For the record column published Jan. 27

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Times sportswriter Lisa Dillman, who has been covering the most talked-about basketball player in Los Angeles this season, will be chatting with readers at 1 p.m. Friday.

Dillman, the Clippers beat writer, will answer questions about Blake Griffin, the latest trade rumors (Carmelo Anthony?) and the team's prospects.

The chat will take place in the box below...

For the record column published Jan. 26

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Reader Carol Simeos noticed something unusual in the obituary of former Angels pitcher Ryne Duren. 

Duren, who played for the Angels in 1961 and 1962, was described as "the first Angels pitcher to strike out four batters in an inning."

Simeos acknowledged that she wasn't a baseball expert, but she wondered, "How did he strike out four batters in one inning? My understanding of baseball is that when one team gets three men out in one inning, the other side comes up to bat."

That's certainly how the song goes.

Baseball Almanac explains:

A batter with two strikes on him takes a swing at strike three; however, the catcher does not field the ball cleanly, and instead of tagging the runner out, the runner reaches [first base]. The strikeout is recorded, but not the out.

The page lists the pitchers who have accomplished this feat. It's happened about 50 times since 1888. 

(A longer obituary for Duren was posted on Afterword, the news obituary staff's blog.)

--Deirdre Edgar

Photo: Ryne Duren in 1958, when he was with the New York Yankees. Credit: Associated Press

For the record column published Jan. 25 

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For the record column published Jan. 22 and Jan. 23

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For the record column published Jan. 21

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Lakers beat writer Mike Bresnahan, who called Wednesday's loss at Dallas an "awful, awful game for the Lakers," will be chatting with readers at 11 a.m. Friday.

What was the problem in the Mavericks game? According to Bresnahan, "Bad defense by the Lakers. Make that atrocious defense." And in Bresnahan's story Thursday, Andrew Bynum and Kobe Bryant agreed.

Stop by to share your theories and to get Bresnahan's predictions for Friday night's game at Denver.

If you were asked to name "probably the most famous physicist ever," whom would you choose?

Sir Isaac Newton? His theories of gravity and motion were groundbreaking.

Albert Einstein? His Theory of General Relativity changed our fundamental understanding of gravity and the universe.

Stephen Hawking? He is known for his work on black holes, his bestselling “A Brief History of Time” and the disease that has robbed him of movement and speech.

If you read Wednesday's LATExtra section, you may have seen that this description was bestowed upon Hawking, who spoke Tuesday evening at Caltech. It was the photo caption that called Hawking "probably the most famous," while the article used "perhaps the best-known."

Either way, readers took issue.

"Hawking, the most 'famous' or 'best known' physicist ever. Come on. You don't have to be an Einstein or a Newton to know that ain't so," Stan Hunter wrote in an e-mail to reporters Eryn Brown and Thomas Maugh.

On Twitter, Ted Rogers wrote, "@latimes calls Stephen Hawking 'perhaps the best-known physicist ever.' Einstein who?"

And John Nichols e-mailed, "The statement 'probably the most famous physicist ever' is ridiculously asinine. Newton will spin in his grave."

 "How embarrassing," Health and Science Editor Rosie Mestel said in an e-mail. "We carelessly wrote in the article 'Hawking is perhaps the best-known physicist ever' when we meant to say 'perhaps the best-known physicist ALIVE.' (We were moving fast.) When the caption for the photo was written, much like in a game of telephone, our misstatement was ramped up to 'probably the most famous.' We certainly meant no disrespect to Einstein and Newton, of whom we have indeed heard."

Assistant Managing Editor Henry Fuhrmann, who oversees the copy editors who write the headlines and captions and perform the final editing, likewise expressed regret:

"This was a good example of how superlatives such as 'best-known' or 'most famous' should always be questioned, even when we qualify them with 'perhaps' or 'probably.' But like the reporters filing from Pasadena, our folks were working fast on a tight deadline and didn’t detect the problem. Once they had a chance to think things through, they realized that an adjustment was in order."

In fact, after the page was first sent to press, a copy editor changed the text to say that Hawking was "one of the best-known" physicists ever and also corrected the caption. That "replated" version of the story made it into 32% of the papers printed and is the one posted online.

-- Deirdre Edgar

Photos (from top): Sir Isaac Newton. Credit: Library of Congress; Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking. Credit: Getty Images

For the record column published Jan. 20

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For the record column published Jan. 19

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Times editors Jimmy Orr and Tony Pierce are losing weight (or at least, trying to), and are writing about it daily on Booster Shots. As Jimmy pointed out on Tuesday, they've had a lot of support so far:

   LisaFlorida writes to Tony:  "Your diet is crap.  You should see a dietician."
    "Oatmeal is not a diet food," AmyAlkon writes me.  (By the way I was reading this while eating my morning oatmeal.)
    Tony and I appreciate the comments.

On Thursday, they'll be chatting with readers at 1 p.m. Stop by and share your own diet and fitness tips.

Photo: Tony Pierce makes a salad in the Times' cafeteria at lunchtime Wednesday. He was torn about what beverage to choose, after being criticized for drinking diet soda. But after being told that Weight Watchers allows diet drinks, he grabbed a Diet Dr. Pepper. Credit: Los Angeles Times