Book excerpt: “Table for Two” by Amor Towles
The novelist behind the international bestseller “A Gentleman in Moscow” returns with an irresistible collection of short stories and a novella flavored with wit, intrigue, and a dash of bitter fate.
Book excerpt: Judi Dench’s love letter to Shakespeare
In “Shakespeare: The Man Who Pays the Rent,” the acclaimed actress shares conversations with friend and actor Brendan O’Hea about the unique relationship she has with the Bard of Stratford-upon-Avon.
Book excerpt: “The Spoiled Heart” by Sunjeev Sahota
The acclaimed British author returns with a timely, tragic novel in which an Anglo-Indian is caught up in a quagmire of identity politics.
The Cardinal rule | Chico Sports Hall of Fame
CORNING — It was “Friday Night Lights” years before anyone had heard of the book or movie. But instead of Odessa, Texas, the lights of the high school football world were shining most brightly on the small town of Corning. Corning owned the high school football world in the 1980s, building a legacy that no school in the state had accomplished before. Under the direction of coach Gary Burton, the Cardinals won an unprecedented seven consecutive North Section AAA championships — a record eventually topped only by De La Salle, the football-factory private school in Concord. During that streak (1982-88), Corning went 73-11 against a schedule that featured far more big schools than patsies. One example: The Cardinals faced Pleasant Valley six times in the 1980s and lost just once. Some of those games weren’t close; Corning won the 1983 meeting 45-6. J Howell, a history teacher at Pleasant Valley who played on the 1982-83 Cardinal teams, looks back on those years with a sense of amazement. “It’s almost like a different world,” Howell said. “When I tell people my senior year we (Corning) beat
Music Tonight: Sunday, April 28
The California Honeydrops are a former busking band from the Bay Area who have that has climbed out of the spawning staircase of public space and transportation performances that gave us such greats as the Violent Femmes and Gogol Bordello. Long away from those days and well-adjusted to larger venues, the band still brings its harmonic gut-bucket blues and soul roots sound to the stage every night. Tonight’s venue is Arcata Theatre Lounge, the door time is 8 p.m., and $40 gets you inside, with a $100 VIP upgrade available for the deep fans.
Sondheimer: Players to watch in the Southern Section baseball playoffs
Get ready for lots of twists, turns, drama, excitement and big-time players coming through in big-time situations as the Southern Section high school baseball playoffs begin this week. Pairings will be announced Monday. Let’s take a look at players to watch during May Madness: Bryce Rainer, Harvard-Westlake. Nobody has improved his draft status more than Rainer, who has been having an MVP season at the plate and at shortstop. His senior year has been nothing short of spectacular with 44 hits and a batting average of .518. Players are most remembered for what they do in the playoffs, and that will be the challenge for Rainer, who is also the team’s closer. Seth Hernandez, Ethan Schiefelbein, Josh Springer, Corona. The fantastic trio for No. 1-ranked Corona will try to live up to expectations and deliver the Division 1 title that has been predicted for months. There’s no guarantee in a single-elimination tournament facing top teams and top pitchers every game, but in pitchers Hernandez and Schiefelbein, the Panthers have the best one-two punch of any team. And their catcher, Springer, continues to excel defensively and
Whittier Christian softball star Aleena Garcia seeks first section title
Aleena Garcia makes everything look easy on and off the diamond. In a way it is, but only because she has dedicated so much time and effort to the three things she values most: family, faith and softball. A senior shortstop at Whittier Christian High in La Habra, Garcia leads her team in practically every offensive category, and her 12 home runs rank No. 12 in the state and 10th in the Southern Section. She is third best in California in runs scored (49) and boasts a .692 slugging percentage, a .610 batting average, 50 hits, 17 doubles, three triples, 33 RBIs and five stolen bases. Not a day goes by that Garcia does not improve herself intellectually, spiritually and physically. A typical 24-hour period begins with a 5 a.m. run, after which she spends 30 minutes writing in her journal or reading the Bible before getting ready for school. She has classes from 8 a.m. to 1:40 p.m., then high school practice for another two and a half hours. Before getting home for dinner she’ll fit in an extra workout on her own until
Hernández: Why can’t Lakers make history and come back in series to beat Nuggets?
While fielding questions after his team’s victory over the Denver Nuggets, Lakers coach Darvin Ham asked a question of his own. “Why not us?” he asked. Why not the Lakers? Why can’t the Lakers be the first in NBA history to come back from a 3-0 deficit in a playoff series? In their 119-108 victory in Game 4, the Lakers proved what was evident in their losses in each of the first three games. They can play with the defending NBA champions. They can beat the defending NBA champions. So, once again, why not them? Why not the Lakers? LeBron James soared on Saturday night, scoring a team-high 30 points. Anthony Davis dominated the boards, collecting 23 rebounds to match his career postseason high. D’Angelo Russell and Austin Reaves knocked down shots that preserved the Lakers’ advantage, each of them contributing 22 points. Nuggets guard Jamal Murray was kept in check. Forward Aaron Gordon was completely shut down. This is what this Lakers team was built to do. This was the vision for this team when the nucleus from the previous season’s team was kept
Word Game: April 28, 2024
TODAY’S WORD — GLYCERINE (GLYCERINE: GLIS-er-in: A sweet syrupy alcohol typically obtained in the process of making soap.) Average mark 50 words Time limit 60 minutes Can you find 61 or more words in GLYCERINE? TODAY’S WORD — GLYCERINE gene generic genic genie genre girl glee glen green grey grin gyre leer leering leery lice liege lien liger line liner ling linger lycee lying lyre lyric celery clergy cling clingy creel cringe cringle crying eely eerily eery elegy energy erne eyeing recline reel reeling regency reign rein relic reline rely relying rice rile ring ingle inly nice nicely nicer niece To purchase the Word Game book, visit WordGameBooks.com. Order it now for just $5 while supplies last! RULES OF THE GAME: 1. Words must be of four or more letters. 2. Words that acquire four letters by the addition of “s,” such as “bats” or “dies,” are not allowed. 3. Additional words made by adding a “d” or an “s” may not be used. For example, if “bake” is used, “baked” or “bakes” are not allowed, but “bake” and “baking” are admissible. 4. Proper nouns
Horoscopes April 28, 2024: Jessica Alba, opportunity is knocking
CELEBRITIES BORN ON THIS DAY: Jessica Alba, 43; Penelope Cruz, 50; Jay Leno, 74; Ann-Margret, 83. Happy Birthday: Express yourself and speak passionately about your concerns, dreams and desires. Find out where you stand and adjust to what you discover, and you’ll position yourself for success. Take the initiative to collect your thoughts, plan your actions and execute your goals boldly, and you will interest people who can contribute and help you reach your destination. Opportunity is knocking; don’t hesitate to open the door. Your numbers are 8, 12, 23, 31, 37, 42, 46. ARIES (March 21-April 19): Pay attention to how you look and present yourself to the world. Learn from experience, and research protocol before you jump into something new. Let your charm, speed and agility lead the way, and you’ll attract the right people. Reconnecting with an old friend will be enlightening. 5 stars TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Find your bliss and do what makes you feel and look your best, and you’ll discover how to strut your stuff, make an impression and gain the confidence to expand your mind and improve
Bridge: April 28, 2024
A measure of success, I believe, is not how you look at a problem, but whether you look at the same kind of problem the same way as a year ago. My columns this week focused on resolving guesses — for instance, a two-way guess for a missing queen — by drawing inferences from the bidding or play. A beginning declarer is unable to organize his thought-processes well enough to draw inferences; he has other worries, such as whether to draw trumps. But most “card-reading” is simple in principle. It takes focus and practice, but anyone can do it. Today’s South plays at four spades after North has opened one club in fourth position. West leads the jack of hearts, and declarer takes the king and sees a possible loser in each suit. If West has both black kings, South may make an overtrick; but if East has both, the defense will have time to set up and cash a heart trick. At Trick Two, South correctly leads a diamond. He hopes to set up a diamond trick in dummy for a heart discard. West
Ask Amy: Can I go after the widow for what was stolen from me?
Dear Amy: I’m writing to you to ask your opinion of a moral/ethical situation that I am experiencing. Many years ago, my mother died, leaving a will that stated that my brother and I were to share equally in the money that she had in bonds. She had discussed this bequest with me. Since she made my brother the executor of her estate, he was able to sell the bonds without my knowing. He kept all the money and told me that there was none for me. My brother died last year. I didn’t want to bring up the aforementioned situation at that time, due to my sister-in-law’s health and her intense grief. But now that it’s almost a full year since he passed, I’d like to know this: Would it be morally/ethically correct if I ask her for the money that my brother “stole” from me? I know that she most likely didn’t know anything about the fact that he did this. It upsets me to know that he didn’t honor our mother’s final wishes. I do need the money. So I’d like your
Dear Abby: My husband doesn’t know I have a secret apartment
DEAR ABBY: I have been deceiving my husband for a couple of months and can’t figure out how to come clean. I feel like a terrible person. We have been married 17 years, and during the first four or five we were happy. We don’t have very many disagreements, but when we do, he always wins. This is because he’s intense, intelligent and very intimidating, so I always back down. I am so uncomfortable with him and careful about what I say that it has started to make me depressed and anxious. I’m in therapy and trying hard to speak up for myself. The deception I speak of is that I have rented an apartment in another town and have lied to him about trips to see my sister, my daughter and my mother just so I can feel some peace, read a book, knit, and just … be. He has no idea because our finances are separate (his choice). I’m afraid to tell my husband I want to leave him because a few years ago I expressed how unhappy I was and said I
Calmes: That scowl. The gag order. Frightened jurors. Who’s on trial, a former president or a mob boss?
Donald Trump has fussed about many things during his criminal trial in Manhattan: the judge, prosecutors, their relatives, witnesses, jurors and of course the media, for reporting on the sparse crowds outside. Yet Trump of all people knows that his fellow New Yorkers are proudly blasé about celebrity goings-on. It shouldn’t be surprising that not much of a crowd forms at the courthouse where the Don has been in the dock. After all, if you’ve seen one trial of a mob boss in Gotham, you’ve seen ‘em all. Opinion Columnist Jackie Calmes Jackie Calmes brings a critical eye to the national political scene. She has decades of experience covering the White House and Congress. And Trump’s trial — where he’s charged with fraudulently covering up pre-election hush money payments to Stormy Daniels in 2016, to keep voters in the dark about their alleged tryst — resembles nothing so much as a prosecution of yet another organized crime figure, even if it is, in fact, unprecedented: The first criminal case against a former U.S. president in history. Lest anyone think the quick-to-complain Trump might grouse about
Abcarian: How Santa Monica’s Rape Treatment Center revolutionized the way we treat victims of sexual assault
It’s impossible to know how many lives Gail Abarbanel has saved. For decades, she has been singularly devoted to changing the way the world perceives and speaks about rape, and to helping victims of all ages heal from the trauma of sexual assault. Opinion Columnist Robin Abcarian After 50 years as director of the Rape Treatment Center at UCLA Santa Monica Medical Center, she recently stepped down. She’s not retiring, she insisted to me recently when we met for lunch in Santa Monica, she’s just forging a new path. I met Abarbanel 30 years ago, when she invited me to attend one of the center’s annual fundraising brunches at Ron Burkle’s lavish Greenacres estate in Beverly Hills. These were celebrity-studded events, often hosted by the casts of popular TV shows like “Friends” or “ER” or “Mad Men.” But the afternoon’s stars were always the rape victims who would share their stories with the hushed crowd. (And yes, Abarbanel uses the word “victim” not “survivor.” “They are victims,” she says.) In 1994, the young woman who told her terrible story was the 24-year-old granddaughter of a
Column: As some nursing homes cry poverty, what can be done about increased staffing requirements?
If you suspect that you or a loved one might one day end up in a nursing home, and you breathed a sigh of relief when the Biden administration announced increased staffing requirements on April 22, you may need to pull a Larry David and curb your enthusiasm. Biden’s follow-through on an earlier promise was applauded by many, given the dark history of substandard care and chronic staffing shortages that have led to unconscionable levels of suffering and even death. But will the nursing home industry actually do the hiring, or repeat the refrains that it can’t afford to without higher government reimbursement rates, or that it can’t find enough new employees? It didn’t take long for the protesting to begin. California is about to be hit by an aging population wave, and Steve Lopez is riding it. His column focuses on the blessings and burdens of advancing age — and how some folks are challenging the stigma associated with older adults. Mark Parkinson, president and CEO of a healthcare association representing 14,000 nursing homes, slammed the Biden administration for imposing “this unfunded staffing mandate
Chuckwalla National Monument would protect swath of California desert and preserve a sacred land
Thomas Tortez Jr. leads a group across a gravelly wash in Painted Canyon, at the spot where his Cahuilla tribal ancestors once lived in a village. The solar eclipse is underway. Suddenly, a strange yelp echoes from a ridge of craggy outcroppings. Perhaps the yelp comes from a hiker who’s been struck with awe while climbing ladders into terraced slot canyons that seem to funnel echoes to the heavens. Stones direct hikers to a trailhead inside Painted Canyon near Mecca, Calif. (Tyrone Beason / Los Angeles Times) Maybe it’s a coyote crying out as the moon passes partway in front of the sun, briefly cooling the dry desert wind and bathing bands of red, sandstone and iron green rocks in an otherworldly light. Or might it be Mukat, the exiled Cahuilla creator god who roamed among the ironwoods, smoke trees, palo verdes and ghost flowers? Tortez, tribal council chairman of the Torres Martinez Desert Cahuilla Indians, spikes the sand with the desiccated yucca stalk that he’s repurposed as a walking stick. He seems at ease with the mystery of the sound and the mystique of
Column: My mami’s hard life, cut short right when it was about to get really good
Every time I visit the grave of my mother, Maria de la Luz Arellano Miranda, I follow the same ritual. I park on a cul de sac within Holy Sepulcher Cemetery in Orange, then wander around for at least 10 minutes, annoyed with myself for always forgetting the exact location where Mami is buried. I eventually find her tombstone: black marble engraved with the years of her life, a personal message crafted by my sisters, her nickname, La Ley (“The Law,” given to her by her father, my Papa Je, when she was just a girl for her no-nonsense ways) and a small portrait of her in her early 20s, worthy of a beauty queen. My mother’s grave is within eyesight of a big statue of the Santo Niño de Atocha, an apparition of the infant Jesus omnipresent in the lives of people from the state of Zacatecas, where she was born. Many from that diaspora are buried in Holy Sepulcher, including both of my maternal grandparents, family friends and cousins — and, one day, myself. So I recite the Lord’s Prayer and a Hail
How to watch today’s NASCAR Würth 400 at Dover Motor Speedway race: Livestream options, starting time, more
By Meredith Gordon Updated on: April 28, 2024 / 9:00 AM EDT / Essentials CBS Essentials is created independently of the CBS News editorial staff. We may receive commissions from some links to products on this page. Promotions are subject to availability and retailer terms. Austin Hill, driver of the No. 21 Nuthin Fancy Collection Chevrolet and Justin Allgaier, driver of the No. 7 Jarrett Logistics Chevrolet, race during the NASCAR Xfinity Series BetRivers 200 at Dover International Speedway on April 27, 2024 in Dover, Delaware. Logan Riely / Getty Images It’s Sunday, and that means it’s time for another nail-biting, high-speed NASCAR race. This weekend, the nation’s top racers head to Dover Motor Speedway in Delaware for the Würth 400. Expect another epic Sunday of watching NASCAR racing . Keep reading to find out how and when to watch today’s race. How and when to watch the Würth 400 at Dover Motor Speedway NASCAR race The Würth 400 will broadcast live from Dover Motor Speedway on Sunday, April 28, 2024, at 2:00 p.m. ET (11:00 p.m. PT). The race will air on FS1 and
How to watch the Minnesota Timberwolves vs. Phoenix Suns NBA Playoffs game tonight: Game 4 livestream options, more
By Meredith Gordon Updated on: April 28, 2024 / 4:28 AM EDT / Essentials CBS Essentials is created independently of the CBS News editorial staff. We may receive commissions from some links to products on this page. Promotions are subject to availability and retailer terms. Nickeil Alexander-Walker (9) of the Minnesota Timberwolves reacts in front of Kevin Durant after making a three-pointer in the fourth quarter on Saturday, April 20, 2024, at Target Center in Minneapolis, Minn. NBA playoffs, first round, Minnesota Timberwolves vs. Phoenix Suns, Game 1, Target Center, Minneapolis, Minn. Carlos Gonzalez/Star Tribune via Getty Images The Phoenix Suns are fighting to save their season as they face the Minnesota Timberwolves tonight for Game 4 of the teams’ NBA Playoffs series. Keep reading below for everything you need to know to watch or stream tonight’s Timberwolves vs. Suns game. How and when to watch the Timberwolves vs. Suns game Game 4 between the Minnesota Timberwolves and the Phoenix Suns will be played on Sunday, April 28, 2024 at 9:30 p.m. ET (6:30 p.m. PT). The game will air on TNT and stream on
The 20th anniversary of the Morro Bay Kite Festival continues to create lifelong memories
The annual Morro Bay Kite Festival continued on Saturday. The free weekend-long event has brought kids of all ages to Morro Rock. Hundreds of lighter-than-air crafts took to the sky with candy drops happening twice a day to keep the energy soaring. KSBY spoke with some participants about their favorite kites. “Over there there are some kites… I didn’t know that big of a kite existed but I like all the octopuses cause the legs are kind of flailing in the wind, said Kajal Gogri, a Cal Poly student. This event marks the 20th anniversary of the Morro Bay Kite Festival aimed at creating lifelong memories and family traditions for locals and visitors alike.