The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind was like Sara Lee cheesecake: Nobody didn't like it. Brainy enough for a cog-sci course syllabus and romantic enough for a first (or last) date, Eternal Sunshine was the most memorable film of 2004, even if it was all about the erasure of memory.

But in another feat of selective remembering, people tended to talk about Eternal Sunshine as if it were a Charlie Kaufman movie. Kaufman, the rug-pulling screenwriter of Being John Malkovich and Adaptation, provided the literate and intricately plotted script, but the achingly beautiful images—the fence that disappeared, post by post, as the two lovers ran alongside it, or the house that crumbled around them as their shared history rushed toward oblivion—came from French director Michel Gondry, best known for making music videos for the likes of Beck, Björk, and the White Stripes.

Homo erectus extinctus

She now moves in a circle of entirely like-minded women. Her social group includes six lesbian couples with babies all born within six months of Joseph. Half were conceived through donor sperm from clinics, and the others were arrangements like hers, where a gay friend or acquaintance agreed to provide the sperm.

Such arrangements are extremely fraught. There are long waiting lists for donor sperm at infertility clinics because of a chronic shortage caused by new laws allowing children conceived by donor sperm to track their genetic fathers. With informal arrangements, the father runs the risk of being approached for financial support for the child, even years after its conception, as has happened in the case of the fireman Andy Bathie, 37, of Enfield, north London, who is being pursued for child support for two children produced from his sperm donation to a lesbian couple who have now split up.

U.S. plans for falling satellite

Military agencies, he said, are doing an analysis to determine which pieces most likely would survive re-entry. But he cautioned that officials won't have much detail on where or when it will crash until it begins to move through the atmosphere and break up.

Orcutt project draws mixed reviews from planners

A large, mixed-use project at Orcutt's eastern gateway got mixed reactions Wednesday from Santa Barbara County planning commissioners, from praise for its appealing architecture to concerns about putting residences above two of its retail buildings.

After a nearly four-hour hearing in Santa Maria, the commissioners agreed they need more answers before deciding whether to approve the Orcutt Village Marketplace project as designed.

They voted 4-0, with Commissioner Cecilia Brown absent, to continue the hearing to April 9.

Proposed for 24.7 acres along the west side of Highway 101 and north side of Clark Avenue, the project would include a three-story hotel, a 34,000-square-foot supermarket, 38 condominiums, shops, restaurants, offices, a gas station with a convenience store and car wash, and a half-acre park with gazebo near the center of the property.

CREATIVE CLASSROOMS

Set up four years ago, the school is up to class VI but will extend to class XII next year and will follow both the ICSE Board and the International Baccalaureate system.
The classrooms are colourful, their walls decorated with paintings done by students. The objective is to create fun and rewarding learning experiences that would last the children the rest of their learning lives, points out Vael Principal R. Meenakshi. The classrooms do not have more than 20 students each and the stress is more on practical stuff, less on theory. So, the children learn what a cold sensation is in a rather pleasurable way: by visiting an ice cream parlour. A lesson in personal hygiene is given in a beauty parlour and another on fitness in a gym. There are special days like the creepy crawly day, when children learn about insects and a noodle doodle day when they help teachers to make noodles and colour them.

Sultan mayor, council on ballot

That has forced the city to reduce its police force to only four officers and the police chief.

A long-term solution for the city's financial woes is to increase its retail tax base, Eslick said. The former Sultan restaurant owner now works as a business loan officer for First Heritage Bank.

"I can entice businesses to Sultan," she said.

Seehuus, general manager of Galaxy Theatres in Monroe, said he wants the city to streamline the paperwork process to invite new businesses.

"We need to go out and recruit them," said Seehuus, who served on the city's planning commission before he was elected to the council in 2003.

Seehuus said he fought to keep the city's police department intact earlier this year when officials considered contracting with the Snohomish County Sheriff's Office for service.

Woman involved in dragging case dies

He pleaded guilty and was sentenced in July 2007.

"Double jeopardy is attached," Harrington said. "It's ridiculous that under state law, what happened to Eva is the same punishment as stealing a $10 DVD."

That fact upsets Winter, the family friend.

"He's going to get out soon and be able to live his life," she said. "She won't. It's just frustrating."

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