Warp Speed

What to make of Angelina Jolie? She is at once a breath of fresh air and thoroughly exhausting. Forget the usual niceties of hotel-suite interviews. For an audience with the 24-year-old actress of the famously bee-stung (but indisputably natural) lips, you are beckoned into the bedroom, where you unexpectedly find yourself inhabiting the mattress with Jolie herself. Sprawled across the bed, her lanky frame is swaddled in a black, calf-length leather greatcoat with matching pants.

It's that time of year when the weather changes, holidays and a new year approach, and life sometimes goes to warp speed. Community Voices would like to know, as December approaches, have you found ways to simplify your life? What do you do to get through this busy time in your children's lives, or at work, or with family during the holidays? Please share with us! Send an essay of 300 to 500 words by Nov. 28 to South Jersey Voices, The Inquirer, 53 Haddonfield Rd., Suite 300, Cherry Hill, N.J. 08002.

ARIES (March 21-April 19). What's good for your mind is also good for your soul. You'll get organized and structure your activities. TAURUS (April 20-May 20). You'll be asked to go places and do things. Even though you aren't that into it, it's still important that you honor your commitments. GEMINI (May 21-June 21). The more you learn about your heroes, the less heroic they seem. It's easy to be judgmental, but you can never fully understand another person's journey. CANCER (June 22-July 22)

Tommy Haas, with his baseball cap on backward and his mouth running full speed, kicked off his Advanta Championships semifinal match against Pete Sampras last night by taking a 3-0 lead over the top-ranked player in the world. Haas, a 19-year-old from Germany who has done his apprentice work at Nick Bollettieri's school in Florida and who has acquired a deep Florida tan, was moving at warp speed. Sampras was barely moving. This state of affairs lasted about as long as it took Sampras to loosen up his serving arm, crank up his forehand, and lasso a balky backhand.

Georgia Tech got to celebrate twice last night, which happened to be two times more than coach Bobby Cremins figured his basketball squad probably deserved to. "I'm sitting here wondering how we won," Cremins said, following the Yellow Jackets' pulsating 81-80 overtime victory over Michigan State in the semifinals of the NCAA's Southeast Regional at the Superdome. "This is absolutely wild. I felt that we were outplayed. But this is an amazing team. I feel very fortunate. But I've felt that way a lot this season.

There has been a startling change in the socioeconomic profile of the high- speed driver on Chicago-area expressways. This was disclosed in a recent study released by Dr. I.M. Kookie, the noted authority on lots of stuff. The title of the study is: "Today's Hot-Rodding, Lane-Hopping Idiot and Why He/She Drives Like a Goof. " Because of the imposing length of the scholarly work, I asked Dr. Kookie for an interview so he could summarize his findings. Here is our conversation: Q: Dr. Kookie, how has the expressway hot rodder changed over the years?

The 76ers suffered through one of the inevitable losses on the schedule last night, dropping a 100-91 game to the Detroit Pistons. The Pistons used a big third quarter to take control of the game and increase their record to 36-4 in The Palace of Auburn Hills, where they have now won 20 straight games. With a win here tomorrow against Atlanta in the final game of the regular season, Detroit would finish with a league-high 63 wins. Last night's game completed a five-game season series between the clubs in which the Pistons went undefeated.

"If any player ever asks me about playing in Philadelphia, what I thought it was and what it actually is, it's completely different. I've never had anyone yell at me. "   - Doc Halladay, The Inquirer, Feb. 22, 2012   In the dead of winter, circa 2002, in South Philadelphia, a stretch limo, windows darkened, purrs down Broad Street and slows to a crawl where a majestic new ballpark is rising and where...

In a tone somewhere between amusement and amazement at how it all turned out, Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry liked to talk about "special" effects in the early days of the TV series. He could literally shed some light on the subject. Take the shot where the Enterprise would head out at warp speed - the kind of moment that today's high-tech wizards can bring off with a razzle-dazzle flair that gives audiences vertigo. "What we did when we needed that shot," recalled Roddenberry, who died of a heart attack Thursday at the age of 70, "was get a wide piece of black paper and put lights behind it. Then we just went and punched some holes in it and shot at different speeds.

ELIMINATION. It is the biggest word in baseball's minimalist lexicon. And the baddest. For the runner-up in the most grueling journey in team sports, there truly is no tomorrow. The night you lose for the fourth time in a World Series, there is an exquisitely painful finality. The winners half-drown themselves in champagne, most of it sprayed, and beer, most of it consumed. Then they travel down the main streets of their adoring cities, basking in the adulation that only a million or so of your fans can bestow.

"If any player ever asks me about playing in Philadelphia, what I thought it was and what it actually is, it's completely different. I've never had anyone yell at me. "   - Doc Halladay, The Inquirer, Feb. 22, 2012   In the dead of winter, circa 2002, in South Philadelphia, a stretch limo, windows darkened, purrs down Broad Street and slows to a crawl where a majestic new ballpark is rising and where...

ARIES (March 21-April 19). What's good for your mind is also good for your soul. You'll get organized and structure your activities. TAURUS (April 20-May 20). You'll be asked to go places and do things. Even though you aren't that into it, it's still important that you honor your commitments. GEMINI (May 21-June 21). The more you learn about your heroes, the less heroic they seem. It's easy to be judgmental, but you can never fully understand another person's journey. CANCER (June 22-July 22)

ELIMINATION. It is the biggest word in baseball's minimalist lexicon. And the baddest. For the runner-up in the most grueling journey in team sports, there truly is no tomorrow. The night you lose for the fourth time in a World Series, there is an exquisitely painful finality. The winners half-drown themselves in champagne, most of it sprayed, and beer, most of it consumed. Then they travel down the main streets of their adoring cities, basking in the adulation that only a million or so of your fans can bestow.

This review appeared in yesterday's Inquirer. If you doubt that there is life after death, consider the perennial rebirth of Star Trek. Through five TV series and 10 feature films, the short-lived television show (1966-69) has enjoyed a robust afterlife. In J.J. Abrams' rousing prequel, the franchise takes a refreshing chug from the fountain of youth. Simply titled Star Trek, the film shows how Kirk met Spock and how the Enterprise crew bonded on its maiden voyage. The result is more exciting than the last four ST pictures put together, more fun than a barrel of Tribbles, and the most satisfying action-adventure since last year's Iron Man. Back in the day, the message of Star Trek: Generations (1994)

If you doubt that there is life after death, consider the perennial rebirth of Star Trek . Through five TV series and 10 feature films, the short-lived television show (1966-69) has enjoyed a robust afterlife. In J.J. Abrams' rousing prequel, the franchise takes a refreshing chug from the fountain of youth. Simply titled Star Trek , the film shows how Kirk met Spock and how the Enterprise crew bonded on its maiden voyage. The result is more exciting than the last four ST pictures put together, more fun than a barrel of Tribbles, and the most satisfying action-adventure since last year's Iron Man . Back in the day, the message of Star Trek: Generations (1994)

It's that time of year when the weather changes, holidays and a new year approach, and life sometimes goes to warp speed. Community Voices would like to know, as December approaches, have you found ways to simplify your life? What do you do to get through this busy time in your children's lives, or at work, or with family during the holidays? Please share with us! Send an essay of 300 to 500 words by Nov. 28 to South Jersey Voices, The Inquirer, 53 Haddonfield Rd., Suite 300, Cherry Hill, N.J. 08002.

Eager to be the first ones to see "Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones," devoted fans shuffled into the UA Riverview Stadium on Columbus Boulevard yesterday. Ranging in age from 4 to 40, "Star Wars" fans anticipated great things from George Lucas and the epic adventure he has nurtured for nearly three decades. Despite lukewarm reviews from the critics, loyal fans refused to be swayed. "These critics wouldn't know a good movie if it was in front of them," said Tim Mayo, 17, of South Philly.

What to make of Angelina Jolie? She is at once a breath of fresh air and thoroughly exhausting. Forget the usual niceties of hotel-suite interviews. For an audience with the 24-year-old actress of the famously bee-stung (but indisputably natural) lips, you are beckoned into the bedroom, where you unexpectedly find yourself inhabiting the mattress with Jolie herself. Sprawled across the bed, her lanky frame is swaddled in a black, calf-length leather greatcoat with matching pants.

At back-to-school night recently, a veteran fifth-grade teacher told parents sitting primly behind student desks that in American history, their children would be reading the play 1776 this year. The teacher said she used to blacken out the bawdier parts of the play about the writing of the Declaration of Independence. Then last year, an enterprising student got the entire text from the library. This year, the teacher allowed, she doesn't quite know what's appropriate. After publication of the Starr report, a little off-color language about the Founding Fathers pales in comparison.