"PRETTY THINGS." (2001. NOT RATED. SYNKRONIZED USA. $24.98.)

This would be funny if the issue in question were not so serious.

Four Supreme Court justices recused themselves from a controversial case in which dozens of U.S. corporations that did business in South Africa are being sued for $400 billion on behalf of any South African who was injured by the white government's official system of harsh segregation from 1948 to 1996.

Did you go, Speed Racer, gogogo?

If that sounds like bad grammar and not a pun, then you probably don't know enough about "Speed Racer" to have burned rubber to the big-budget Wachowski brothers movie that debuted May 9. But fear not, dear reader, all will be explained.

"The World Ends With You"

Platform: DS

Genre: Role-playing

Publisher: Square Enix

ESRB Rating: T, for Teen

Grade: 4.5 stars out of 5

Being a gritty wartime pilot, the senator from Arizona, a strong-willed Republican with snow-white hair, relished his upcoming presidential battle against the handsome, young Democratic senator with the matinee idol good looks.

China's response to a devastating earthquake should make the Myanmar government ashamed of its own lackadaisical response to a lethal cyclone.

It won't, but China's rulers know something the secretive Myanmar military junta does not: The people will forgive much in a government that, whatever its other failings, is there for them in times of disaster.

Memorial Day is nearly upon us, with its three-day weekend ushering in the much-longed-for summer season. Some people travel and some stay local, but hopefully we take this time to just relax and take a break from the daily grind. With that in mind, I thought about a few things that can help all of us get into the swing (literally) of summer.

As wedding season approaches, brides- and grooms-to-be find themselves obsessing about things like limos, honeymoons, bachelor parties and -- for those with wealth or a previous marriage -- prenuptial agreements.

"Right now I'm probably doing four or five prenups for June weddings," says Tanya Prioste, a family law attorney in Palo Alto, Calif.

Pat Savu, a research chemist at the 3M company, says between family obligations and work, her life in Minnesota's Twin Cities is "frantic." When she travels, she's looking for a different pace.

I blame it on the earrings. Pearls like to sneak up on you.

At a scholarship night at Monterey (Calif.) High School, I sat in the cafeteria recalling a lifetime of sports banquets and a whole lot of spaghetti dinners.