6 Wedding Traditions No One Will Miss

A wedding wouldn't be a wedding without a kiss at the end of the ceremony, some food, and some fun. But I'm willing to bet guests wouldn't be too upset if more brides skipped these wedding traditions at nuptials. Separating the Bride's Side From the Groom's at the Wedding Ceremony The bride's family and friends sit on the left, the groom's on the right...unless you're Jewish, and then it's the opposite. And at my and Paul's interfaith wedding ceremony, there was mass confusion (OK, not really, but there were some perplexed guests). Ushers would've helped, but you know what would've been even better: if we had a big sign that said, "Sit where you like!" In fact, I wish every bride and groom allowed guests to sit wherever they like (save...

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1940s Starlet's Death is a Mystery

It was one of those cases that seemed straight out of pulp fiction, a noir mystery written by one of those hard-boiled scribes who liked to surround damsels in distress with mobsters and movie stars.  Yet it was real life. And it defied solution. Jean Elizabeth Spangler, a television actress, went missing in 1949. Not because there were no clues. Perhaps because there were too many--all pointing in different directions. The damsel was aspiring actress Jean Spangler, 26, whose mysterious 1949 disappearance is still considered an "open case" by LAPD's cold case unit. "It's absolutely a classic noir mystery," said Denise Hamilton, a  former LA Times reporter turned novelist. She reveals that her mystery, "The Last Embrace,"...

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New Planet Found

A Super-Earth plus Triple Stars Equal Life An artist depiction of the planet GJ667Cc and the three stars it orbits The search for exoplanets, or worlds orbiting other stars, is evolving so fast that discoveries that seemed exotic just a few months ago have become commonplace. Multiple-planet solar systems? Astronomers expected to find just a handful; now we know of more than 200. Planets orbiting double or even triple stars? It was big news when just one was announced back in September; we've already got several more examples in hand. In short, the unexpected is something planet hunters have learned to expect — and in most cases, these surprises have tended to expand the possibilities for finding worlds where life might thrive. It's...

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