ORINDA, Calif. — 

East Bay firefighters were battling new brush fires Sunday afternoon near the Highway 24-Interstate 680 interchange in the cities of Lafayette and Martinez.

The Lafayette fire in Contra Costa County, named the Pleasant fire, appeared to be burning on both sides of Highway 24 and was prompting some evacuations between Interstate 680 and Acalanes High School to the northwest and the private Meher Schools to the southwest. The seven-acre fire has already burned three structures, destroying a Lafayette Tennis Club building and damaging an outhouse and home. Forward progress of the fire was later stopped, and the blaze was 40% contained.

The second fire was in the southern part of Martinez, the county seat of Contra Costa County. Contra Costa County Fire Protection District firefighters were responding to a fast-moving two-acre fire at Forest Way and Alhambra Avenue, close to Martinez Animal Hospital. The Martinez fire evacuation area is “for areas between Alhambra Avenue and Morello Avenue and between Vine Hill Way and Sunnybrae Drive in Martinez.”

A Los Angeles Times reporter driving past the fires saw a hill on the west side of Highway 24 in flames, close to the freeway, and billowing a massive plume of smoke. The wind in Moraga, Orinda and Lafayette — cities just northeast of Oakland and Berkeley, on the other side of the East Bay hills — was howling.

An Orinda firefighter knocked on doors in the city’s Glorietta neighborhood about 2:30 p.m. telling residents to prepare to evacuate because of the fire in Lafayette. “Houses can be replaced,” he said. “People can’t.” He urged people to pass on the information to others in town.

A large redwood tree in that same Orinda neighborhood crashed into a neighbor’s yard because of the whipping winds. No one was hurt.

Downed branches littered city streets and Highway 24. Swirling funnels of leaves showered the streets. Popular walking trails in these towns were closed because of fire danger.

In Orinda, which has been without power since about 10 p.m. Saturday, city officials arranged for food trucks to come. People lined up in front of them in the early afternoon.

Video from KNTV-TV showed that the fire started where a power line fell, leaving wires on the ground. A KNTV-TV reporter quoted a person attending the Lafayette Tennis Club Junior Open tournament in the area of Camino Court in eastern Lafayette saying that the wind shifted, a power line went down and, moments later, an explosion occurred, sparking a fire.

A Lafayette police officer told the San Francisco Chronicle that Pacific Gas & Electric Co. had not turned off power to that part of town.

The Pleasant fire evacuation area was initially on both sides of Highway 24 — east of Pleasant Hill Road, stretching east all the way to Interstate 680 north of Highway 24 and El Curtola Boulevard south of the freeway. Officials later lifted the evacuation area south of Highway 24.

At an Orinda charging station that was offering residents coffee, water and outlets to charge their devices, Ryan Yeager, 39, who works in finance, was charging medical equipment for his daughter, Violet, who uses a wheelchair. He said she suffers from an disorder that requires a breathing device and a tube for nutrition.

He had ordered a $2,600 battery that was supposed to provide a few days of power, but it had not yet arrived. “I don’t mind this as long as we are not having to evacuate,” he said. Later in the afternoon, the town smelled strongly of smoke as the fire in Lafayette, which borders Orinda, burned.

It marked the one of several significant fires in the East Bay on Sunday as the region was hit by heavy winds.

Firefighters were gaining the upper hand on a fast-moving fire that erupted near the Carquinez Bridge, which connects Contra Costa County to Vallejo in Northern California, and quickly spread into Crockett south of the Carquinez Strait, which connects California’s two largest rivers to San Francisco Bay.

Earlier Sunday in eastern Contra Costa County, fire officials got the upper hand on three fires in rural neighborhoods that prompted evacuations — two in Oakley along the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and one in a small, rural neighborhood of Clayton in the mountainous area east of Mt. Diablo.

“Miraculously, over the string of fires” over a six-hour period early Sunday, “only one structure was damaged,” said Steve Hill, spokesman for the Contra Costa County Fire Protection District. That structure was a gas station on Bethel Island in the delta. All evacuations have been lifted for those three eastern Contra Costa County fires.

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Wind gusts recorded Sunday at remote automated weather stations in the North Bay area are similar to gusts measured at those same stations on Oct. 9, 2017, according to Jan Null of Golden Gate Weather Services.

A series of fires fueled by Diablo winds caused billions of dollars of damage in October 2017, surpassing the 1991 Oakland Hills fire, which had been the costliest single fire on record up to that time.

“Forecasters did a pretty good job of predicting the magnitude of the winds,” said Null, a meteorologist for four decades in the San Francisco Bay Area, referring to the current windstorm in Northern California.

Forecasters weren’t exaggerating when they predicted historic winds. The National Weather Service clocked a gust of 96 mph Sunday in the mountains northeast of Healdsburg.

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Here is a list of museum shows opening in L.A. for Oct. 27-Nov. 3:

Openings

Floating Timeline: Quique Rivera Multimedia exhibition explores the creations of the stop-motion animation artist. Museum of Latin American Art, 628 Alamitos Ave., Long Beach. Starts Sun.; ends March 8. Closed Mon.-Tue. $7, $10; under 12, free. (562) 437-1689. molaa.org

Museum Auto One-day event features classic cars, a photography exhibition, multimedia art installations and more. Friendship Auditorium, 3201 Riverside Drive, L.A. Sun., 7 a.m.-5 p.m. $20. eventbrite.com

With Pleasure: Pattern and Decoration in American Art 1972–1985 Survey includes painting, sculpture, collage, ceramics, textiles, etc. by 45 artists. Museum of Contemporary Art, 250 S. Grand Ave., downtown L.A. Opens Sun.; ends May 11. Closed Tue. $8-$15 (includes same-day admission to the Geffen Contemporary; jurors and under 12, free; Thursdays after 5 p.m., free. (213) 626-6222. moca.org

Peasants in Pastel: Millet and the Pastel Revival A selection of pastels by Jean-Francois Millet and his followers depict rural life in the 19th century. The Getty Center, N. Sepulveda Blvd. & Getty Center Drive, L.A. Starts Tue.; ends May 10. Closed Mon. Free. (310) 440-7300. getty.edu

Japan 47 Artisans Japanese craft traditions as reimagined by contemporary designers. Japan House Los Angeles, Hollywood & Highland, 6801 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood. Starts Wed.; ends Jan. 5. Free. (800) 516-0565. japanhouse.jp

Things to do

Loitering is delightful Works by 10 local artists explore the concept of slowing down. Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, Barnsdall Art Park, 4800 Hollywood Blvd., L.A. Starts Thu.; ends Jan. 12. Closed Sun.-Wed. Free. lamag.org

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Julie Mehretu Mid-career survey of the Ethiopian-born artist features abstract paintings and works on paper. Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 5905 Wilshire Blvd., L.A. Starts next Sun.; ends May 17. Closed Wed. $10-$25; 17 and under, free. (323) 857-6010. lacma.org

“Joker” regained the top spot at the box office as “Black and Blue,” “Countdown” and “The Current War” all earn less than $10 million.

In a rare feat, Warner Bros.’ “Joker” reclaimed the top spot at the box office this weekend, adding $18.9 million (a mere 35% drop) in its fourth weekend for a cumulative $277.6 million, according to estimates from measurement firm Comscore.

The film is the first to win non-consecutive weekends since “Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle” in January 2018. “Joker” is now the highest grossing R-rated movie all-time worldwide with $849.1 million, surpassing previous record-holder “Deadpool 2.”

In second place, Disney’s “Maleficent: Mistress of Evil” added $18.5 million in its second weekend for a cumulative $65.4 million. Globally the film stands at $293.5 million.

At No. 3, United Artists Releasing and MGM’s “The Addams Family” added $11.7 million in its third weekend for a cumulative $72.8 million. The film has earned $83.8 million internationally.

In fourth place, Sony’s “Zombieland 2: Double Tap” added $11.6 million in its second weekend for a cumulative $47 million.

Rounding out the top five, STX Entertainment’s “Countdown” opened with $9 million.

The $6.5-million horror movie stars Elizabeth Lail (“You”) as a nurse who downloads an app that predicts exactly when a person is going to die. It was poorly received with a C+ CinemaScore and a 27% “rotten” rating on review aggregation site Rotten Tomatoes.

Sony’s “Black and Blue” debuted at number 6 with $8.3 million.

Starring Naomie Harris (“Moonlight”) as a rookie cop who becomes an inadvertent witness to police corruption, the $12-million film was directed by Deon Taylor (“Traffik”) from a script by Peter A. Dowling. It earned a 46% “rotten” rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

In seventh place, Paramount’s “Gemini Man” added $4 million in its third weekend for a cumulative $43.3 million.

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At number 8, A24’s “The Lighthouse” added 578 locations and $3.1 million in its second weekend (a 621% increase) for a cumulative $3.7 million.

In ninth place, 101 Studios’ “The Current War: Director’s Cut” opened in 1,022 locations with $2.7 million.

The long-delayed historical drama premiered at the 2017 Toronto Film Festival but was shelved and sold after original distributor the Weinstein Co. shuttered. It stars Benedict Cumberbatch as Thomas Edison and Michael Shannon as George Westinghouse and earned a 59% “rotten” rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Rounding out the top 10, Universal’s animated film “Abominable” added $2 million in its fifth weekend for a cumulative $56.8 million.

Outside of the top 10, Sony’s re-release of “Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood” featuring 10 additional minutes of film (before the start of the movie and during the end credits) screened in 1,674 locations earning $550,000 over the weekend bringing the domestic cumulative to $140.4 million.

IMAX released Kanye West’s gospel feature “Jesus Is King” in 372 locations to $850,000.

In limited release, Warner Bros. opened the Bruce Springsteen concert feature “Western Stars” in 537 locations to $560,000 for a cumulative $1 million including prior special event screenings. It earned a 90% “fresh” on Rotten Tomatoes.

Fox Searchlight expanded Taika Waititi’s “Jojo Rabbit” into 55 locations in its second weekend (up from five last weekend) earning $1 million for $18,927 per screen and a cumulative $1.5 million.

Neon’s “Parasite” added $1.8 million in its third weekend for a per-screen average of $14,107 and a cumulative $4.1 million.

Sony Pictures Classics opened “Frankie” in four locations to $22,941 for a per-screen average of $5,510. The studio expanded Pedro Almodóvar’s “Pain and Glory” into 117 locations (up from 67) in its fourth weekend to $430,097 for a per-screen average of $6,918 and a cumulative $1.7 million.

Atlas Distribution’s free speech docudrama “No Safe Spaces,” featuring Adam Carolla and Dennis Prager, notched the weekend’s highest per-screen average of $45,236 at a single theater in Phoenix. The film will expand in coming weeks.

This week, Focus Features opens the biopic “Harriet,” Paramount reveals “Terminator: Dark Fate,” Warner Bros. debuts the crime drama “Motherless Brooklyn” and Entertainment Studios Motion Pictures premieres the animated film “Arctic Dogs.”

Oct. 30

Gay Chorus Deep South
Documentary follows the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus on a tour of the American South. Directed by David Charles Rodrigues. (1:40) NR.

Nov. 1

Adopt a Highway
A recently paroled felon discovers an abandoned baby in a dumpster behind the fast-food restaurant where he works. With Ethan Hawke, Elaine Hendrix, Diane Gaeta. Written and directed by Logan Marshall-Green. (1:18) NR.

The Apollo
Documentary about the storied music venue in Harlem. With Jamie Foxx, Patti LaBelle, Smokey Robinson. Directed by Roger Ross Williams. (1:38) NR.

Arctic Dogs
An Arctic fox who dreams of becoming a canine courier uncovers a villainous walrus’ dastardly plot in this animated tale. With the voices of Jeremy Renner, Heidi Klum, James Franco, Alec Baldwin, John Cleese, Anjelica Huston. Written by Bob Barlen, Cal Brunker, Matthew Lyon, Bryan Thompson, Aaron Woodley. Directed by Woodley. (1:33) PG.

Badland
A detective tracks Confederate war criminals around the Old West. With Kevin Makely, Mira Sorvino, Trace Adkins, Bruce Dern, Wes Studi, Tony Todd, Jeff Fahey. Written and directed by Justin Lee. (1:56) NR.

Bloody Marie
A hard-drinking female graphic novelist living in Amsterdam’s red light district descends down dark path. With Susanne Wolff, Dragos Bucur. Written and directed by Lennert Hillege, Guido van Driel. In Dutch, English with English subtitles. (1:27) NR.

Cousins
A young man who lives with his religious aunt in a small village in Brazil develops an attraction to a distant male cousin recently released from jail. With Thiago Cazado, Paulo Sousa. Written by Cazado, Mauro Carvalho. Directed by Cazado. In Portuguese with English subtitles. (1:23) NR.

Crepitus
A teen and her younger sister move into their late grandfather’s house where they are menaced by a fiendish clown. With Bill Moseley, Caitlin Williams, Chalet Lizette Brannan. Written by Eddie Renner, Sarah Renner, Haynze Whitmore. Directed by Whitmore. (1:24) R.

Cubby
An eccentric 20-something from the Midwest moves to New York City where he befriends a lonely 6-year-old and meets an imaginary superhero named Leather-Man. With Mark Blane, Patricia Richardson, Zachary Booth. Written by Blane, Ben Mankoff. Directed by Blane. (1:23) NR.

Earthquake Bird
A love triangle between two westerners and a Japanese photographer in 1980s Tokyo pivots on a series of secrets. With Alicia Vikander, Riley Keough, Naoki Kobayashi, Jack Huston. Written and directed by Wash Westmoreland; based on the novel by Susanna Jones. (1:47) R.

Eminence Hill
An outlaw gang being pursued by lawmen in 1880s Arizona in lands in a small town run by a religious sect. With Barry Corbin, Dominique Swain, Lance Henriksen, Clint James. Written by Robert Conway, Owen Conway. Directed by Robert Conway. (1:40) NR.

The Etruscan Smile
An elderly Scotsman travels to San Francisco for medical treatment where he reconnects with his estranged son and gets to know his baby grandson. With Brian Cox, Rosanna Arquette, JJ Feild, Thora Birch, Peter Coyote, Treat Williams. Written by Michael McGowan, Michal Lali Kagan, Sarah Bellwood; additional material by Shuki Ben-Naim, Amital Stern; based on the novel by Jose Luis Sampedro. Directed by Oded Binnun, Mihal Brezis. (1:47) R.

Harriet
Cynthia Erivo portrays Harriet Tubman, the 19th century African American woman who escaped from slavery and then led hundreds of others to freedom. With Leslie Odom Jr., Janelle Monáe, Joe Alwyn, Jennifer Nettles, Clarke Peters. Written by Gregory Allen Howard, Kasi Lemmons; story by Howard. Directed by Lemmons. (2:05) PG-13.

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Inside Game
Fact-based drama about an NBA referee who joined two friends in a scheme to make large sums of cash by betting on the games he was officiating. With Eric Mabius, Scott Wolf, Will Sasso. Written by Andy Callahan. Directed by Randall Batinkoff. (1:37) R.

The Irishman
Robert De Niro, Al Pacino and Joe Pesci head the cast of director Martin Scorsese’s epic organized-crime tale about hit man Frank Sheeran and union leader Jimmy Hoffa. With Harvey Keitel, Ray Romano, Bobby Cannavale, Anna Paquin, Stephen Graham, Jack Huston, Jesse Plemons, Marin Ireland. Written by Steven Zaillian; based on a novel by Charles Brandt. (3:29) R.

Motherless Brooklyn
Writer-director Edward Norton stars as a lonely private eye with Tourette’s Syndrome tracking his mentor’s killer in 1950s New York. With Bruce Willis, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Bobby Cannavale, Cherry Jones, Michael Kenneth Williams, Leslie Mann, Ethan Suplee, Dallas Roberts, Fisher Stevens, Alec Baldwin, Willem Dafoe. Based on a novel by Jonathan Lethem. (2:24) R.

Mrs. Lowry & Son
Bio-drama about British artist L.S. Lowry and his relationship with his overbearing mother. With Vanessa Redgrave, Timothy Spall. Written by Martyn Hesford. Directed by Adrian Noble. (1:31) NR.

The Portal
Documentary about mindfulness meditation and its potential to transform humanity. Directed by Jacqui Fifer. (1:28) NR.

Queen of Hearts
A middle-aged woman begins an ill-fated affair with her teenage stepson. With Trine Dyrholm, Gustav Lindh. Written by Maren Louise Käehne, May el-Toukhy. Directed by May el-Toukhy. In Danish, Swedish with English subtitles. (2:07) NR.

Spell
An American illustrator grieving the death of his fiancée has fantastical visions while wandering though Iceland’s isolated landscapes. With Barak Hardley. Written by Hardley; story by Hardley, John Lullo, Brendan Walter. Directed by Walter. (1:27) NR.

Stuffed
Documentary about taxidermy artists. Directed by Erin Derham. (1:24) NR.

Synonyms
A young Israeli arrives in Paris seeking to reinvent himself. With Tom Mercier, Quentin Dolmaire. Written by Nadav Lapid, Haim Lapid. Directed by Nadav Lapid. In French, Hebrew, English with English subtitles. (2:03) NR.

Terminator: Dark Fate
Linda Hamilton and Arnold Schwarzenegger are baack in the latest chapter of the time-bending cyborg franchise. With Mackenzie Davis, Natalia Reyes, Gabriel Luna, Diego Boneta. Screenplay by David S. Goyer, Justin Rhodes, Billy Ray; story by Goyer, Rhodes, James Cameron, Charles H. Eglee, Josh Friedman; based on characters created by Cameron, Gale Anne Hurd. Directed by Tim Miller. (2:08) R.

Unlikely
Documentary about the dropout crisis in higher education in America. With LeBron James, Howard Schultz. Directed by Adam Fenderson, Jaye Fenderson. (1:53) NR.

Stand-up comics come in a few varieties. Some you’d like to hang out with at a bar. Others you’d prefer to keep at a safe distance. A few perhaps you might like to get to know more intimately.

Mike Birbiglia is the one you hope takes you to IKEA. The guy writes hymns to his couch. “It’s a bed that hugs you,” he remarks gratefully. Simple, honest pleasures are reassuring in a dude.

Mild-mannered to the point that even when angry his mode is apologetic, Birbiglia sidles across the stage, a blur of Banana Republic. His solitary presence is curious company at the vast Ahmanson Theatre, where “The New One,” his set of comedy about reluctant fatherhood that went to Broadway and will premiere on Netflix on Nov. 26, opened Friday. Have we caught him puttering around the house on a Saturday afternoon?

Let’s call the experience relaxed. There’s no great pressure to laugh. The show is 85 minutes or so of comedy foreplay. His delivery delays punchlines only to heighten the strangeness of the humorous payoff. A diarist with first-hand experience of existential extremes, he mines the muddle of a life spent making nice as darkness rolls in.

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Much of the material is drawn from familiar comic tropes. Birbiglia’s wife decides she wants to have a baby. Birbiglia objects that a child will wreck their lives. He relents, discovers his sperm are rotten swimmers, has a harrowing medical procedure and eventually becomes a delighted, disquieted dad.

If “The New One” is ever adapted into a movie, Paul Rudd must star.

Beneath the conventional surface, however, lies a Prometheus who can’t shake the memory of being chained to the rock. Birbiglia’s medical file swarms with horrors. A bout of bladder cancer when he was 19 has kept him on high alert for a sucker punch from on high.

When his doctor told him some bad news after a physical, the conjunction “and” fitted between the words “diabetes” and “Lyme disease” made him feel as though he had been told at a parent-teacher conference that his kid was getting straight Ds and had also been molested by the gym teacher. “One at a time!” he protests.

A sleep disorder that’s dangerous not only for him but for also anyone in the vicinity requires that he sleep straitjacketed in a sleeping bag in a locked room, which he’s forced to share with a cat that treats him with no respect. It was the cat’s bathroom before it became his nighttime safe haven, and the cat won’t let him forget it.

In the genial observational humor about marriage that he indulges in here, Birbiglia plays his own straight man. The jokes are usually on him. He doesn’t tell mother-in-law groaners — thank God — but if he did, he’d be the butt of them. His wife, he says, speaks to him in a voice “that has a thread count of 600,” a remark reminiscent of King Lear’s line about Cordelia (“Her voice was ever soft, Gentle, and low, an excellent thing in woman”). Birbiglia’s patriarchal nature is also soft, gentle and low. It’s sometimes more pronounced in what he leaves out of his anecdotes than in what he includes. But to his credit, he’s retrofitted his retro material for a new age.

Still, his act depends on the solidarity of men just like himself — married heterosexual city dwellers who a generation ago would have been pushing lawnmowers on weekends — and the women who lovingly endure them. This can feel like a closed circle in 2019. But his proud masculine bumbling isn’t meant to exclude. Its appeal, however, may be more fully appreciated by a certain kind of mainstream audience that doesn’t necessarily think of itself as mainstream.

The production, directed by Seth Barrish, is mostly bare, keeping the focus squarely on Birbiglia. A scenic coup occurs on Beowulf Boritt’s set, but this is a comedy show, not a play or work of performance art. The amplification that’s required for such a large house is off-putting. At points of heightened emotion, the sound is deafening. It’s a sign that something is out of whack between artist and venue.

Not that you’d hold it against Birbiglia, who’s so agreeable that you’re happy to hear more about his new couch or latest health scare. A surrogate pal while onstage, he’s always admirably himself. And like those friends who stay in our good graces, he knows just when to leave.

Death Valley, which distinguishes itself as the “hottest, driest and lowest national park,” will notch its 25th year of park status with more than a week of free programs to teach visitors about the remarkable night sky, how reptiles and flowers adapt to the harsh desert, the geology of the landscape and more. The celebration ends Nov. 2 with free park entry, a 5K fun run/walk and free cupcakes.

Death Valley is a land of extremes. It was named a national monument in 1933, then elevated to national park status with passage of the California Desert Protection Act of 1994, which also made Joshua Tree a national park. Last year, 1,678,660 people visited, most of them in the super-hot month of August. Death Valley has held the hottest air temperature ever recorded on the planet — 134 degrees Fahrenheit on July 10, 1913 — and contains the lowest land point in North America, Badwater Basin at 279 feet below sea level.

Want to learn more? Visitors who go starting this weekend can:

• stargaze with the pros on Saturday and Monday evenings
• catch a sunrise hike at Zabriskie Point at 7 a.m. Sunday
• learn about the park’s ecological history at 5 p.m. Sunday
• discover the forces that shaped the geology of the park at 5 p.m. Tuesday
• learn about how desert tortoises thrive in the park at 5 p.m. Thursday
• listen to the area’s mining history 1 p.m. Nov. 1
• learn how desert plants adapt to such a harsh environment at 5 p.m. Nov. 1

While most of the park’s landmarks will be open to tourists, flood-damaged Scotty’s Castle, the unfinished vacation home of businessman Albert Johnson, will remain closed until 2021. Repairs are ongoing.

Find a complete list of 25th anniversary celebrations here.

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I wish I could tell you it’s absolutely fine to take CBD with you on planes or as you travel to another state, but I can’t. It doesn’t matter whether it’s for you or, as one reader asked, for your pooch. It’s still dogged by a confusing spiderweb of regulations, misinformation and misunderstandings. That’s the bad news. The good news: If you are a bit of a gambler, you’ll probably be fine taking your tincture with you. Your call.

CBD, or cannabidiol, is the darling of aches-and-pains relief. Forbes deemed its growth “explosive,” noting it is expected to become a $5 billion industry this year. It is said to reduce inflammation and help with anxiety, among its other properties.

There is confusion about what CBD really is. “While CBD is an essential component of medical marijuana, it is derived directly from the hemp plant, which is a cousin of the marijuana plant,” Dr. Peter Grinspoon writes in Harvard Health Publishing of Harvard Medical School. “While CBD is a component of marijuana (one of hundreds), by itself it does not cause a ‘high.’”

The confusion about it also stems in part from a Transportation Security Administration change in policy in May. Previously, it said that CBD was not allowed. The new rule says it is allowed if it contains less that 0.3% THC, the substance in cannabis that provides the high. For more information, it refers fliers to the farm bill of 2018, which was signed into law that December.

Like most legislation, the farm bill is “inside baseball” for many of us. I don’t think many fliers will take the time to understand it, but it is one way to while away long hours at an airport.

When the change was made public, the question arose about how TSA officers would know your product contains less than 0.3% THC. Of course, they could read the label, but imagine the lines that would form while they’re squinting at the contents, assuming it is marked that way. And therein lies some of the problem.

The rest of the problem stems from the variety of laws about hemp and cannabis. They are not consistent from state to state. Just because hemp and cannabis are legal in California doesn’t mean they are legal in other states or countries.

As you evaluate whether you should take CBD with you, consider that:

It is allowed under the change in rules if it meets the qualifications. The TSA is looking for explosives, weapons and other instruments of destruction. It is not looking for personal care products.

Unclear labeling may create an issue. You could run afoul of someone who doesn’t know the law. The possible solution to that, said Minchul An, a doctor of pharmacy who runs buzzn, which sells CBD products: a certificate of analysis, which explains what is contained in your product. Not every CBD product has it, so you may need to request it.

Not every place welcomes CBD, due to a patchwork of rules and regulations across the United States.

“Unfortunately, there are still some nuances on whether it’s advisable to fly with CBD, varying most widely state by state,” said Travis Rexroad, director of public relations for Weedmaps, which chronicles the changing state, federal and international laws on CBD and cannabis. “Reason being … that, although there has been movement at the federal level to legalize hemp-derived CBD, certain states hold stricter laws that could mean consequences for those traveling with CBD,” he wrote in an email.

Case in point: A 69-year-old woman was arrested in April at Disney World in Florida for carrying CBD oil in her purse, which was searched. She was detained for 15 hours, according to NBC Miami, for having something her doctor had recommended she use for arthritis. Instead of a new pair of mouse ears, she ended up with an arrest record, a gift that keeps on giving. The charges have since been dropped, ClickOrlando.com reported.

CBD “is unlike most consumer products,” said William Garvin, co-head of the cannabis group at Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney, a law firm whose website notes that it is “supporting the cannabis industry as it expands nationwide.”

“It’s OK to drink a Diet Coke in Missouri and drive to Montana with it,” he said. That’s not always the case with CBD, due to conflicting laws.

The answer to this conundrum is that there is no clear-cut answer. Neither Garvin nor An would travel with it because of the risk, however slight. Your product could be confiscated — and some of this stuff is expensive. Or you could be held and miss your flight. Or you could be, like the theme-park-goer in Florida, spending part of your holiday at places that are not the happiest on Earth.

As Garvin pointed out, CBD is widely available domestically. You could leave it at home and buy at your destination.

But, as always, the decision is up to you. It depends on your tolerance for risk and for pain and anxiety, stemming from the absence of your CBD product and the presence of laws that make life more complex than we could ever have imagined.

Have a travel question, problem or dilemma ? Write to [email protected]. We regret we cannot answer every inquiry.

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I travel extensively and have rafted down the Grand Canyon six glorious times.

I just read Edmund Vallance’s “100 Things That Make It Grand” [Oct. 20] and realized he left out one major item, Ferde Grofé’s “Grand Canyon Suite,” composed after Grofé made a journey there.

I had a life-changing moment on one Grand Canyon river trip when our guide chained our boats together in a quiet part of the river and played “Grand Canyon Suite” for the next hour. The canyon came alive with Grofé’s music, which sounded like the canyon from the thunderstorms to the mules.

If you have never listened to it, I implore you to do so. It’s amazing. If the Travel section ever repeats this top 100 list, you might want to include it.

But thank you for the wonderful list … just short one item.

Rob Newman
Beverly Hills

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Amtrak’s a deal

I enjoyed the Sept. 8 article about Amtrak’s Southwest Chief line [“Chief’s at a Crossroad,” by Karl Zimmermann].

As a Briton who has frequently visited the U.S., I have often used Amtrak sleeper services. My regular trips are on the Coast Starlight and California Zephyr.

It strikes me every time I use Amtrak that it is a fundamental service that helps your country retain its flavor, for visitors or natives. It is the ultimate Americana, and it would be a tragedy to allow it to slip further into the background.

Please keep publishing such articles and keep the service on everyone’s mind.

It is worth noting that our rail travel in the U.K. is, per mile, about 10 times more expensive than Amtrak service with a roomette and meals included. We get very sparse, poor quality seating, and no food included for our rail travel.

No matter who Amtrak sees as its core customer, it has a large number of foreign visitors who enjoy the service. I have no doubt that many of those, including myself, would gladly pay higher prices for this slice of iconic travel history.

I certainly plan to do just that in my rapidly approaching retirement years.

Alan Poole
Chester, England

The path to better photography is the same as a musician’s route to Carnegie Hall: practice, practice, practice.

But these tips, hacks, ideas and tactics will get you there faster. I’ve collected them from photo staffers at the Los Angeles Times and several teachers over the years.

Yet there are always exceptions. The better you understand the rules, the better you’ll know when to break them.

Get closer, physically. The more you fill your frame with your main subject, the better your chances of making a powerful image. Robert Capa, the great World War II photographer, was famous for this advice.

Get closer, optically. A telephoto or zoom lens can shrink distances and compress compositions, so you can give viewers a tighter arrangement. (But on your smartphone, the quality/resolution of the image will suffer the more you zoom.)

Get closer for Instagram’s sake. If you’re shooting with a smartphone and sharing on social media, most people will see your pictures on tiny screens. That means you need bold, simple compositions. Colorful details work better than broad, subtle landscapes.

Don’t be shy. Or rude. When you can, ask permission before you take a stranger’s picture. You might say: “Excuse me. This setting is gorgeous, and a picture will look even better with a person in it. Would you mind if I include you and your husband/wife/child/pet in part of the frame? I think it’ll look great and I can show you the result. Or share it.”

Look for diagonal compositions. With any camera, beginning photographers are often tempted to compose images whose dominant lines run straight up and down or are as flat as the horizon. But diagonal lines can give pictures depth and lure viewers.

Read the manual. Or at least the good parts. You can’t get the best out of your gear until you understand what it can do.

Match your depth of field to your subject. With a digital single-lens reflex camera (DSLR), if you’re shooting a portrait, there’s a good chance you’ll want a shallow depth of field that leaves your subject’s face sharp but blurs distractions in the background. If you’re shooting a landscape, you’ll probably want maximum depth of field so that everything is sharp. For that result, use a higher aperture (F-stop), which means you’ll be using a slower shutter speed, a higher ISO or both. (You can’t control all these variables on a smartphone but you can use an after-the-snap digital filter to give the effect of selective focus.)

Be patient. An unpopulated great photo location is like a stage set. If you wait a bit, someone will walk or stand or sit in just the right place, and you’ll have a livelier image.

Auto mode will take you only so far. Automatic settings are getting smarter, and all cameras are getting better in low light. But if you’re shooting a small, bright subject against a dark background (or something dark against a bright background), you may get a better result by shooting in manual mode, checking results and rejiggering accordingly. On most smartphones, you can tweak exposure by touching the screen and moving your finger up (lighter) or down (darker).

Follow the Rule of Thirds. Instead of placing your subject dead center, imagine your frame lined into thirds, horizontally and vertically, so that your image area is sectioned into nine rectangles. Now look at the points where four rectangles come together. Those are sweet spots for placing your subject — not too near the middle, not too far off-center.

Simplify your composition. Do your best to exclude everything that might distract from your subject. In particular, watch the corners of your frame where stray details can sneak in.

Digital filters such as those on Instagram can dress up a humdrum photo. And the Snapseed app offers even more options. But great pictures begin with what you capture in the first place.

Shoot from above. Just about everybody looks better if you shoot their face from slightly above, not from below.

Instagram might like squares, but some images want to be vertical or horizontal. Don’t fight that. Turn your camera or smartphone sideways.

Vary your angle. The vast majority of photos are taken by people standing up straight, holding a camera at eye level and shooting a horizontal image. By varying the height of your camera — whether by crouching, lying down, climbing a ladder or holding the camera high — you give viewers a new way to see an otherwise familiar scene.

The first and last hours of sunlight are the best time to take photos. Get up a little earlier. If you have a tripod, the half-hour right after sunset can bring dramatic possibilities.

If you’re near water — whether it’s a puddle or the Pacific — keep an eye out for reflection opportunities. The closer you get to the surface, the better the results.

Don’t get lazy with the sunset. A successful sunset shot needs other elements, whether it’s dramatic clouds, crashing surf, calm water or a silhouette or two.

Use a tripod. If a full-size tripod is too much hassle, consider a tabletop tripod or a mini-tripod with bendable legs. They’re affordable and fit in a pocket or backpack.

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