Miller Sanford

Players and their coach await the start of a high school football game in Bonham, Texas, in 2019. (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times) To the editor: Sports (football in particular) is not special in teaching young people how to work in groups, how to get along with others or how to respect the rules. … Read more

A family walks through MacArthur Park in Los Angeles. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times) To the editor: I couldn’t help but cry while reading Steve Lopez’s latest column on the intractability of the addiction and homelessness around MacArthur Park. (“The time for excuses is over. L.A.’s MacArthur Park needs a champion now,” column, Dec. … Read more

A transmission electron microscope image shows, in gold, H5N1 virus particles. (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Public Health Image Library) To the editor: Thanks to The Times’ editorial staff for publishing Dr. Peter Chin-Hong’s Dec. 20 opinion piece, “Bird flu is coming for humans. We can either get ready or court disaster.” Thanks also … Read more

Why Christmas isn’t for kids Christmas in the United States is a holiday chiefly for children. It is a season of candy canes and presents, “A Christmas Story” and the Grinch, mall Santas and the exhausted mothers whose valor they steal. At church we organize children’s pageants and choirs. At home, we hang Advent calendars … Read more

Catherine O’Hara, photographed in Toronto on Sept. 6, is up for best actress in a comedy at this year’s Emmys for her performance as Moira Rose in “Schitt’s Creek.” (Ryan Enn Hughes / For The Times) Over five seasons of “Schitt’s Creek,” Moira Rose has demonstrated, if nothing else, how to make an entrance. When … Read more

The High Evolutionary’s monstrous guards prepare to fight our heroes in the climax of “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.” They wouldn’t exist without the efforts of Stephane Ceretti’s visual-effects team. (Marvel Studios) 1 Saying goodbye isn’t easy. And for director James Gunn, “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3,” a film he almost didn’t make … Read more

Harris Dickinson and Nicole Kidman in “Babygirl.” (Niko Tavernise/A24) Warning: The following contains spoilers from the movie “Babygirl.” “Babygirl” opens on a breathy Romy (Nicole Kidman) riding her husband (Antonio Banderas), culminating in what appears to be a classic, movie-magical, simultaneous orgasm. For someone watching the film with an eye to for its accuracy about … Read more

Bill Lawrence has been around long enough to hear the comedy, the multicam sitcom — everything, really — declared dead. And for just as long, he’s kept his head down, making shows like “Spin City,” “Scrubs” and “Cougar Town.” Over three decades and various Hollywood business models, he’s experienced good times and bad. But these … Read more