DAY after day in January, the rain poured down on the California coast without pause or pity -- some of the worst storms to hit the state in a decade. High winds took out power lines and overturned SUVs. Garbage washed up on beaches. Hundreds of people were evacuated from their mudslide-threatened homes. And on one particular Tuesday afternoon, in the Mission District of San Francisco, the heavens focused their fury on a visiting father from Brooklyn -- i.e., me -- who, so self-absorbed he was blind to the calamities around him, had decided to walk home from the supermarket with his 13-month-old daughter, Sasha, in her stroller. (Today)

KALAMAZOO, Mich. - Nighttime and 10 degrees....) (Today)

THE rectangular white box beckoned from the exhibition room, mysterious and inscrutable. As winter clouds rolled across the Parisian sky, I watched as visitors to the Palais de Tokyo contemporary-art museum paused before the work -- "Untitled (A Curse)," by the American conceptual artist Tom Friedman -- and puzzled over its significance. Were we staring at something groundbreaking or derivative? Would this provocative creation be remembered as genius or bunk? (Today)

FOR many, Goa is synonymous with hippies, hedonism and all-night dance parties held under a full moon. But India's popular seaside destination offers more than deadheads and clichés. For one thing, Goa is not a single beach, but a rich and varied state -- one that offers 63 miles of coastline along the Arabian Sea. Beyond the beaches lies a lush landscape that conceals ancient temples, rich ecosystems and the hilly farmlands that proved irresistible to European spice traders. Centuries before the hippies, there were the Portuguese -- and it's their lingering influence, not the lax laws, that makes Goa such an alluring place. (Today)

EVERYBODY out, the military officer ordered us, as we pulled off the bumpy road linking the Tamil-dominated eastern province to Sri Lanka's hill country. My driver motioned to the back seat, where a police officer we picked up a few miles back was sitting. His presence lent an air of authority, and we were promptly waved through. But the busload of European shutterbugs in front of us -- unloading their suitcases and filing out in a single column -- was not so lucky. (Today)