From the Blogs

THE HOMEROOM

A real free lunch for summer

There really is such a thing as a free lunch, at least free to schoolchildren. And state officials want to make sure that more children take advantage of it during the summer months.

Any child who qualifies for a subsidized meal at school during the school year can also get one during the summer. But only 30% of the 3 million eligible California students take advantage of the federally funded program. Participation could hardly be easier: Children who show up, get food.

But many families don’t know of the state-managed program, which distributes the food at more than 3,200 sites through an array of providers. The number of providers has grown by more than 10% in part because the paperwork has been simplified, state officials said.

To help families find locations, the California Department of Education has created an interactive map of counties at www.cde.ca.gov/ds/sh/sn/summersites08.asp.

At this point, the interactive map is cumbersome because it provides only an alphabetical list of food sites by county. It doesn’t, for example, allow users to search by ZIP code.

State education officials also have produced information materials about the free food in many languages. But they must be accessed through the department’s English website. So these materials are more for schools to use to get the word out. And in most places, school is out for the summer.

-- Howard Blume

The Homeroom: Southern California schools from the inside out

For more, go to latimes.com/thehomeroom

--

L.A. LAND

State home price drop to continue

Bank of America Chief Executive Officer Ken Lewis says the bank expects a further 20% decline in California home prices. From The Times: “Lewis said Bank of America’s latest forecast called for a further 15% decline in home prices nationwide, with the decline going into at least the first quarter of next year. In the case of California, Florida and other markets that had the biggest booms, a further 20% decline is more realistic, he said.”

For those of you wondering, here’s what another 20% decline would look like if applied to median sales prices as tracked by DataQuick:

In Los Angeles, the median would decline from $422,000 in May 2008 to $337,600. That would represent at decline of 38.7% from peak Los Angeles median pricing of $550,000.

In California, the median would decline from $339,000 in May 2008 to $271,200. That would represent at total decline of 44% from peak California pricing of $484,000.

-- Peter Viles

L.A. Land: Peter Viles on the rapidly changing landscape of the California real estate market

For more, go to latimes.com/laland

--

ENTERTAINMENT

‘Hancock’s’ pavement abuse

According to Ken Hahn, digital effects supervisor for Will Smith’s superhero movie “Hancock,” director Peter Berg wanted the character’s takeoffs and landings to be huge -- not just a wisp of air, but giant explosions of dust and debris. “There wasn’t any place where [he] said, ‘This is too much, you should rein it back.’ ” Luckily for the pavement of Los Angeles, most of these effects were done on the computer.

But for Hancock’s rough landing on Hollywood Boulevard, a few physical elements were incorporated. The art department built a kind of artificial riser to elevate the street slightly so that they could then dig out a Smith-sized divot and decorate it with chunks of concrete. Not all the physical effects worked out, however. “Special effects had rigged glass to break out of some of those cars and do denting,” says Hahn. “The problem was the timing on one of the cars didn’t quite work out. It broke too soon. So we erased it and duplicated the effect digitally.”

-- Patrick Kevin Day

Entertainment News & Buzz: Breaking news, industry scoops, and beyond

For more, go to latimes.com/entertainmentnewsbuzz

--

DAILY DISH

Gordon Ramsay picks new chef

Tuesday was the season finale of “Hell’s Kitchen,” Gordon Ramsay’s Fox reality show. And for the entire hour, as the tension built and the audience squirmed, wondering if the winner would be Christina or Petrozza, wondering if the production values could possibly be worse or the lines cheesier, I was very glad that Andy Cook was not watching. At least I hope he wasn’t.

He probably had real cooking to do. Cook, a 31-year-old Briton with an impressive global resume, is the chef de cuisine at Gordon Ramsay’s Los Angeles restaurant, Gordon Ramsay at the London West Hollywood, a fact that wasn’t mentioned during the show. What was mentioned, repeatedly by Ramsay, was that the winner would be “executive chef at my new restaurant, the London West Hollywood. Your new job! A position worth a quarter of a million dollars!” (I wonder what the real London WeHo chefs, all 50 of them, make? What does Cook make for putting up with this?)

After an excruciatingly long buildup (“At the count of three, open the door to your dream! 1, 2, 3” -- cut to commercial), Christina, a 24-year-old culinary student, opened the door to a waiting crowd, tearful parents, and as much falling confetti and spraying champagne as marked the recent Celtics championship win. “Making this decision has been sheer agony for me,” Ramsay had said. Yeah. Probably not just for him.

-- Amy Scattergood

Daily Dish: The inside scoop on food in Los Angeles

For more, go to latimes.com/dailydish