Dominican Republic

IRVINE ? A laugher. That?s the way the U.S. men?s volleyball national team win against Guatemala could have been described in the Americans? opener of the four-team qualifying tournament for the 2010 World Championships. At times Jayson Jablonsky nearly had to keep himself from laughing, as Team USA annihilated Guatemala, 25-8, 25-10, 25-6, in front of about 800 at UC Irvine?s Bren Event Center Saturday night. It was only two years ago that Jablonsky smiled plenty at UCI, then leading the Anteaters to their first national championship.

In 2007, Gregg Mottola directed the funny but very crass teen-comedy hit “Superbad.” He now takes this theme to a higher level with another coming-of-age movie that focuses on a slightly older crowd. The excellent but relatively unknown acting ensemble plays a diverse group of recent college grads living around Pittsburgh in the 1980s. They’re old enough to drink and have adult affairs. But they are still living with their parents and looking to take the next step in their lives.

It’s time for the book critics to weigh in. The National Book Critics Circle has decided to present an Internet-accessible list of the books they want to honor and share with others. They called their blog Critical Mass and have included award-winning novelists, historians, poets, critics and biographers in the conversation. Their list covers fiction, nonfiction, biography, autobiography, criticism and poetry. So, which top five fiction titles do these highly regarded people consider the “best,” and who made these decisions?

Kirk Dominic and 18 others entered Haiti from the Dominican Republic, but, he said, words cannot adequately describe the journey there and how it changed him. Dominic, Costa Mesa’s deputy fire chief, said that as he rode in a truck following a United Nations convoy into Haiti, the jungle canopy was so low it would slap you on the head if you poked your head out the window. As they snaked through the humid jungle, they’d see dead bodies on the roadside, and towns lay in ruins when they would reach their destinations.

Andrew Edwards Forget being interviewed. The photographer's mind was busy envisioning the next shot. "I'm going there after this is all over. It could be excellent," Ron Romanosky said as he eyed a feeding frenzy of pelicans and seagulls in the surf near the Wedge in Newport Beach. "This is an opportunity you don't usually get." The photographer took out his camera and slowly approached the flock of birds, resting on the sand after their meal.

Former UC Irvine All-American Carson Clark had a match-best 18 kills and 19 points to lead the United States men's team to a 29-27, 25-20, 25-11 victory over Argentina in the final of the Pan American Cup on Saturday in Colorado Springs. Clark, a 6-foot-5 opposite who was joined on the Team USA roster by former Anteaters Jordan DuFault, Dan McConnell and Ryan Ammerman, as well as Corona del Mar High and UC Santa Barbara product Dylan Davis, had a kill percentage of 62.1 and a hitting efficiency percentage of .517.

At his practice in Newport Beach, plastic surgeon Mark Anton has been doing nose jobs and tummy tucks for more than 20 years, but on a recent medical relief trip to Haiti, he closed the wounds on newly amputated limbs and performed skin grafts on earthquake victims. Anton just spent two weeks in the remote Haitian village of Hinche, three hours outside of Port-au-Prince, with a team of doctors and nurses from the nonprofit group Operation Smile. The experience has left Anton with a desire to do more humanitarian work.

Let’s show a little respect, shall we? Chris Columbus gets a bad rap these days. As you may know, Monday is Columbus Day, which is barely a blip on the screen around here. Where I come from, in the Largest Apple of Them All, Columbus Day is a major league big deal thing, with a parade in Manhattan second only to St. Patrick’s Day, which is the mother of all parades. Out here, Columbus Day just means that some government offices are closed, the kids are home from school, which can be good or bad, depending on the kids and whatever else is going on. Probably the best thing about Columbus Day out here is that Monday’s traffic will be lighter than usual, which is nothing to sneeze at. But let’s take a closer look at Christopher C. so we can at least have some idea of who he was, what he did and why he wore silly clothes.

B.W. COOK In an age of sweatshirts and flip flops, some 200 men turned out Friday evening for Henry Schielein's 10th annual smoker and lobster clambake on the beach at the Balboa Bay Club and Resort wearing white slacks and nautical blue blazers. The procession of well-dressed gentlemen was a flashback to an earlier time, when good manners and good grooming were expected in society. Dress standards set the tone of the event, and people behaved or at least attempted to behave in accordance with established standards.

A pirate's life we lead. Johnny Depp (Capt. Jack Sparrow) and Yul Brynner (Jean Lafitte) notwithstanding, pirates — and the lives they led — were not glamorous. Though there were enormous rewards granted to successful pirates, the human costs of raiding ships and the grotesque punishments meted out if caught are not really the stuff of Hollywood movies. Piracy itself goes back in time as far as men traded by sea. Piracy also had its periods when it flourished more than others, most notably when nations were at war and the various navies were otherwise engaged.