Cool California

Hollywood executive and winery owner Frank Rich says the movie and wine businesses have plenty in common -- especially as this year's late California harvest has winemakers waiting in the wings for grapes to ripen.

Both of California's famed industries require big up-front investments, significant sales and marketing budgets, and are heavily dependent on star power -- whether from a smoldering starlet or a complex Cabernet Sauvignon grape.
"The difference is that grapes don't talk back. Although, sometimes they show up late -- as we're seeing this year," said the former Walt Disney Studios president and current owner of Frank Family Vineyards in Napa Valley, which sells wine for $30 a bottle and more.
Growers around the Golden State are harvesting grapes later than usual this year. The take is anticipated to be smaller than normal, due to heavy spring rains and the second summer in a row of cooler-than-normal temperatures.
The California Department of Food and Agriculture is forecasting 2011 wine grape production of 3.30 million tons, down 9 percent from 3.63 million tons in 2010.
California's unusually mild 2011 weather is expected to have intensified flavors in surviving grapes, which should result in higher quality.
So far, California's harvest of Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Sauvignon Blanc all have been below long-term average yields per acre, said Steve Fredricks, president of Turrentine Brokerage, which specializes in bulk wine and grape sales.
The shortfall may put upward pressure on prices, particularly for wines in the $2 to $4 bottle range, he said.
After paying more for grapes, producers of those wines "are going to have less of a desire to sell it at that price," Fredricks said.
Rich, who now is launching TheOnlineNetwork.com and is an executive producer on shows like USA Network's "Royal Pains", says his yields so far have been mixed.
The Chardonnay harvest has been light, but the winery has more Sangiovese than ever before, said Rich.
Despite the smaller harvest, Frank Family Vineyards' winemaker Todd Graff said he is increasing production 50 percent to 60,000 cases to meet what he sees as rising demand.
Graff, who tends three vineyards totaling more than 260 acres around Napa Valley, plans to get there by buying grapes from other growers.
"This year we plan to grow (production) a lot, even with the lighter crop," said Graff, who recently boosted his own Hollywood credentials when he helped "Royal Pains" writers find winery equipment that could be used by the show's star -- a so-called "medical MacGyver" -- to save lives.

Posh Bingo

posh bingoEnglish author and bookmakers' favourite Julian Barnes finally won the Man Booker Prize for fiction on Tuesday, despite once dismissing the coveted award as "posh bingo".
The 65-year-old triumphed with "The Sense of an Ending", which at 150 pages was described by one review as a "novella".
It was his fourth time on the Booker shortlist -- Barnes was previously nominated for "Flaubert's Parrot" in 1984, "England, England" in 1998 and "Arthur and George" in 2005.
Stella Rimington, a former British spy chief who chaired the panel of judges this year, told reporters, "We thought that it was a book which, though short, was incredibly concentrated, and crammed into this very short space a great deal of information you don't get out of a first reading.
"It's one of these books, a very readable book, if I may use that word, but readable not only once but twice and even three times."
Ion Trewin, administrator of the prize, said it was not the shortest work to win the Booker. That honour goes to Penelope Fitzgerald's "Offshore" which came in at 132 pages in 1979.
Barnes, who has been critical of the prize in the past, said he was relieved to have won at the fourth attempt.
In his acceptance speech at a glitzy awards ceremony in London's medieval Guildhall, he likened himself to Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges, considered one of the greatest authors never to have won the Nobel Prize in Literature.
"Borges, when asked, as he continually was, why he had never won the Nobel Prize, always used to reply that 'In Sweden there was a small cottage industry solely devoted to not giving Borges the Nobel Prize'.
"And at times over the last years, in occasional moments of mild paranoia, I wondered whether there wasn't perhaps some similar sister organisation operating over here.
"So I am as much relieved as I am delighted to receive the 2011 Booker Prize."
SALES BOOST EXPECTED
Barnes received a cheque for 50,000 pounds ($80,000), a flurry of media attention and, perhaps most importantly, a major boost in sales.
"Writers it tends to drive mad with hope and lust and greed and expectation," he told reporters after receiving the award.
"I was saying that the best way to stay sane is to treat it as if it's posh bingo. That is ... until you win it, when you realise that the judges are the wisest heads in literary Christendom."
Rimington and her judges came under fire in recent weeks for stressing the importance of "readability" when judging the winner, a term interpreted by some as dumbing down one of English-language fiction's top accolades.
Writers from the Commonwealth, Ireland and Zimbabwe are eligible.
The sniping in the narrow world of British "literati" even led to a rival award being set up to champion what its backers said was a more high-brow approach to writing.
Rimington defended her stance, arguing that entertainment and literary criticism were not mutually exclusive.
"We were not talking about only readability as some of you seem to have thought," she told reporters.
"We were talking about readability and quality. You can have more than one adjective when you are talking about books."
Asked whether she had been bothered by the media debate in the run-up to the announcement, she replied:
"I've had a long life in various different careers, and I've been through many crises of one kind or another (against) which this one pales, I must say."
The Sense of an Ending, published by Random House, tells the story of Tony, a seemingly ordinary man who discovers that his memories are not as reliable as he thought.

Friend Uses Real Pistol As Toy

A 10-year-old boy was accidentally shot dead by his 12-year-old neighbour with a firearm while they were playing cop and thief in west Delhi, police said Monday.

Chandan, a Class 6 student, was shot dead Saturday night in Raghubir Nagar by his friend, police said.
Chandan's friend has been sent to an observation home and his father Ram Chander and another person have been arrested, police said.
Police said the children were playing on the ground floor of the building, in which their families lived on rent, when Chandan's friend picked up a home-made pistol lying in a bag and shot him during the course of their game.
The landlord of the house saw Chandan lying on the ground and informed his family. Chandan's parents rushed him to hospital.
'The doctors first thought it was a normal head injury but later found bullet marks on the head,' said V. Renganathan, additional commissioner of police.
It was when Chandan succumbed to his injuries that police were informed and the investigation was launched.
Police said the boy who shot Chandan told his family members about the incident but they destroyed the evidence.
'When Chandan's family was at the hospital, his friend's father Ram Chander and his friend Mukesh washed the blood stains and threw away the pistol,' said a police officer.
Ram Chander, who hails from Azamgarh, came to Delhi six months ago and was working with a dairy in Rajouri Garden area. 'His friend Mukesh had come to his house and the pistol belongs to him. We are checking his previous records,' the officer added.
'We have arrested Chander and Mukesh and the boy who fired the bullet has been apprehended and sent to an observation home,' Renganathan added.

Man held

A 58-year-old man was arrested here for cheating around 4,000 people across India by inducing them to make investments in his company, police said Monday.

Akhtar Ansari, resident of Pant Nagar in south Delhi, was arrested Sunday, Additional Commissioner of Police Ajay Chaudhry said, adding they had received a total of 465 complaints against him already and more were coming in.
Ansari created a website of 'Anjak Overseas', which claimed that his family 'has been a major business group in British Colombia (Canada) for 30 years'.
On the website, names of companies like Anjak Finance and Investment Limited, Source India Corporation, A.D.M. Films, K.A. Films, Anjak Group of Hotels, Iron Mines, Anjak Department Store, Anjak Best Products Inc. Super Market, Anjak Mumbai, Anjak S.P.A. and Anjak Delhi were mentioned.
On enquiry from different government agencies, police found that companies listed on the website had never done any kind of business and were projected only for inducement.
Ansari used to allure people by misrepresenting that they would pay them 20 percent assured return per month on the investment made by them in his company.
This assurance came out to be false as he deducted 5 percent administration charges and 10 percent tax deducted at source (TDS) out of 20 percent money paid, police said.
Initially, Ansari used to contact people on their phones and Facebook profiles, said Chaudhry.
The company has roped in as many as 4,000 clients in several parts of the country and duped them of Rs.3.5 crore, he said.
Ansari also used to give lavish parties for promotion of his company at different hotels and clubs.
Ansari told police that after seeing the website, people contacted his office at Preet Vihar in east Delhi where people met his co-associate Israr Ahmed. Ahmed is still absconding.
Later, they shifted their office to Azadpur in north Delhi. On June 4, they again shifted to Noida in Uttar Pradesh to avoid investors' queries.
Ansari used to receive money at all the three offices as well as at his residence.
'Two bags full of banks statements, a tree chart of the investors, chequebooks and passbooks of various bank accounts, ATM cards and passport of Ansari were seized,' said Chaudhry adding that they are still receiving complaints against Ansari from various parts of the country.

European bank decision

A decision by European central banks to support the region's financial system helped calm Asian markets, setting off a rally across the region in Friday trading.
The focus is now shifting to talks in Poland between U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and his European counterparts, which run through Saturday, about coordinating efforts to prevent Europe's debt crisis from derailing a global recovery.
Japan's Nikkei 225 index rose 2.1 percent to 8,847.13 in afternoon trading, while South Korea's Kospi advanced 3.9 percent to 1,843.60. Hong Kong's Hang Seng gained 2.1 percent to 19,591.93.
The news also set off a rally in U.S. stocks overnight, with the Dow Jones industrial average rising 1.7 percent to close at 11,433.18. The Standard & Poor's 500 index climbed 1.7 percent to 1,209.11.
But analysts said the rebound was likely temporary as debt woes had not been fixed.
"On a longer term basis, you still have significant issues with too much debt, too much debt in the European area, too much debt in the U.S. as well," said Samuel Le Cornu, portfolio manager at Macquarie Funds Group in Hong Kong.
"The markets rally today I think is very short term in nature, but it does underpin the thematic at the moment and that is uncertainty and volatility as a function of uncertainty," he said.
Worries about European banks' borrowing problems, a key element in the region's debt crisis, have been hanging over global markets in recent weeks, especially about the cash-strapped governments in Greece and Italy.
But the European Central Bank, the U.S. Federal Reserve and three other central banks said Thursday they would provide European banks with unlimited dollar loans.
In currencies, the dollar strengthened to 76.77 yen from 76.64 yen late in New York on Thursday. The euro fell to $1.3874 from $1.3889.
Benchmark oil for October delivery was up 16 cents at $89.56 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract added 49 cents to finish Thursday at $89.40 per barrel.
In London, Brent crude for October delivery was up 60 cents at $112.90 on the ICE Futures exchange.

Normal In Past Week

India's monsoon rains were one percent above normal in the week to Sept. 14, weakening from 39 percent above average in the previous week, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said on Thursday, easing concerns heavy rains could damage planted crops.

Withdrawal of the June to September monsoon could now happen after Sept. 25, a source at the IMD said.
"Heavy rains in some pockets of the eastern region resulted in floods but now things have settled down," said the source.
"There is no sign of the withdrawal of the monsoon as yet," said B.P. Yadav, director of forecasting at the weather office.
The monsoon rains have so far been three percent above long-term averages since the start of the season, in line with the weather office's latest forecast of a normal monsoon in 2011, which means rains of 96 to 104 percent of a long-term average.
India's monsoon rains are crucial to crop production in 60 percent of the country that does not have adequate irrigation.
Normal rains so far over major crop producing regions have helped planting of summer crops like rice, cane and oilseeds, and boosted prospects for their output.
Output of summer-planted grains is expected at 123.88 million tonnes, Farm Minister Sharad Pawar said on Wednesday, releasing the first of the four forecasts for the 2011/12 crop year.

Passenger: Was cuffed

A US woman said Tuesday that she endured nearly four hours in police custody that included being forced off an airplane in handcuffs, strip-searched and interrogated at Detroit's airport on the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks — all, she believes, because of her Middle Eastern appearance.
Shoshana Hebshi, 35, told The Associated Press she was one of three people removed from a Denver-to-Detroit Frontier Airlines flight after landing Sunday afternoon. Authorities say fighter jets escorted the plane after its crew reported that two people were spending a long time in a bathroom — the two men sitting next to Hebshi in the 12th row.
Hebshi said she didn't notice how many times the men went to the bathroom. "I wasn't keeping track," she said.
"I really wasn't paying attention," said Hebshi, a freelance writer, editor and stay-at-home mother of twin six-year-old boys who lives in a suburb of Toledo, Ohio. "I was minding my own business — sleeping, reading, playing on my phone."
The FBI has said the three didn't know each other. One man felt ill and got up to use the restroom and another man in the same row also left his seat to go to the bathroom. The FBI said they never were inside together.
Hebshi has written extensively on her blog about the incident, saying she felt "violated, humiliated and sure that I was being taken from the plane simply because of my appearance."
Hebshi, who describes herself as half-Arabic, half-Jewish with a dark complexion, told the AP after they landed, she noticed police first surrounding, then storming the plane. She said she was surprised when they stopped at her row and ordered her and the men to get up.
Her Twitter posts from Sunday bear that out. At one point, she wrote: "A little concerned about this situation. Plane moved away from terminal surrounded by cops. Crew is mum. Passengers can't get up."
Later she wrote, "I see stairs coming our way...yay!" Her last post said, "Majorly armed cops coming aboard."
It's then than she says the officers ordered her and the men, whom she described as Indian, to get up.
She said she was patted down and taken by car to a holding cell. A uniformed female officer eventually came in and told Hebshi to take off her clothes.
After the strip search, another officer who identified herself as a Homeland Security agent led Hebshi to another room, Hebshi said. There, a man who identified himself as an FBI agent asked her a series of questions while a female agent took notes, Hebshi said.
Hebshi said that when she asked what was going on, the male agent told her someone on the plane reported that she and the men on her row were "conducting suspicious activity."
FBI spokeswoman Sandra Berchtold said the three passengers were questioned but not arrested before the FBI determined there was no reason to suspect or hold them. She also said FBI agents who questioned the passengers were not involved in any strip searches.
"We received a report of suspicious activity on that particular plane," Berchtold said. "We did not arrest ... these passengers. ... We didn't direct anybody to arrest them."
Airport police are under the supervision of the Wayne County Airport Authority, which operates Detroit Metropolitan Airport.
In an email to the AP, agency spokesman Scott Wintner said airport police "responded appropriately by following protocol and treating everyone involved with respect and dignity. "
Wintner said the decision on how to respond was a call made by the Airport Authority's CEO, who he said is Arab-American.
Hebshi said that finally, after being fingerprinted and allowed to call her husband, she was told she and the men were being released and that nothing suspicious was found on the plane. She said an official apologized and thanked her for understanding and cooperating.
Hebshi said she received another call of apology from an FBI agent Monday, before she wrote her blog post.
"I can understand they were just doing their job," she told the AP. "My beef is with these laws and regulations that are so hypersensitive. ... Even if you're an innocent bystander, you have no rights."
AP left email and phone messages seeking comment Tuesday night with Frontier.
The flight was one of two for which fighter jets were scrambled Sunday after crews reported suspicious activity on the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, officials said. In both cases, it involved bathroom use. In neither case did authorities find anything to substantiate the suspicions.
On American Airlines flight 34 from Los Angeles, three passengers who made repeated trips to the bathroom were cleared after the plane safely landed at New York's Kennedy Airport.
Also Sunday, a GoJet Airlines flight bound for Washington was still on the runway in St. Louis when the pilot returned the aircraft to the gate and requested all passengers be re-screened after crew found paper towels stuffed in a toilet, according to a United Airlines spokesman. GoJet is a regional carrier for United.