"Heard the Good Word" by Merl Reagle, published Dec. 2.

End of the world? Close -- a mix-up with Sunday crossword

The crossword in Sunday’s Arts & Books section was titled "The Last Sunday Crossword" and noted that according to the Mayan calendar, the world was going to end "this Friday, Dec. 21."

But, of course, "this" Friday is not Dec. 21 – it's the 14th.

Also, the solution to "last week's" puzzle didn't match the puzzle that ran Dec. 2. (A note to this effect ran in Tuesday's For the Record column.)

So what happened?

Many inquiring minds want to know. Goofing up the crossword is almost like the end of the world – except with Internet and phone service.

Reader Durga Bhoj of Rancho...

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Giants fans celebrate outside San Francisco City Hall.

About that Giants error: Reporter left her brain in San Francisco?

San Francisco bureau chief Maria L. La Ganga wrote a LATExtra section article about her city's celebrations after the Giants won the World Series on Sunday night. 

But one erroneous line in the article jumped out at readers -- a reference to the Giants having "left Brooklyn behind to play their first season" in San Francisco in 1958. 

"Oh, the horror!" Bob Ewing of Whittier wrote to The Times. "I may have been a Jersey boy, but I knew that the Giants played in Manhattan, the Yankees just a short distance away in the Bronx, and the Dodgers in that 'city across the river' known as Brooklyn. Please...

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UCLA students protest fee increases proposed by the University of California.

University of California a big political donor -- but that's misleading

An article in Thursday’s Business section about campaign contributions in the Massachusetts Senate race between Republican incumbent Scott Brown and Democrat Elizabeth Warren included a surprising name among the list of top donors.

According to the chart, the No. 5 donor to Warren was the University of California, with a total of $38,400 in contributions.

Readers, aware of recent budget cuts and tuition increases in the UC system, were stunned.

"It is hard to understand the University of California contributing to the Senate race in Massachusetts when the UC system is so financially...

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President Obama arrives in West Palm Beach, Fla., for his final debate with Republican Mitt Romney.

L.A. Times endorses Obama -- does that show a bias?

On Sunday, the Los Angeles Times' editorial board endorsed President Obama for reelection.

Not surprisingly, the action has drawn hundreds of comments from readers who agreed or disagreed with the endorsement.

But a third group of readers questioned the very idea of an endorsement. And many thought that the Obama recommendation indicated a bias in news coverage.

Elizabeth Denny of Orange was one such reader. "I do not subscribe to the L.A. Times to hear about your political point of view," she emailed. "I want the news to be nonpartisan, and I want to read about the facts, not about a person's or...

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Photojournalist Bryan Chan spent a lot of time with the shuttle Endeavour. Here, he views the shuttle from the window of a motel where he spent a night during its trek.

Three days in 3 minutes: Shuttle time-lapse video wows

The space shuttle Endeavour’s final journey, a 12-mile crawl through the streets of Los Angeles, wowed crowds of admirers. For Times readers, it was no less stunning to watch a time-lapse video that condensed the shuttle’s three-day trek across the city to about 3 minutes. 

The video really took off on social media, and has been one of the most-viewed stories on latimes.com and most-shared content on Facebook and Twitter this week. And it earned its creator, Times photojournalist Bryan Chan, much applause.



But a few...

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Most Times readers who commented via Facebook agreed that politics and religion should be separate.

Readers respond: How important is religion in the presidential race?

Two recent Times articles have examined the role of religion in the 2012 presidential race.

A Politics Now post addressed who would be the nation's "most religious" president. If Mitt Romney wins the election, would the title go to him? Or would it be held, as a political science professor suggested, by Jimmy Carter?

A second article previewed the vice presidential debate between Republican Paul Ryan and Democratic Vice President Joe Biden, both Catholics, and the political divide among Catholics in this country.

With that in mind, The Times asked readers on its Facebook page, "How important is a...

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Image section, Sept. 30, 2012

Runway models vs. real women: A reader's lament

Looking through Sunday's Image section, reader Katherine Wertheim of Ventura felt something was missing.

"In all the pictures the models have no breasts," she wrote to The Times. "Are breasts out this season? What shall I do with mine?"

Wertheim said the problem she saw was not just with the Paris runway coverage, though the model featured on the section's cover is quintessentially long and lean.

She listed the examples: "In the article 'Biker Chic for All' the woman in the 10 Crosby Derek Lam coat has no breasts either. In the 'Show Your Stripes' article, except for the picture of Jenna...

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A dog, probably not named Fido, on a Griffith Park trail.

'Fido' is a favorite in headlines, but why?

Every dog has its day, but "Fido" has had more than his share.

Since 1985, he's appeared in 111 headlines in the Los Angeles Times' print edition. 

Fido most recently surfaced in the July 29 Travel section: "Is Fido ready to fly?" But he's appeared in nearly every section of the paper, and he even made the front page in 2007, with this Column One feature about Prozac for pets: "Fido's little helper"

Sometimes he's paired with a cat friend, such as this 2009 Health article about quitting smoking, "Do it for Fido and Fluffy."

Who is this Fido, and how does he keep nosing his way into headlines?

That'...

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Times photographer Gary Friedman on the helipad of the U.S. Bank tower.

Endeavour and the Hollywood sign: Photographer weighs in

In a post on The Times' Framework blog, staff photographer Gary Friedman weighs in on the discussion about his photo of the space shuttle Endeavour passing the Hollywood sign:

"As part of a team of more than 20 Times photographers, my position was on the helipad of downtown’s 73-story U.S. Bank Tower, the tallest building west of the Mississippi.

"I had a 360-degree view of the city. A photographer from the Reuters news agency and a video crew from NASA were also on the building to document the event.

"Using a Canon 400mm 2.8 lens on a monopod with a Canon EOS-1D Mark III body, I kept my...

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The space shuttle Endeavour passes the Hollywood sign.

Endeavour and the Hollywood sign: How we got the photo

The shuttle Endeavor wowed Southern California on Friday with fly-bys of landmarks including Dodger Stadium, Griffith Observatory and Disneyland before landing at LAX.

A striking photo by Gary Friedman in Saturday’s Times showed the piggybacked shuttle and 747 passing yet another L.A. icon: the Hollywood sign.

It was an image that others tried, but were unable, to capture. That may be why it raised some skepticism.

Andy Serrano of Los Angeles was among the readers who emailed to question the veracity of the photo.

“I was at the west end of Mt. Hollywood on a ridge and took photographs...

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Endeavour passes by the Los Angeles Times building and L.A. City Hall.

Endeavour: Times staff takes in space shuttle's last flight

Staff in The Times' downtown Los Angeles office had a prime viewing spot as the space shuttle Endeavour flew over Southern California for the last time.

Other staff were around the region to report on the shuttle's final journey.

Some of their comments from the historic flyby ...


[View the story "Times staff plays #SpottheShuttle" on Storify]

 

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Deirdre Edgar has been readers' representative since January 2010. She began working at The Times in 1999 as an editor. Email | Google+


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