinder. The Xindi alien was a yellow figure about the size of a 5-year-old child, with wires attached to places that, on a human, would be painful if attached without anesthetic.

Ms. Elkies was not a major "Star Trek" fan before she started to organize the sale. She got her baptism in "Star Trek" mania when she went to a convention in Germany in May. "The funny part was, I couldn't always tell if it was German or Klingon that they were speaking," she said.

At 41, she was a small child when "Star Trek" originally went on the air. "I think it was so different than anything else that was on," she said. "Remember, we had five channels back then, so we weren't inundated with programming the way we are now. It was so original, it was so different, it was gripping, there was always something that hooked you in — and Captain Kirk was very cute."
*************
Video iPods Helping Rockies Get into the ``Swing'' of Things

DENVER (AP) - Three hours before a start against Florida, Colorado Rockies pitcher Jason Jennings sits in front of his locker, puts on his headphones and stares at his video iPod.

He isn't watching the latest Coldplay video or catching up on an episode of ``Alias'' as a way to relax before the game.

Jennings is doing some last-minute cramming: The Rockies' video staff has downloaded every Marlins hitter into his iPod, and Jennings is figuring out how to pitch to them. He watches frames of himself delivering the pitch, followed by the result of the play. Everything else is weeded out.

``It's a good way to refresh yourself on how you got guys out,'' Jennings said. ``It's an amazing concept.''

The Rockies have taken the iPod beyond entertainment. And the idea has caught on - teams such as Florida and Seattle have called the Rockies to explore their innovative use of the iPod.

``It wasn't like we invented the wheel,'' said Rockies assistant video coordinator Brian Jones, who came up with the idea after the video iPod was released last November. ``We're using Apple's technology as best we can. We figured if you can watch music videos by rock 'n' roll and by country, why can't you watch at-bats by San Francisco and pitches by Jason Schmidt?''

Over the past two decades, video has become common throughout the league, as it is with football. Teams have tons of film to help players study their opponents and their own quirks. In the last few years, players have been able to take home DVDs to watch on their laptops.

Now, all that information is in the palm of their hands.

``They can do it on their time, they don't have to be here or they don't have to be behind a desk watching a laptop. They can be at home, on the airplane or even in their locker,'' Rockies video coach Mike Hamilton said.

Red Sox reliever Mike Timlin said he isn't sure the trend is a good one.

``Improved the game for us pitchers? No,'' he said with a laugh. ``There's only so much you can do to get the guys out. These guys have a better idea and a better understanding. You have to rely on your catchers. You had to before video.''

New York Mets manager Willie Randolph doesn't have a problem with a player analyzing video, but it wouldn't have been for him. Randolph, a former All-Star, preferred extra batting practice to extra film sessions.

``I think it's overrated personally, but that's just me,'' Randolph said. ``I'm from a different school.''

The Rockies have downloaded video clips into the iPods of 14 players so far. For the hitters, they'll store every at-bat and download performances of upcoming pitchers. A 60-gigabyte iPod can hold roughly five seasons' worth of a player's at-bats. Pitchers can get all their performances, along with opponents' at-bats.

Jones has permission to take iPods from players' lockers to update them, and when the Rockies are on the road he compiles DVDs of their play and loads video onto the iPods when they return home.

``I take care of it all,'' Jones said. ``It just takes a few minutes. It's like putting a song on from iTunes.''

After seeing what the Rockies were doing, the Marlins left town with their own iPod ideas.

``I've never heard of that,'' Florida pitcher Dontrelle Willis said of storing starts on the iPod. ``Oh man, that would be convenient.''

Rockies second baseman Jamey Carroll overheard Hamilton talking about the concept at spring training and showed up the next day with his video iPod, ready for it to be stocked with footage.

``I don't put movies on it,'' Carroll said. ``I want to save all the space for hitting.''

The club doesn't buy the iPods for the players. It's a $399 investment for the 60-gigabyte model (the 30-gigabyte version costs $299). The Rockies have, however, purchased five iPods for general manager Dan O'Dowd and several scouts.

Colorado's minor league hitting coordinator, Jimmy Johnson, has an iPod filled with video of players in the farm system. If a player is struggling, Johnson can compare his swing from the past with his current swing, and fix it accordingly.

The iPods came in handy before June's baseball draft, too.

``That way the scouts could compare a prospective draft pick in North Carolina with one in California,'' Hamilton said. ``You'd have a real good comparison. The game is so visual now. This helps.''

The small screen size - 2.5 inches - hasn't been a problem, either.

``Six or seven guys can't sit around and watch it,'' Hamilton said. ``But if you watch it yourself, it's not that much different from watching a large screen.''

Boston slugger Trot Nixon said he watches standard video when he needs to, but doesn't obsess over analyzing his swing.

``If something doesn't feel right I'll look at the video or ask some of the teammates that have played with me for a long time,'' he said. ``I've seen guys go back to the video after every at-bat. I was guilty of doing it at times, but I was only upsetting myself more and more: `Look at that pitch the umpire called. Why did I do this, do that?' I've got to go out and play right field. I've got to leave it there.''

Jones thinks his iPod idea soon will be used across college and professional sports.

``We're always trying to figure out the easiest way to help our players,'' he said. ``In the old days, when you had a VCR, you had to go through so much tape. Now it's so much easier and portable. You don't have to search for two hours to find that one swing on that one day.''

Rockies slugger Todd Helton has every hit since 1998 stored by month on his iPod, which he uses to help him find his stroke whenever things start to go bad at the plate.

``When the swing doesn't feel right, I look at it to capture how I was feeling or which one of my 300 stances I was in at that point,'' Helton said. ``Baseball is such a messed up sport and it's so hard, sometimes you need to go back and look at the good things.''

Helton frequently checks out his August 2000 file, when he had 50 hits and batted .476 for the month.

``If you look at my swing then, it didn't look like I was swinging too hard, and it didn't look like I was trying to do too much,'' Helton said. ``I was putting the head of the bat on the ball, and that's what you're trying to do.''

Helton was leery about showing too much enthusiasm for the Rockies' cool new toys.

``We're trying to get all the advantages we can,'' he said. ``We don't want anybody else to get this.''

Too late.

Willis left Coors Field excited about all the possibilities of this new application of technology.

``Anything you can do to help yourself get ready for (games) is a good idea,'' he said.
*************
Willie Nelson Buys Hometown Church By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

ABBOTT, Texas (AP) -- Hoping to save a piece of hometown history, Willie Nelson has bought the Methodist church where he honed his musical skills as a boy.

Nelson, 73, celebrated the church's preservation at a Sunday service that brought together longtime parishioners, friends and family -- including his sister -- for prayers and gospel music.

''Sister Bobbie and I have been going to this church since we were born,'' Nelson said. ''Now, you're all members of the Abbott Methodist Church, and you will be, forever and ever.''

In between blessings from guest ministers, Nelson performed with his sister and guests including Leon Russell. They sang hymns such as ''Uncloudy Day,'' ''I'll Fly Away,'' ''Will the Circle be Unbroken'' and ''Precious Memories.''

The congregation listed 600 members at its high point in 1886, according to the inscription on its historical marker. But the steepled building, which itself dates from 1899, closed in May after its last service as part of the United Methodist denomination. The dwindling congregation merged with a larger one in Hillsboro.

Abbott, along Interstate 35 about 65 miles south of Dallas, is home to some 300 people.

Donald Reed, a boyhood friend of Nelson's, called Nelson when the church came up for sale. Reed said he will coordinate the church schedule for services on the first Sunday of each month.

Nelson greeted old friends in the sanctuary after the service.

''This has been quite an experience, all these people,'' he said. ''We went to school together, played ball together, dated together.''
*************
Researchers Say New Chip Breaks Speed Record By LAURIE J. FLYNN

Researchers at I.B.M. and the Georgia Institute of Technology are set to announce today that they have broken the speed record for silicon-based chips with a semiconductor that operates 250 times faster than chips commonly used today.

The achievement is a major step in the evolution of computer semiconductor technology that could eventually lead to faster networks and more powerful electronics at lower prices, said Bernard Meyerson, vice president and chief technologist in I.B.M.'s systems and technology group. He said developments like this one typically found their way into commercial products in 12 to 24 months.

The researchers, using a cryogenic test station, achieved the speed milestone by "freezing" the chip to 451 degrees below zero Fahrenheit, using liquid helium. That temperature, normally found only in outer space, is just nine degrees above absolute zero, or the temperature at which all movement is thought to cease.

At 500 gigahertz, the technology is 250 times faster than chips in today's cellphones, which operate at 2 gigahertz. At room temperature, the chips operate at 350 gigahertz, far faster than other chips in commercial use today.

Mr. Meyerson compared the achievement to the development of the chips used in Wi-Fi networks. It was not until the semiconductor technology used in those networks was produced with silicon that wireless networking become affordable for consumer applications.

Dan Olds, a principal at the Gabriel Consulting Group, a technology consulting firm in Portland, Ore., said the development was significant because it showed that the chip industry had not yet reached its upper limits. "There's been talk that we've started to hit the physical limitations of chip performance," he said. "The news here is that we're not coming anywhere near the end in what processors are capable of."

Mr. Olds cautioned, however, that the technology was far from finding its way into commercial products any time soon, considering the performance leap it represents. Today's performance-hungry computer buyers, for example, are buying machines operating at about three gigahertz, he said.

John D. Cressler, a professor in Georgia Tech's School of Electrical and Computer Engineering and a researcher at the Georgia Electronic Design Center, said the work "redefines the upper bounds of what is possible" using silicon-germanium.

The research group included students from Georgia Tech and Korea University in South Korea, and researchers from I.B.M. Microelectronics. The results will be reported in the July issue of the technical journal IEEE Electron Device Letters.
*************
33 Innings, 882 Pitches and One Crazy Game By IRA BERKOW

PROVIDENCE, R.I., June 23 — A few years ago, Bruce Hurst recalled Friday afternoon, he was on a golf course in Scottsdale, Ariz., when he ran into Cal Ripken Jr., the likely Hall of Fame shortstop. "I'm sure he didn't remember me, but of course I knew him," said Hurst, once a standout pitcher for the Boston Red Sox.

"And then we went back to that one night, that cold, crazy night when we were in the minor leagues. It seems for any of us who were involved in that game, no matter what else we did in our baseball career, we inevitably come back to that night. We still can hardly believe it."

The game between the Pawtucket Red Sox and the Rochester Red Wings, the Class AAA affiliates of the Boston Red Sox and the Baltimore Orioles, began in Pawtucket, R.I., on the night of April 18, 1981, went into the early morning of April 19 (when the game was halted), and concluded June 23.

It became the longest game in the history of professional baseball, lasting 33 innings, with a total of 882 pitches thrown and 156 baseballs used over 8 hours 25 minutes. It finally ended with Pawtucket scoring a run in the bottom of the 33rd.

A reunion commemorating the 25th anniversary of the game's conclusion was held Friday at a downtown hotel here, with 20 former Pawtucket players and 9 former Rochester players attending a luncheon. There was another ceremony Friday night at McCoy Stadium, the Pawtucket team's home park.

The 1981 game began on a Saturday night at McCoy Stadium with 1,740 fans in attendance. When it was stopped, after 32 innings, at 4:09 Easter morning, with the score tied at 2-2, 19 fans were left in the stands.

"No, none of the players fell asleep," Hurst said. "We were just trying to stay warm. It was the coldest I've ever been in uniform."

Marty Barrett, then the second baseman for Pawtucket, recalled that as the game went on, the temperature began to drop. "It must have been in the mid-30's, and the wind was blowing in at about 15 miles an hour — I bet the wind chill factor was 20 degrees," he said. Barrett said that Bob Ojeda, the eventual winning pitcher, found a 55-gallon trash can and lit a fire with the numerous bats that broke during the game.

"I followed baseball statistics and records when I was growing up and knew that the major league record for the longest game was 26 innings," in 1920, Barrett said. "When it went past that, I knew we were involved in something special."

The previous pro baseball longevity record was 29 innings, on June 14, 1966, with Miami beating St. Petersburg (managed by Sparky Anderson), 4-3, in the Class A Florida State League.

"When I doubled in the tying run in the 21st inning, I didn't know if the guys wanted to hug me or slug me," said Wade Boggs, now a Hall of Famer, who played third base for Pawtucket. "But, being competitors, we did want to win the game."

The game seemed ill-fated from the start. Scheduled to begin at 7 p.m., it was delayed because of a problem with the stadium lights. At one point, Sam Bowen, the Pawtucket right fielder, hit a ball that Boggs thought was out of the park. "But the wind blew it back and the left fielder made a running basket catch," Boggs said.

Jim Umbarger came in to relieve for the Red Wings in the 23rd inning and threw 10 shutout innings.

"I remember calling my father the next day and telling him I got four hits," Boggs said. "He said, 'That's great.' I said: 'Yeah, but I was up 12 times. We went 32 last night.' "

Hurst, who pitched the last five innings April 19 — he was Pawtucket's seventh pitcher that night — said he remembered striking out Ripken (who went 2 for 13, and batted 15 times) on a 3-2 curveball. "Why I'm throwing a curveball in that situation, I don't know," he recalled, "but it turned out to be my best 4 a.m. pitch."

The game was stopped after repeated calls to Harold Cooper, the president of the International League, in Columbus, Ohio. Cooper had been at a wedding and did not get home until 3 a.m. Hurst said, "I heard that he said: 'You idiot, this is absurd. Call the game.' "

The game was amazing to a lot of people, including the wife of Luis Aponte. (Aponte pitched four scoreless innings in relief for Pawtucket.) She had locked the door of their home when he returned at 5 in the morning. "She didn't believe his excuse," Barrett said. Aponte, nearby, laughed in assent.

The game resumed in June, when the Red Wings were back to play in Pawtucket. The major league players had gone on strike, so there was a great deal of coverage. Almost 5,800 fans were in the stands.

"Before the game," said Joe Morgan, then the Pawtucket manager, "some guy from Australia came over to me and said, 'Sir, do you think this match will be resolved today?' " It was, in 18 minutes. The Red Sox loaded the bases against Steve Grilli, who was relieved by Cliff Speck. The next batter, first baseman Dave Koza, lined a hit into left field, and Barrett scored the winning run at long last.

Among the estimated 360 area residents who attended the reunion was Carl Bishop, 74, the retired chief executive of a Rhode Island hospital. "I listened to that game on radio until it was tied after the ninth inning," he said. "I thought, 'This game could go on forever,' and I turned it off and went to sleep. And I was glad, because it did go on forever."
************
Minor League Manager Throws Major Tantrum By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) -- Once the umpire called Roger Clemens' kid safe, a minor league manager threw a major league tantrum that would have made Lou Piniella, Earl Weaver and Tommy Lasorda proud.

It also cost Asheville Tourists manager Joe Mikulik a seven-day suspension and $1,000 fine.

Mikulik, who used to write ''Never Surrender'' on his wristbands when he played in the minors, put on a throwing, kicking and screaming show Sunday that was still the talk of baseball a day later.

The South Atlantic League also spent a lot of time talking about his antics and penalized him Monday night.

Upset with umpire Andy Russell's call in the fifth inning of Asheville's 5-2 loss, Mikulik rushed onto the field. The manager of the Colorado Rockies' Class A affiliate made a headfirst dive into second base and later pulled up the bag -- taking a few tugs to get it done -- before throwing it into right field.

By the time he got ejected, Mikulik was just getting warmed up. And by the time he was done, he had thrown a resin bag, several bats and blocked the umpires' locker room.

''I don't think I ever lost total control, though it may look like it,'' Mikulik told the Asheville Citizen-Times earlier Monday. ''It was just frustration, and I obviously went a little bit too far. I apologize to fans and to the umpires for my actions, and I regret what happened.''

Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder Kenny Lofton played with Mikulik in the Houston organization, and watched television highlights of the tirade his former teammate put on after Lexington's Koby Clemens was called safe at second base on a pickoff try.

''He was crazy,'' Lofton said, laughing hard before Monday night's game at Minnesota. ''Whoo. When I saw it, I was like, 'OK, that's something that he had in him.' That explosiveness. I didn't know he was going to do all that.

''He had a lot of intensity, boy. Whoo. It wasn't bad. He was just ready to go. That's how he was. When I saw that, I was like, 'Well, it just finally came out,''' he said.

Piniella, Weaver and Lasorda were famed for their wild arguments with umpires. Mikulik's display was equally volatile.

Mikulik tossed the resin bag into the bullpen, covered home plate with dirt and cleaned it with a water bottle, which he finally spiked onto the plate.

Back in the dugout, he threw a bunch of bats onto the field, enough to send a batboy ducking for cover.

In the clubhouse, Mikulik pushed a couple of water coolers, a chair and a batting practice screen in front of the umpires' locker room.

Along the way, he kept yelling at the umps, who calmly listened to his tirade.

''I could get two mannequins at Sears and umpire better than what I saw this whole series,'' he told the Lexington Herald-Leader.

''I thought the strike was over,'' Mikulik said. ''When will the real umpires show up? That's what I want to know.''

The regular minor league umpires began the season on strike, and returned earlier this month.

After the game, Mikulik said he wasn't concerned about his actions and had spoken to South Atlantic League president John Moss.

''I already talked to John Henry, I've got that covered,'' he said. ''This ain't my first rodeo. ... I didn't touch anybody. I never bumped anybody. ... I actually cleaned home plate for them, so they should give me a tip for that.''

Colorado pitcher Aaron Cook played for Mikulik at Asheville in 2000.

''It was kind of entertaining,'' Cook said. ''Will he get fired from the Rockies? Naw, I don't think so. Right now, it's getting a lot of publicity, but probably about a month from now, nobody will remember it happened.''

Rockies shortstop Clint Barmes also played for Mikulik.

''I've seen it happen a few times -- maybe not to that extent-- but he's had a few pretty exciting events when he'd gotten thrown out of games,'' Barmes said. ''It's been balls or bats or something like that, and obviously he can get in an umpire's face.''

Rockies officials declined to comment Monday before the team's game against the Angels in Anaheim. Now in his seventh year of managing Asheville, Mikulik was a career minor league outfielder who never made it to the majors.

In 1991, Mikulik's hit in the bottom of the ninth inning gave Tucson a victory over Calgary in the deciding game of the Pacific Coast League championship series. Lofton was on base at the time.

''This was nothing new about him being intense. He loved the game. He wanted to play every day. He had the same intensity every day,'' Lofton said. ''If he didn't play, he was mad, because he wanted to play. That's how he was. And he loved baseball, boy. He'd live and die for it.''

''That's just his nature. You'd see him after the game, you know at dinner or lunch or something, he was just hyped. Just ready. He was just wired that way. Some people are,'' he said. ''I'm wired, but he had me beat. I'm always moving and fidgeting, too, but he had me beat. He was a good guy. It's just funny to see.''
************
A Gift Between Friends By LANDON THOMAS Jr., NY TIMES

The friendship between Warren E. Buffett and Bill Gates has been forged over a shared passion for such homespun American treats as cherry Coke, burgers and college football. They delight as well in loftier pursuits, like playing bridge and solving complex math problems.

But, more than anything, what Mr. Buffett's $31 billion gift to the foundation that Mr. Gates runs with his wife, Melinda, shows is a common disdain for inherited wealth and a shared view that the capitalist system that has enriched them so handsomely is not capable alone of addressing the root causes of poverty.

"A market system has not worked in terms of poor people," Mr. Buffett said yesterday, in an interview taped earlier in the day for "The Charlie Rose Show" on PBS.

As for any thought he might have had in giving the bulk of his billions to his three children, Mr. Buffett was characteristically blunt. "I don't believe in dynastic wealth," he said, calling those who grow up in wealthy circumstances "members of the lucky sperm club."

Genuine friendships within the highest tier of corporate America are rare, because of the demands of the jobs as well as the myriad forces that can turn shared interests into embarrassing conflicts.

But the bond between Mr. Buffett and Mr. Gates, the two richest people in the United States and arguably the two most influential in American business in recent years, has lasted more than 15 years. It has been sustained, according to people who know them, in large part by a very high level of intelligence and a conviction that their vast wealth has given them a larger responsibility to society.

"When you are as smart as Warren or Bill, I think it's hard to find people to talk to," said Donald E. Graham, the publisher of The Washington Post, who has spent time together with the two men. He called Mr. Buffett's gift "the most creative thing that anyone has done and the way he has done it underscores how much admiration he has for Bill."

What was most surprising about Mr. Buffett's decision was not so much that he was giving his wealth away but that he was asking someone else to pursue philanthropy on his behalf.

Like Mr. Buffett, corporate titans like Sanford I. Weill, the former chief executive of Citigroup, and Henry M. Paulson Jr., the chief executive of Goldman Sachs who has been nominated to be Treasury secretary, have promised to dispense with their own wealth. But they, like most of those with huge fortunes, are expected to set up their own charitable foundations to carry out their wishes. For Mr. Buffett, a hallmark of his skill as an investor has been his self-denying quality. He has often described his task running Berkshire Hathaway, the insurance holding company that serves as his investment vehicle, as finding the best corporate managers, investing heavily in them and getting out of the way — an approach that he now plans to follow with Mr. and Ms. Gates.

"I would be terrible at it," Mr. Buffett said yesterday, assessing his abilities as a philanthropist. "I like to look in the mirror and ask myself whether I'm doing O.K. And there are a lot of people whose opinions I don't want to listen to. So you have to be a little more diplomatic than I am."

In past interviews, Mr. Gates, who just turned 50 and is 25 years younger than Mr. Buffett, has referred to himself as the student in the relationship ("I study him," he has said).

But while business itself has not been at the core of their relationship, Mr. Buffett invited Mr. Gates to serve as a director of Berkshire Hathaway and said that he had bought a small piece of Microsoft a long time ago just to keep his eye on Mr. Gates.

Mr. Gates said yesterday that Mr. Buffett had first mentioned the idea in passing on his wealth to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation about a year and a half ago. Then in recent months, the two men, who play bridge online and vacation together, delved into more specifics as Mr. Buffett discussed just how impressed he had been with the work of the foundation, which devotes the greatest amount of its resources to improving health conditions in developing countries.

"Then it was like, 'Wow, is he serious about that?' " Mr. Gates recalled in his interview with Mr. Rose. Followed by, "Wow, are we ready for that?"

The two men were first introduced in 1991, when Mr. Gates, who then kept his nose close to Microsoft's grindstone, was persuaded by his mother to attend a meeting where Mr. Buffett and Katharine Graham, then the publisher of The Washington Post, were present.

Mr. Gates was reluctant to go, fearing that Mr. Buffett was only interested in narrow financial subjects. "What were he and I supposed to talk about, P/E ratios?" he recalled for an article in Harvard Business Review.

But they hit it off immediately, plunging into an in-depth dissection of I.B.M.'s prospects. Yesterday, Mr. Gates credited Mr. Buffett for encouraging him, in the early 1990's, to read a copy of the World Development Report, put out by the World Bank, that analyzed poverty levels around the world, thus sparking his interest in philanthropy.

One thing they don't have in common is the way they live. Mr. Buffett, who still inhabits the house in Omaha that he bought for $31,500 in 1959, frequently lured Mr. Gates to his home turf to participate in local bridge tournaments. Mr. Gates built a huge mansion on the shores of Lake Washington not far from Microsoft's headquarters in Redmond, a suburb of Seattle. And he is a much more enthusiastic world traveler, though he persuaded Mr. Buffett to accompany him on a trip to China in 1995.

But they both are devoted workaholics who go to their offices just about every day they are at home. In public, there is a relaxed towel-snapping aspect to their relationship — as if they are making up for all those jocular moments that passed them by during their younger, more intensely ambitious years.

In an earlier interview with Charlie Rose, Mr. Buffett explained the role he played in Mr. Gates's engagement in 1994 to his wife, with whom he has had three children. The couple flew into Omaha, where they met Mr. Buffett at Borsheim's, the jeweler that Berkshire Hathaway has owned for years.

"Look, Bill, this is none of your business, but when I got married, I spent 6 percent of my net worth on the ring," he recalled saying to Mr. Gates, who at the time had a net worth already well into the billions. "I don't know how much you love Melinda."

Mr. Gates can get his jabs in, too. He has said publicly that his daughter calls Mr. Buffett "the man who works at Dairy Queen," a needle at Mr. Buffett's oft-expressed love for the company, which he owns, and its signature product.

Mr. Gates has also credited Mr. Buffett with crystallizing his own feelings about inherited wealth. The son of a successful lawyer in Seattle, Mr. Gates rebelled at his own privileged upbringing, dropping out of Harvard and starting Microsoft with several close associates.

But in the end, a decision that will double the wealth of what is already the largest charitable foundation in the world seems to have been largely the result of a shared belief in the power of lasting, creative partnerships. Mr. Buffett, for example, has worked with a close associate, Charles T. Munger, for decades.

Mr. Gates has had similar partnerships. He co-founded Microsoft with a childhood friend, Paul G. Allen, and presided over Microsoft's rise to its current status with Steven A. Ballmer, a dorm mate at Harvard, whom he named chief executive in 2000 when he elevated himself to chairman of the board.

"In business, I had a great partnership with my partner Charlie," Mr. Buffett said yesterday. "And I have seen what happens when you get two people together that are totally in sync but also have different ways of working towards a common goal."
****************
Queen Elizabeth Spent More Taxpayer Money on Travel, Security

LONDON (AP) - Queen Elizabeth II spent more taxpayer money last fiscal year - $67.3 million in all - because of overseas visits and extra security, Buckingham Palace said Wednesday.

Overall, the queen and her household spent 4.2 percent more than they did the previous fiscal year, the palace said in its annual expenditures report.

The government's contribution to meeting the costs of the queen's household is known as the Civil List. The palace said more than 70 percent of the list's $20 million in expenditures paid the salaries of 310 royal staff.

The queen also spent $1.8 million on catering and hospitality, up from $1.6 million in 2004.

A total of $36 million spent by the queen came from grants from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and the Department of Transport.

The cost of new security measures at the Palace came to about $275,000, the royal accountants said.

The increases came after the Daily Mirror reporter Ryan Parry gained access to Buckingham Palace as a royal footman in 2003 just before President Bush stayed there.

The cost of royal travel rose by 10 percent to $9.9 million, of which $8.2 million was spent on air travel. That included a reconnaissance trip by some of Prince Charles's staff to the United States ahead of his visit there, which cost more than $79,000.

By contrast, a reconnaissance trip by Buckingham Palace staff to Australia and Singapore ahead of the queen's official visit cost $27,000.

A palace spokesman said Charles's U.S. trip - his first with new wife Camilla - ``was a very complicated trip. There were a lot of different interests related to the engagement he was carrying out.''

During the 2005-2006 fiscal year, the royal family made 14 journeys on the royal train, compared with 19 the year before. They also took 48 scheduled rail journeys.

Alan Reid, Keeper of the Privy Purse, said the royal household has asked the government for $1.8 million a year extra, plus an adjustment for inflation, to run the royal palaces.

The household receives $27 million annually for running the palaces, but Reid said the figure was set in 1998 and is now out of date.

``If we're going to maintain historic buildings that we're responsible for, we will need more money,'' he said.
***************
Archaeologists Unveil Newest Pharaonic Tomb in Egypt's Valley of the Kings

LUXOR, Egypt (AP) - Archaeologists on Wednesday fully unveiled the first tomb discovered in Egypt's Valley of the Kings in over 80 years, and cracked open the last of seven sarcophagi inside to reveal embalming materials and jewelry.

``This is even better than finding a mummy - it's a treasure,'' said chief curator Nadia Lokma, beaming at the sarcophagus packed with fragile fabrics and other materials that would crumble into dust if touched.

``It will tell us about the religious plants and herbs used by ancient Egyptians, what they wore, how they wove it, how they embalmed the dead,'' she said.

Dug deep into the white rock, the tomb is known only by the acronym KV63 - the 63rd tomb found in the Valley - and was discovered accidentally last year by U.S. archaeologists working on the neighboring tomb of Amenmeses, a late 19th Dynasty pharaoh.

It is believed to be more than 3,000 years old.

Scientists cut a hole in the tomb's door and got their first glimpse into the 12-foot-by-15-foot tomb in February. But Wednesday was the first time researchers and media were free to walk into the small square pit.

Dozens of researchers and journalists excitedly crammed into the site to watch officials crack open the last of seven sarcophagi found inside. Instead of the expected mummy, the coffin revealed embalming materials, dozens of necklaces made from woven flowers and various other religious artifacts.

Covered in resin cast to their owner's faces, all seven coffins were empty of bodies. Instead of mummies, they were found to contain mostly pottery shards. One small sarcophagus, made for a baby, contained pillows that appeared to be stuffed with feathers.

But Lokma hoped hieroglyphs would help scientists identify who the coffins were made for, and perhaps where the bodies were ultimately buried.

Termites and possibly ancient tomb robbers had damaged the sarcophagi so much that it took months of labor for archaeologists to excavate them. Sixteen of the 28 funeral jars found in the tomb have yet to be opened.

The tomb's discovery last year broke the long-held belief that nothing is left to dig up in the Valley of the Kings, the desert region near the southern city of Luxor used as a burial ground for pharaohs, queens and nobles in the 1500-1000 B.C. New Kingdom.

The last tomb discovered there was the famed King Tut's, in 1922.

Zahi Hawass, who heads the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities, said he believed the new tomb could have belonged to King Tutenkhamen's mother. Closely related Egyptian royals tended to be buried near each other, and graves of the rest of Tut's family have already been found, he said.

``It would make sense, his tomb is so close that it looks like he chose to be buried next to his mother,'' who died years before the young king, Hawass said.

Though the new discovery did not compare with the marvels of golden masks, jewels and statues found in Tut's tomb, Hawass said it was a major scientific discovery and one that could boost tourism to Egypt.

Tourism to the pharaohs' archaeological sites has boomed since an exhibition of Tut's treasures began touring foreign museums. The display, currently in Chicago, has brought the largest number of Americans to Egypt, Hawass said.

``King Tut and new discoveries are our best publicity,'' he said.
***************
Paradise Bought in Los Angeles By SHARON WAXMAN, NY Times

WHEN Irena Medavoy decided to build her dream home, on two flat acres above Beverly Hills, one thing was really important. "I wanted it warm, cozy, informal," she said, before demonstrating how the living room converts into a screening room. At the push of a button, a 20-foot-wide screen descended from the ceiling and three huge speakers rose from beneath the wood parquet floor. At the other end of the room, a floor-to-ceiling bookcase sank — Batcave-like — revealing a projection room hidden behind it.

By the standards of North Beverly Park, the gated community where Mrs. Medavoy and her husband, the Hollywood producer Mike Medavoy, live, their home — 11,000 square feet in an East Coast traditional style — actually is cozy.

That's because other houses in this intensely private, security-obsessed community for Hollywood potentates, business tycoons and movie and sports stars are even larger, more on the order of small hotels: 20,000, 30,000 or, in a couple of cases, more than 40,000 square feet. When Eunice Kennedy Shriver visited the Medavoys during a reception for President Vicente Fox of Mexico, she said of their spread, "I didn't even know they built houses like this anymore," her hostess recalled.

In an age of gilded real estate excess, massive homes are nothing new. Still, the scale of Beverly Park is striking, with one palacelike home next to another like a billionaires' Levittown. East Coast visitors often react with wonder-cum-horror at the neighborhood, while even in Hollywood's monied upper echelons, some consider Beverly Park to be too much.

"You won't find anywhere a concentration of such large homes," said Joyce Rey, who heads the estates division for Coldwell Banker on the West Side of Los Angeles. "You'll find a large estate in Bel Air, or a few large estates. But you won't find a concentration of houses, and new houses, with such large square footage."

How did it happen? "We've had a concentration of the rich getting richer, and that's really propelled the construction of these homes," she said.

But there's also the question of keeping up with the neighbors, when the neighbors are a Who's Who of show business elite. Eddie Murphy lives in a 45,000-square-foot Italianate compound (alone, apparently, since his divorce in April). Nearby are the homes of Barry Bonds, Reba McEntire, Rod Stewart, Sylvester Stallone, Denzel Washington, the Viacom chairman Sumner Redstone, the billionaire Haim Saban and Avi Arad, the recently retired Marvel chairman who is now a producer.

What binds this group together is not so much work or leisure pursuits, but a baseline of stratospheric wealth or fame and a keen desire for privacy. In a city where paparazzi roam like packs of wild dogs, you will never see one in, or even near, Beverly Park, whose main entrance is hidden down a long road to a secure gatehouse off San Ysidro Drive. A second entrance is off Mulholland Drive, that winding road that traces the ridge above the wealthy West Side.

In many ways, the neighborhood is a testament to the power of changed perspective, providing Los Angeles's micro-club of superrich and superfamous a place to feel normal. In a gated community like this, what may be too much to outsiders is validated by neighbors, whose own choices suggest that huge feels just right.

"When you come here, you can see everyone creates his own environment," Mrs. Medavoy said. "The Stallones' is very Italian. Denzel's is like a small Hotel du Cap. Jami Gertz has a Southern colonial."

Residents insist that their gated paradise is a real neighborhood and a true community, if a wealthy one, with Halloween shindigs for the kids, friendly movie screenings and dinner parties.

"This isn't Versailles, and I'm not Marie Antoinette," insisted Joyce Arad, who might have made the remark because her house, completed in 2003, is a three-story palace built in classical 18th-century French style. The kitchen has two vast stone islands with copper pots hanging around each of them, though Mrs. Arad confesses that she doesn't cook much. Outside is an elegant swimming pool designed to look like the reflecting pond of a chateau, along with several outdoor living areas, with fireplaces and fountains. "I wanted it to be homey and authentic-feeling," she said.

The culture of Beverly Park is secretive, even paranoid, and a couple of residents who gave interviews urged caution and begged anonymity, so as not to arouse the wrath of the homeowners' association. In the center of Beverly Park is an elaborate four-acre children's park, usually empty. Indeed, there are almost no people visible in Beverly Park, except for domestic workers, gardeners and construction workers, as building continues apace on the handful of remaining lots, watched only by the hidden security cameras that are everywhere. Mrs. Medavoy, who once disdained the impulse of the wealthy to hide behind gates, now says she wouldn't live anywhere else. "There is nothing that compares to this in the world," she said. "It would be like the Hamptons, gated."

Created 16 years ago, North Beverly Park began as a 250-acre swath of flat, empty scrub. A pair of developers divided the land into 64 lots of two acres, selling for $3.5 million to $6 million each (though they now go for much more). The location — less than 10 minutes by car to Rodeo Drive — along with the guarantees of privacy, were an immediate draw. The lots sold to Hollywood insiders and stars with big, big money, some of whom have bought additional lots to create compounds.

Even Brian Adler, one of the two developers, has been surprised at the size of the homes. "I purposely cut the lots so they would be two acres, level," he said in an interview. "At that point I wasn't sure if people would be happiest at 12,000, 16,000 or 20,000 square feet. But with the economy doing as well as it has, people built bigger."

He went on: "When you bring in your wish list — a major gym, a major home theater, the wife wanting an office, the husband wanting an office — and then frustration over not using the lot for a garage," you end up with massive homes. That, anyway, is how Mr. Adler ended up building a 10,000-square -foot underground garage in the last spec house he built in Beverly Park, a 35,000-square-foot mansion. The home sold in 2004 for $30 million, the largest sum yet paid for a home in Beverly Park. (He said he was barred from disclosing the identity of the buyer.)

Avi and Joyce Arad moved from Connecticut and landscaped their property not just with full-growth trees but with many tons of dirt to create a hillside for a Provençal-style garden. To the Arads, who made their first fortune from Mr. Arad's toy inventions, Beverly Park was an adjustment from the East Coast sensibility. But they too built a dream house to scale.

"I was kind of shocked at first — how big it is," said Mrs. Arad, a sculptor. "But you get used to it. Now all the closets are full."

"There is a real sense of community here," Mrs. Arad continued. "We know our neighbors. We've had dinner with them: Sumner Redstone and Paul Reiser."

On a recent Friday, Mrs. Medavoy set the table for her weekly dinner and a movie, mostly for neighbors. That night's feature was "The Break-Up" with Jennifer Aniston, just out in theaters, which a messenger from Universal had just delivered in metal movie cans.

Mrs. Medavoy screeched as she glanced at the delivery. " 'United 93'?" she said in horror. "I have 20 people coming over — Sumner, everybody — and they're expecting to see 'The Break-Up.' " She ran after the delivery man, who checked his truck and found the comedy. All was well in the neighborhood.

There is, however, a dark side to Beverly Park, and Jeanette and Robert Bisno — next-door neighbors of the Medavoys — have glimpsed it. In 2002 the Bisnos were sued in Los Angeles Superior Court by the North Beverly Park Home Owners Association for infractions of the community's convenants.

What did the Bisnos do? One big problem was their overdone gates. Also, their dinosaur topiary peeked above their hedge to the street, and there were some problems with "the installation and maintenance of trash cans," according to court papers.

Along with its unique benefits — the exclusive list of neighbors, security cameras, constant patrols by guards — Beverly Park expects residents to abide by a 70-page homeowners' covenant. A sample rule: "No dwelling shall be constructed or maintained on any residential lot which has a floor area less than 5,000 square feet."

In testimony in 2003 by Cindy Adler, a member of the architectural review committee and Brian Adler's sister, the Bisnos' gates were deemed too "Vegas" for Beverly Park.

But the Bisnos's main infraction was installing an eight-foot abstract sculpture in their front courtyard of what some interpret to be a woman on her back with her legs in the air. The Bisnos bought the sculpture, which is called "À Bras Ouvert," or "Open Arms," on a trip to France, where they saw it on the Place Vendôme in front of the Ritz.

The sculpture seemed to offend a powerful member of the homeowners association, Christine Hazy, who lives across the street from the Bisnos in one of Beverly Park's largest estates. (Her husband, Steven Udvar-Hazy, runs a multibillion-dollar airline leasing company, International Lease Finance Corporation.)

In a three-and-a-half-week trial in 2004, accusations flew, feelings were hurt. "Rod Stewart and Sylvester Stallone have, or had, yellow houses," and no action was taken against them, the Bisnos' lawyer complained in court papers.

Mr. Bisno is convinced that Mrs. Hazy has a vendetta against him. "We've had previous disagreements," he said this month. "When we first moved in, she rejected my yellow paint and my gate. And I told her in words and substance that she was crazy."

Mrs. Hazy's lawyer, Marc Rohatiner, said the case was a garden variety instance of a resident breaking the rules, but with someone who would spend hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees to make the point.

"The kind of allegations Mr. Bisno made is typical of so many cases, but in this case you had someone willing to pursue it to such lengths over something not very significant," he said, though he acknowledged that it was the association that sued Mr. Bisno before sparking a countersuit.

Mrs. Bisno said that her family had been harassed during the dispute, with the sculpture and surrounding gardens toilet-papered, trampled and strewn with debris. Given Beverly Park's security, she wondered, who could have done such a thing?

But in the end the Bisnos lost the case and an appeal. They have filed a motion to vacate the judge's decision.

Still, there may be a silver lining. The Bisnos were in the middle of a divorce at the time of the lawsuit. Now all that seems behind them. They have bought a larger property two doors up from the Hazys, where they intend to build their next dream home.

With all the hassles, they want to stay in Beverly Park? "It's a great place to live," Mr. Bisno said. As for the sculpture, which they will take with them, he said, "Hopefully we'll get the same treatment as the rest of our neighbors. And if we don't, we'll take her to court."
****************
10 Days That Changed History By ADAM GOODHEART, NY Times

IT'S a badly kept secret among scholars of American history that nothing much really happened on Thursday, July 4, 1776.

Although this date is emblazoned on the Declaration, the Colonies had actually voted for independence two days earlier; the document wasn't signed until a month later. When John Adams predicted that the "great anniversary festival" would be celebrated forever, from one end of the continent to the other, he was talking about July 2.

Indeed, the dates that truly made a difference aren't always the ones we know by heart; frequently, they've languished in dusty oblivion. The 10 days that follow — obscure as some are — changed American history. (In some cases, they are notable for what didn't happen rather than what did.)

This list is quirky rather than comprehensive, and readers may want to continue the parlor game on their own. But while historians may argue endlessly about causes and effects — many even question the idea that any single day can alter the course of human events — these examples show that destiny can turn on a slender pivot, and that history often occurs when nobody is watching.

Anyway, happy Second of July.

JUNE 8, 1610: A Lord's Landfall

Three years after its founding, the Virginia Colony was a failure. A few dozen starving settlers packed some meager possessions and sailed from Jamestown on June 7, headed back toward England. The next morning, to their surprise, they spotted a fleet coming toward them, carrying a new governor, Lord De La Warr, and a year's worth of supplies.

If not for his appearance, Virginia might have gone the way of so many lost colonies. What is now the Southeastern United States could well have ended up in the French or Dutch empires. Tobacco might never have become a cash crop, and the first African slaves would not have arrived in 1619.

OCT. 17, 1777: Victory Along the Hudson

If one date should truly get credit for securing America's independence, it is when the British general John Burgoyne surrendered at Saratoga.

The battle's significance was more diplomatic than military: shortly after news reached Paris, the French king decided to enter the war on the American side. "If the French alliance and funding hadn't come through at that moment, it's hard to say how much longer we could have held out," says Stacy Schiff, author of "A Great Improvisation: Franklin, France and the Birth of America." The American Revolution might have gone down in history as a brief provincial uprising, and the Declaration of Independence as a nice idea.

JUNE 20, 1790: Jefferson's Dinner Party

On this evening, Thomas Jefferson invited Alexander Hamilton and James Madison to dinner at his rented house on Maiden Lane in Lower Manhattan. In the course of the night, Jefferson recalled, they brokered one of the great political deals in American history. Under the terms of the arrangement, the national capital would be situated on the Potomac, and the federal government would agree to take on the enormous war debts of the 13 states.

Had that meal never taken place, New York might still be the nation's capital. But even more important, the primacy of the central government might never have been established, says Ron Chernow, the Hamilton biographer. "The assumption of state debts was the most powerful bonding mechanism of the new Union," he says. "Without it, we would have had a far more decentralized federal system."

APRIL 19, 1802: Mosquitos Win the West

Events that change America don't always occur within our borders. Consider the spring of 1802. Napoleon had sent a formidable army under his brother-in-law, General Charles Leclerc, to quell the rebellion of former slaves in Haiti.

On April 19, Leclerc reported to Napoleon that the rainy season had arrived, and his troops were falling ill. By the end of the year, almost the whole French force, including Leclerc himself, were dead of mosquito-borne yellow fever.

When Napoleon realized his reconquest had failed, he abandoned hopes of a New World empire, and decided to sell the Louisiana Territory to the United States.

"Across a huge section of the American heartland, from New Orleans up through Montana, they ought to build statues to Toussaint L'Ouverture and the other heroes of the Haitian Revolution," says Ted Widmer, director of the John Carter Brown Library at Brown University.

JAN. 12, 1848: An Ill-Advised Speech

His timing couldn't have been worse: With the Mexican War almost won, a freshman congressman rose to deliver a blistering attack on President Polk and his "half-insane" aggressive militarism. Almost from the moment he sat down again, the political career of Representative Abraham Lincoln seemed doomed by the antiwar stand he had taken just when most Americans were preparing their victory celebrations.

Yet that speech saved Lincoln. "It cast him into the political wilderness," says Joshua Wolf Shenk, the author of "Lincoln's Melancholy." This insulated him during the politically treacherous years of the early 1850's — when Americans divided bitterly over slavery — and positioned him to emerge as a national leader on the eve of the Civil War. Lincoln's early faux pas also taught him to be a pragmatist, not just a moralist. "If he had been successful in the 1840's, the Lincoln of history — the Lincoln who saved the Union — would never have existed," Mr. Shenk says.

APRIL 16, 1902: The Movies

Motion pictures seemed destined to become a passing fad. Only a few years after Edison's first crude newsreels were screened — mostly in penny arcades, alongside carnival games and other cheap attractions, the novelty had worn off, and Americans were flocking back to live vaudeville.

Then, in spring 1902, Thomas L. Tally opened his Electric Theater in Los Angeles, a radical new venture devoted to movies and other high-tech devices of the era, like audio recordings.

"Tally was the first person to offer a modern multimedia entertainment experience to the American public," says the film historian Marc Wanamaker. Before long, his successful movie palace produced imitators nationally, which would become known as "nickelodeons." America's love affair with the moving image — from the silver screen to YouTube — would endure after all.

FEB. 15, 1933: The Wobbly Chair

It should have been an easy shot: five rounds at 25 feet. But the gunman, Giuseppe Zangara, an anarchist, lost his balance atop a wobbly chair, and instead of hitting President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt, he fatally wounded the mayor of Chicago, who was shaking hands with F.D.R.

Had Roosevelt been assassinated, his conservative Texas running mate, John Nance Garner, would most likely have come to power. "The New Deal, the move toward internationalism — these would never have happened," says Alan Brinkley of Columbia University. "It would have changed the history of the world in the 20th century. I don't think the Kennedy assassination changed things as much as Roosevelt's would have."

MARCH 2, 1955: Almost a Heroine

When a brave young African-American woman was arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Ala., bus, local and national civil rights leaders rallied to her cause. Claudette Colvin, 15, seemed poised to become an icon of the struggle against segregation. But then, shortly after her March 2 arrest, she became pregnant. The movement's leaders decided that an unwed teenage mother would not make a suitable symbol, so they pursued a legal case with another volunteer: Rosa Parks.

That switch, says the historian Douglas Brinkley, created a delay that allowed Martin Luther King Jr. to emerge as a leader. He most likely would not have led the bus boycott if it had occurred in the spring instead of the following winter. "He might have ended up as just another Montgomery preacher," Professor Brinkley says.

SEPT. 18, 1957: Revolt of the Nerds

Fed up with their boss, eight lab workers walked off the job on this day in Mountain View, Calif. Their employer, William Shockley, had decided not to continue research into silicon-based semiconductors; frustrated, they decided to undertake the work on their own. The researchers — who would become known as "the traitorous eight" — went on to invent the microprocessor (and to found Intel, among other companies). "Sept. 18 was the birth date of Silicon Valley, of the electronics industry and of the entire digital age," says Mr. Shockley's biographer, Joel Shurkin.

AUG. 20, 1998: Just Missed

With most Americans absorbed by the Monica Lewinsky affair, relatively few paid much attention when the United States fired some 60 cruise missiles at Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan. Most public debate centered on whether President Clinton had ordered the strike to deflect attention from his domestic troubles.

Although the details of that day remain in dispute, some accounts suggest that the attack may have missed killing Osama bin Laden by as little as an hour. How that would have changed America — and the world — may be revealed, in time, by the history that is still unfolding.
****************
Newfound Island Graveyard May Yield Clues to Dodo Life of Long Ago By CARL ZIMMER, NY Times

Everyone knows about the death of the dodo, but no one knows much about its life.

The stocky flightless bird became extinct at the end of the 1600's, less than two centuries after European explorers discovered its home, the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius. Beyond passing descriptions, little evidence of the bird has survived — a preserved skin here, an isolated leg bone there.

Over the last few weeks, however, a team of scientists has been exploring a trove of dodo fossils that may be as old as 3,000 years. Along with the dodos, the scientists have found fossils of other species of birds, reptiles, bats and numerous plants.

"You name it, we've got it," Kenneth Rijsdijk, the team's leader and a physical geographer at the Geological Survey of the Netherlands, said in a phone interview. "We've found the whole ecosystem."

The scientists expect the site to offer the first clear picture of the dodo's ecological world before humans arrived. It may allow them to better understand how dodos and many other species became extinct.

The origins of the dodo are mysterious. Studies on its DNA indicate that it descended from pigeons. The dodo's closest relative was the solitaire, another extinct flightless bird that lived only on the nearby island of Rodrigues.

The dodo and the solitaire share a common ancestor that the scientists estimate lived 25 million years ago. But Mauritius formed only about eight million years ago. No one knows where the dodo's ancestors lived before then.

Once they arrived on the island, dodos followed the same evolutionary path that other birds have taken on other islands, like Madagascar and Hawaii. They became stocky and flightless as they adapted to feeding on plants. "Nature abhors a vacuum," said Dr. David A. Burney, the director of conservation at the National Tropical Botanical Garden in Hawaii and a professor at Fordham University in New York, who was not part of the dodo fossil team. "With a few million years these birds turned into the avian equivalent of pigs and goats."

Plant-eating mammals play a major role in shaping their ecosystems. Dodos may have thinned the Mauritius forests, and some plants may have come to depend on them to spread their seeds.

With almost no fossils to study, scientists had been unable to test these ideas. Now it will be possible, thanks to the discovery of the dodo graveyard. Dr. Rijsdijk and Frans Bunnik, also of the Geological Survey of the Netherlands, found it almost by accident.

They went to Mauritius in October 2005 to look for evidence of the ecology on the island when Dutch settlers established a fort there in 1638. "From the current landscape you cannot get a proper picture of what it was like in the 17th century," Dr. Rijsdijk said.

Today the forests have been replaced by sugar plantations and settlements.

Dr. Rijsdijk and Dr. Bunnik searched for deposits of deep, undisturbed soil that might have preserved centuries of pollen grains and other vegetation. "We rounded the island to find places where we could reconstruct the environmental history of Mauritius for the last thousand years," Dr. Rijsdijk said.

The scientists discovered a number of sites. Their last visit was to a sugar plantation where isolated dodo bones were found in 1865. The bones had been found in a swamp called Mare aux Songes, but their precise location was never recorded.

The manager of the plantation showed the scientists some test drilling cores that had been made in the 1990's. The scientists were excited to see that they were rich in organic matter and even contained bone fragments from an extinct giant tortoise.

Dr. Rijsdijk and Dr. Bunnik made their way to the drilling site and worked an auger by hand through a layer rock. When they finally reached mud underneath, they reached into the hole and brought up tortoise bone fragments and a large seed from an endangered tree, the tambalacoque.

The scientists then used digging equipment to bring up scoopfuls of mud. "The first scoop was completely full of seeds, bones and wood debris," Dr. Rijsdijk said. "We were completely flabbergasted."

Dr. Rijsdijk returned to the Netherlands and planned a large expedition to Mare aux Songes. In June he took a team of international scientists to the site, where they began to pull out a wealth of fossils. The seven-acre tract is packed with dodo bones, some possibly belonging to chicks. The haul includes bones from two giant tortoise species, a giant lizard called a skink, a fruit bat, an owl, a rail and many other smaller birds.

Based on the underlying geology of the site, Dr. Rijsdijk estimates that it is 3,000 years old. More precise dating based on carbon isotopes is now under way.

Dr. Rijsdijk said that the fossils appeared to have formed in a forest lake. A big storm may have washed the animals and plants into the lake, where their bones settled into a single layer.

"Think of it like a snapshot," Dr. Burney of Fordham said. "You set up a big camera and photograph the landscape at a particular instance. You've got the dodos and the other species, all captured in a moment."

The scientists are now studying the material more carefully. Some are looking for ancient DNA, while others will analyze the dodo bones to get clues to their diet. "We may be really be able to shine a light on the dodo's role in the ecosystem," Dr. Rijsdijk said. The scientists will present early findings at the University of Oxford in September and will return to Mare aux Songes in 2007.

By understanding the Mauritius ecosystem before humans arrived, they hope to find clues to the dodo's extinction. Dodos were easy to hunt, but hunting alone probably did not wipe them out. Recent research indicates that the early Dutch settlers rarely ate dodo meat. Nor did the deforestation of the island doom the dodo. Major forest clearing did not begin until after the dodo became extinct.

The mammals introduced to the island by early visitors may have been the culprits. Pigs and monkeys quickly established themselves and may have competed for food, eaten dodo eggs or somehow disrupted the environment. "A lot of the earliest changes to these little islands actually sweep ahead of the humans," Dr. Burney said.

Dr. Rijsdijk and his colleagues plan to build an ecological model of Mauritius to study how the introduction of new animals could have changed it. While the dodo is gone for good, such an ecological model may help efforts to restore native habitats to parts of Mauritius.

On the Hawaiian island of Kauai, Dr. Burney has reconstructed 10,000 years of ecological history from deposits in a single cave. The National Tropical Botanical Garden is now using the information to guide the restoration of surrounding forests.

Dr. Burney said similar projects could work on Mauritius. "It's looking to the past to restore the future," he said.
****************
Reappraising a Landmark Bridge, and the Visionary Behind It By SAM ROBERTS, NY Times

It was not just another bridge. And the man who built it was not just another power broker. The Triborough opened 70 years ago today, and the anniversary is prompting a reappraisal of Robert Moses, who, although he never learned to drive, rolled out a concrete carpet to the suburbs that changed the face of New York.

"He made it all fit together," said Laura Rosen, the archivist for Metropolitan Transportation Authority Bridges and Tunnels.

"He was a visionary," said Robert Del Bagno, exhibitions manager at the Transit Museum in Brooklyn Heights, where "The Triborough Bridge: Robert Moses and the Automobile Age" is on display through next year.

"We're steering clear of casting judgment," Mr. Del Bagno added. "We will tell you that the Triborough led to suburbanization. We stop short of saying it led to urban sprawl. Both are true. The city changed very radically from that point on."

Moses regarded the public authority created to build the Triborough as his most durable political base and the bridge itself as the nexus of a highway system that would first open the region's parks and beaches to day-trippers and then flood the suburbs and remote parts of Queens and the Bronx with commuters. With 14 miles of approach roads, it was the city's first major span built exclusively for the automobile.

"I don't think you can take it in a vacuum, but this is one of the good things he did," said Robert A. Caro, whose biography of Moses, "The Power Broker," has gone through more than 40 printings since its publication in 1974. "He tied together Long Island, Manhattan and the mainland with a single bridge. People had been talking about it for years. He got it done. It was a supreme example of building a huge public work in a democracy."

But not even Moses could build enough bridges and highways to keep pace with the proliferation of the automobile and the congestion that ensued.

"Looking at it in the context of today," Ms. Rosen said, "telling somebody then they would have to use mass transit instead of a car would have been like telling them they have to use a typewriter instead of a computer."

Ground was broken the day after the stock market crashed in 1929; the city soon ran out of money. The project languished until 1933 when Moses, already the city's parks commissioner, joined a new state authority created to finish the bridge, which became one of the biggest public works projects of the Depression. It cost more than $60 million, or nearly $1 billion in today's dollars.

Moses succeeded by outmaneuvering critics in the Roosevelt administration, although Mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia appears to have overruled the Triborough Bridge Authority's planned purchase of a million pounds of German sheet steel piling, which the authority insisted it had decided to buy as "a matter of engineering and not of popular agitation."

However, the mayor declared, "The only commodity we can import from Hitlerland now is hatred and we don't want any in our country."

President Franklin D. Roosevelt attended the opening ceremonies, which were followed by an inauspicious heralding of the automobile era. The first ordinary New Yorker to reach the tollbooths was a boy riding a bicycle from the Bronx to Queens. He did not stop to pay the 10-cent toll. The first private car waiting to cross from the Bronx had to be pushed through after it stalled (the driver, a bank clerk, apparently paid the 25-cent automobile toll).

In 1937, its first full year of operation, more than 11 million vehicles crossed the bridge. Last year, nearly 63 million did. In 70 years, there have been 3.16 billion crossings, according to estimates by Bridges and Tunnels, a successor to Moses's old agency.

"What happened in New York happened over the next few decades in every city," said Mr. Del Bagno, of the Transit Museum. "New York was the most densely populated and was older, so it was much more problematic.

"In 1934, he was sure the way people were going to get around in the future was by car," he said of Moses. "So he was right in seeing the development that would happen in the 40's, 50's and 60's. But what we saw come of it was that just making highways wasn't going to work for all the city."

The Triborough Bridge Authority eventually became the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority. It also became a cash cow, which the state tapped to subsidize mass transit, ending Moses's reign in 1968.

"This ended an era of major construction projects, led by Robert Moses, which transformed the city and ushered in the automobile age," the exhibition says.

Moses always regarded the Triborough Bridge — three bridges, actually, which link the Bronx, Manhattan and Queens — as a way of uniting the city and the metropolitan area.

"It has long been a cherished ambition of mine to weave together the loose strands and frayed edges of New York's metropolitan arterial tapestry," he wrote. "The Triborough Bridge Authority has provided the warp on the metropolitan loom, the heavier threads across which the lighter ones are woven."
*****************
The Grinch Who Stole Golf By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

NEW YORK (AP) -- Tim Finchem plans to stay on as PGA Tour commissioner for six more years, and judging from the media bashing he endured in Washington and Chicago the last few weeks, you can be sure there are some who would prefer he take early retirement.

In those two major markets, he is the Grinch who stole golf.

The nation's capital has been host to a PGA Tour event since 1980, when former commissioner Deane Beman brought the Kemper Open to Congressional, the home course of presidents, powerbrokers and Ken Venturi's famous U.S. Open victory. Then it moved to the TPC at Avenel, bringing a slow and certain death.

The tournament didn't learn until a couple of hours before the PGA Tour's grand announcement in January that it was not part of the illustrious FedEx Cup competition; rather, it was being dumped into the junior varsity portion of the fall schedule. And with Avenel going through renovation, there likely won't be any golf in Washington next year, and maybe not for awhile.

At least Chicago didn't lose the PGA Tour every year -- just every other.

The Western Open, the second-oldest golf championship in the United States and once considered a major, now will be called the BMW Championship and played in Chicago in odd-numbered years. One of the four ''playoff'' tournaments at the end of the year, it will be held in even-numbered years at major venues such as Hazeltine, Crooked Stick and Bellerive.

That means no golf at the highest level in a golf-crazed market every other year.

Finchem was a convenient target, the czar behind these changes aimed at making the golf season shorter and more interesting.

But it's not all his fault.

If anyone has complaints, look no further than Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson. They were the catalysts who first started barking about the PGA Tour season being too long. All the commissioner did was respond to his two biggest stars.

Mickelson, who prefers to shut it down after the majors, was among the first to suggest the season was too long and too dull.

''I think for us to compete against football, and for us to continue our season after the PGA Championship as long as it does, I just think it kind of loses its luster,'' Mickelson said at La Costa in February 2005. ''It's just not exciting. I'd love to see a lot less tournaments on tour, so the top players play in a greater percentage of those events.''

Woods and Mickelson are not the best of friends, but it sounded as though they were in cahoots on this one. For it was only two days later that Woods also argued for a shorter season.

''End it Labor Day,'' he said.

A week later at Doral, Woods was more expansive on his wish for an early end to the regular season, which would allow top players to compete against each more often besides the eight biggest events -- four majors, The Players Championship and three World Golf Championships.

''It would be more exciting for the fans, and I'm sure the sponsors and TV and everybody, if we did play more often together,'' Woods said. ''The only way you could do that is if we shortened the season, which I've really been trying to get into Finchem's ear about.''

And when Tiger speaks, Finchem usually listens.

The commissioner had his own concerns. The sports market is changing rapidly, and the fear was that golf would be left behind if it didn't shake up a model that has been working since the PGA Tour was formed.

The idea of a shorter, more compelling season sounded like a good idea at the time. And while Woods didn't finish his last two years at Stanford, he learned enough math to realize what a January-September schedule would mean.

''Unfortunately,'' he said, ''you're going to have to lose some tournaments.''

Finchem did his part, delivering a season that ends on Sept. 16 next year at the Tour Championship, preceded by three $7 million tournaments that attempt to give the PGA Tour a Super Bowl.

(Actually, golf has four Super Bowls known as the majors. This is more of a Pro Bowl).

It might not be perfect. The FedEx Cup points system might not make sense.

But the season will end before the Heisman Trophy watch is narrowed to five players, before the NFL season takes shape, before NASCAR crowns its champion.

Did it have to lose Washington in the process? Not necessarily. But did anyone outside the Beltway care about the Booz Allen Classic until it was knocked off the schedule? There's usually enough blame to pass around Washington on matters of national interest, and golf is no exception.

Memphis got the spot on the schedule that Washington wanted. But the PGA Tour has been in the land of Elvis since 1958, and it was the scene of the tour's first 59 by Al Geiberger, and its roll call of champions includes Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player and Lee Trevino.

As for Chicago?

Remember, the Western Open once moved around the Midwest -- even going out to San Francisco one year -- until it stayed in the Chicago area starting in 1962. As part of the playoffs, the tour thought it was important to create a rotation of great golf courses. The Barclays Classic will no longer be held at Westchester every year, and the tour is still looking at alternative sites in the Boston area.

Woods and Mickelson didn't draw up the plan, they simply were the strongest voices.

And until the PGA Tour goes through its first season under the revamped schedule, no one can be sure it's a bad idea.

If it is, blame them.
***********
It's My Funeral and I'll Serve Ice Cream if I Want To By JOHN LELAND, NY Times

ROBERT TISCH, who ran the Loews Corporation, had a marching band at his memorial service and a packed house at Avery Fisher Hall, all orchestrated by one of New York's most prominent party planners. Estée Lauder's had waiters passing out chocolate-covered marshmallows on silver trays. At Nan Kempner's memorial, at Christie's auction house, guests received a CD of Mozart's Requiem. Ms. Kempner had wanted a live performance of the Requiem, but the logistics — full orchestra, chorus and soloists — were too much.

At a time when Americans hire coaches to guide their careers and retirements, tutors for their children, personal shoppers for their wardrobes, trainers for their abs, whisperers for their pets and — oh, yes — wedding planners for their nuptials, it makes sense that some funerals are also starting to benefit from the personal touch. As members of the baby boom generation plan final services for their parents or themselves, they bring new consumer expectations and fewer attachments to churches, traditions or organ music — forcing funeral directors to be more like party planners, and inviting some party planners to test the farewell waters.

The planning for most funerals still falls to the nation's 22,000 funeral homes, which bury more than 2 million Americans each year, at a price tag of $13 billion. But some families are beginning to think outside the box-provider, said Mark Duffey of Houston, who last year began what he calls the first nationwide funeral concierge service. For $995 or a monthly subscription fee, his company, Everest Funeral Package, has helped several hundred families plan their final rites, providing concierge services that range from writing obituaries to negotiating prices with undertakers.

"Baby boomers are all about being in control," said Mr. Duffey, who started his company after running a chain of funeral homes. "This generation wants to control everything, from the food to the words to the order of the service. And this is one area where consumers feel out of control."

What they want, he said, are services that reflect their lives and tastes. One family asked for a memorial service on the 18th green of their father's favorite golf course, "because that's where dad was instead of church on Sunday mornings, so why are we going to church," Mr. Duffey said. "Line up his buddies, and hit balls." Another wanted his friends to ride Harleys down his favorite road, scattering his ashes.

The biggest change, Mr. Duffey said, is that as more families choose cremation — close to 70 percent in some parts of the West — services have become less somber because there is not a dead body present. "The body's a downer, especially for boomers," Mr. Duffey said. "If the body doesn't have to be there, it frees us up to do what we want. They may want to have it in a country club or bar or their favorite restaurant. That's where consumers want to go."

Mr. Duffey has a suggested time limit for speeches: five minutes. "We urge them, 'Don't ad-lib. Get up and read it. It's O.K., people expect it.' "

Requests for unusual services, while still in the minority, have stretched the creativity of funeral directors, said Ron Hast, the publisher of the trade journals Mortuary Management and Funeral Monitor. As funerals move away from traditional settings like churches or funeral homes, he said: "we're heading in the direction of event planners. Forward-thinking funeral directors are bringing in hospitality like food." This can pose a challenge, especially for businesses that have done things the same way for generations, he added. "In New York and New Jersey, it's illegal to serve even coffee or any food in a funeral home," Mr. Hast said. "So they don't have the comfort foods that people expect."

Funeral homes do not always appreciate competition from entrepreneurs, whom they may consider interlopers, said Bob Biggins, the president of the National Funeral Directors Association.

"It's not like planning a wedding or helping out with a reception," Mr. Biggins said. "Funeral directors respond to families' needs at any hour of the day in a short period of time."

Mr. Biggins said funeral homes can do anything that party planners can do. At his own funeral home in Rockland, Mass., Mr. Biggins arranged a service for Harry Ewell, a man who had been an ice cream vendor. Mr. Ewell's old ice cream truck led the funeral procession and dispensed Popsicles at the end. "If you call that over the top, then I guess I'm guilty," Mr. Biggins said. "But our business reflects society as a whole. Today's consumer wants things personal, specific to their lifestyle, whether it's highlighting a person's passion for golf or celebrating someone's deep devotion to knitting or needlepoint."

In the two years since he designed his first service, David E. Monn said he has discovered the biggest threat to a well-orchestrated event: the long speech. Mr. Monn's business is organizing high-end events like museum galas or society benefits, but recently he has planned eight or nine funerals at the request of friends, including those of Henry A. Grunwald, the former editor of Time magazine, and A. M. Rosenthal, the former executive editor of The New York Times. Funerals, he said, require a firm hand.

"I have a pet peeve," he said. "No more than three minutes. It doesn't matter how much you loved someone, after you've heard someone drone on for five minutes you're annoyed. It's about poignant moments. Maudlin is not poignant."

Mr. Monn said that another challenge with funerals is that attendance can be unpredictable, especially those open to the public. "You never know if it's going to be 20 people or 2,000," he said. "Last year I did a funeral for a very young man on July 4th. It was a guessing game, would anyone come? Lo and behold, close to 1,500 people showed up. The church was packed."

The matter of seating arrangements can also be sticky, he said. "People feel their place in life means where they sit at someone's funeral," he said. "It's staggering to me, actually."

Lynn Isenberg, a writer and entrepreneur, had never heard of funeral planners or concierges when she attended funerals for her father and brother in 1998 and 1999. But the different experiences of the two funerals gave her an idea for a novel. She called it "The Funeral Planner," and it was about a young woman who found a niche doing you know what.

Ms. Isenberg is now developing a television pilot based on the book for the Lifetime channel, she said, and is under contract to write two more novels using the funeral planner character.

The book, in turn, gave her another idea: to start her own business, Lights Out Enterprises, in Venice Beach, Calif., which helps people plan their own funerals, with emphasis on the tribute video, which she calls a "spiritual biography."

"I'm not talking about doing away with the grieving process, but I do think, why not experience a funeral service where you get to really know a person?" she said.

Though most clients want simple services, she said, one asked her for "an all-out disco party on top of their favorite mountain, with 360-degree views," in order to remind friends of a happy period in their lives together. "And they want everyone to come dressed up in disco outfits." For a former auctioneer, she recommended printing select words from the eulogy on auction paddles, so people could hold them up during the service.

"I see the day where our mainstream celebrities would make appearances at funerals to enhance the service," she said.

Joshua Slocum, the executive director of the Funeral Consumers Alliance (www.funerals.org), a nonprofit group, said that though people have more choices than ever, they often end up paying more than necessary for things they don't want or could do themselves. "This isn't rocket science," he said. "It's less expensive and more satisfying if you do it yourself rather than write a check to a third party."

He added, "I've seen places advertise that they do Webcasts of the funeral. We get 10,000 calls a year from people, and no one's ever said they wanted that."

But for some, including Jack Susser, a real estate agent in Santa Monica, Calif., the sendoff can have benefits now. Mr. Susser, who is 57 and healthy, hired Ms. Isenberg to create a tribute video so that his future grandchildren and great-grandchildren could know his life in ways he'd never known his grandparents'. Ms. Isenberg developed a 20-minute video called "Jack the Mensch," with an original script, professional actors, animation and a $75,000 budget. The lead characters are Mr. Susser and a talking fish.

"At first I felt the title made me out to be too good," Mr. Susser said. But creating the video helped him appreciate his life, he said. And as a former actor, he saw a surprising upside to the death business.

"I'm going to use it not only for my passing, but at my 60th birthday party," he said. "I may even send it to agents, because I think there's good work on it. This is professionally done."
***********