Whatever Alec Baldwin’s true reason for refusing a flight attendant’s routine request, it has had an undeniable outcome.

Millions more people now know about the online game called Words With Friends.

Read the full story

UPDATE: Many of these offers expire on April 23 (Saturday).

More: SunFest coverage | Check out our SunFest chat replay | Poll: Which performer are you most excited to see? | Event Listing: SunFest Sip & Savor | Facebook and Twitter reactions to the 2011 lineup

Here are some things to know if you want to score a cheaper ticket to SunFest.

Many of the discount ticket deals expire on April 23. After that, prices rise to day-of-show levels.
For example, the early bird one-day pass you can get at Publix Super Markets, online (at sunfest.com) or at the SunFest office for $30 goes up to $34 after April 23. The five-day early bird pass price of $60 goes up to $66. So if you can commit to one or more days at the waterfront music and art party, your best bet is to buy early.

In addition to the early bird prices, ticket deals are available at these retailers:

Publix exclusive ticket offer — Available today until April 23. Buy one pass, and get a companion pass for half price.

Shoppers peruse the aisles inside Bulk Candy Store's tent at the South Florida Fair. (Thomas Cordy / Palm Beach Post)

There are plenty of places to get a sugar fix at the South Florida Fair, but perhaps none that offers the variety and surprising nostalgia of the shop run by a Lake Worth-based candy seller.

Bulk Candy Store is a family business that offers sweets far beyond the bounds of the big three candy makers: Hershey’s, Mars and Nestle.

"I hear the words ‘wow’ and ‘Oh my God, I haven’t seen this for so many years,’ all the time," said company president Brian Shenkman as his family grabbed some fair fare for dinner this week.

Shenkman said he tries to stock 400 varieties of candy at the fair shop, and many of them recall a simpler time: Mary Janes, bullseye caramel creams, Bit-O-Honey, Mint Juleps, Bottlecaps, ice cream cones with marshmallow toppings. And, yes, candy cigarettes.

Back from the 50s: Bonomo’s ("Smack It and Crack It") Turkish Taffy.

Read the full story

Helen, The Biggest Loser, and her trainer, Jillian.

Finale night on The Biggest Loser is all about the numbers. The game-playing is over, and it comes down to the scale.

And Tuesday night, the numbers were on the side of the older players.

Jerry, all of 64, took the at-home prize of $100,000 for his astonishing weight loss. His percentage blew everyone else away. And he was the first contestant knocked off the show!

Both he and his wife Estella looked fit and happy. Although the lifetime of obesity has aged Jerry beyond his 64 years, his experience demonstrates that people can change their lives no matter how old.

For the big prize and title of The Biggest Loser, it was down to Helen, 48, and two youngsters: Tara, who is in her 20s and Mike, the youngest contestant at 18.

Read the full story

The players come home for 30 days. Nice effort by BL producers to show the joys and perils of losing and maintaining weight loss off the ranch.

We find three of the four contestants are basket cases. They are all still in hyped-up game mode.

Mike is torn up with guilt over the fact that he has lost almost half his body weight, and his younger brother Max is still obese. Jillian tries to explain to him that it’s his own sadness atter all the years of his life spent overweight that he really needs to deal with. Max will lose the weight when he’s ready.

It brings to mind a study out last year that found people tend to lose weight when the people around them take off the pounds.

Tara, the star of the show and contestant who wins every challenge and has never been below the yellow line, is home in New York and out of control. No balance, as Jillian says. Tara is working out six hours a day, then beating herself up when she indulges in pita chips. Her bedroom, the place where she used to scarf down pizza and ice cream while watching television, is a chaotic mess. Clothes everywhere.

Read the full story

After months of wearing baggy sweatpants and jackets, Helen, Tara and Mike try on their “goal clothes.” These are garments they brought with them 17 weeks ago that they had hoped they would fit in to before they left The Biggest Loser ranch.

Helen, who had lost 96 pounds to date, was able to fit into size 8 jeans. Who doesn’t dream of that? Tara slips into a little black dress and Mike has a young, fun leather jacket he can now comfortably wear.

Then, it’s off to the hospital where the final five see their old bellies in photographs taken at the beginning of the competition.

The doctor tells them: You were the sickest group we’ve ever had.

Mike, a college student, was pronounced the youngest and the sickest when he arrived. He has lost more than 150 pounds and has his eye on the prize.

“I never realized how big I was,” Mike tells the doc.

Ron, Mike’s father, had tried wiring his teeth together, had flown all over the world seeking the diet that would work, even had gastric bypass and nothing gave him what he needed to lose the weight. He slept with a mask on his face for sleep apnea. Until he went to The Biggest Loser.  Now, he has given up seven of his medicines for high blood pressure and other ailments and his blood tests are normal.

The producers have a symbolic and emotional challenge in store for the final five.

Each one will carry his or her weight over 16 hills dropping the pounds they lost along the way. One hill for every week.

“I remember all the sweat and all the tears,” Helen says as she reflects on the competition and her weight loss.

Tara, again!!, wins the challenge, getting stronger as she drops the weight at each hill. Mike comes in second. He goes to help his father and Felipe joins him.

Then, in a cute turnabout, the contestants get to be train the trainers. They want to make Bob and Jillian yell in pain as they have done!

And now for the Week 17 weigh in. These contestants have been at the ranch longer and faced more opponents than anyone else in the show’s history. And for this weigh-in everyone is pulling Week 1-worthy numbers on the scale.

Tara racks up a total of 125 pounds lost – the most lost by a woman on the ranch. She is the only player who has never been below the yellow line and vulnerable to elimination for the length of the season. All five contestants have lost more than 100 pounds each on the show.

Jillian walks out of the weigh-in room knowing that she got all three of her charges to the final four.

Ron and Felipe fall below the yellow line tonight. Ron makes a convincing case that he is not a threat to Helen or Tara.

In the decision room, Helen votes Felipe off the ranch, arguing that she needs to eliminate the biggest threat to her chance to be The Biggest Loser.

The final four – Ron, Mike, Tara and Helen – go home for 30 days.

Our contestants have traversed a canyon; run a half marathon; and bicycled 24 hours. Tonight they’re in a cage 45 feet in the air. Whoever lets go of the rope will come down.

The prize is $10,000 or a pound advantage at the weigh-in.

After holding onto the rope for one hour and more, Tara edges past Helen and wins again. It’s the fifth challenge in a row that Tara has won.

For Bob, The Biggest Losers do a video journal of the food they’re eating, and Bob is disappointed that they aren’t eating enough.

Already time for the weigh in, and Ron is under 300 pounds for the first time since he was 14 years old.

Read the full story

After consuming thousands of calories of junk food, Sione feels sick to his stomach.

The two hours begin with fallout from last week’s episode when Sione, Filipe and Helen tried to vote evil genius Ron off the ranch.

“Now we know how they play,” Ron says darkly. Ron and his son Mike believe they can never trust Filipe and Sione again.

Son Mike wants to exact quick revenge on the cousins, but Ron knows better. We laugh at their jokes, father tells son, we stay close to them. Ron actually says: You keep your friends close and your enemies closer.

And we’re treated to a nice little slow-mo Godfather homage. Ron holding court clad in a giant bath rob; Ron on a couch; and Ron reclining with a beverage and cucumbers on his eyelids.

But all this is just a prelude to the temptation in store for the contestants.

Read the full story

Ron has a health scare that sends him to the hospital.

But first we learn that this is the point in the season arc when host Alison had her baby. So Aly, the first woman Biggest Loser winner, fills in.

Nicole, Estella and David each will weigh in – the one with the highest percentage of weight loss gets another chance on the ranch.

Nicole, who has lost an unbelievable 87 pounds in 12 weeks at home, wins the weigh in. Her weight loss immediately makes her the second-highest percentage loser in the house. She has immunity for a week – as long as she doesn’t gain weight.

Read the full story

Discouraged by the intense competition, Tara considers leaving the ranch.

In a wrenching decision for most everyone, contestants have to choose between trainers Jillian and Bob.

Jillian has the best track record of working with competitors who go on to win the quarter-mil prize. She’s the one who makes the losers cry.

Bob is known as someone who believes in his charges. Mr. Nice Guy.

Helen, Mike, Laura and Tara go with Jillian.

Kristin, Aubrey, Sione, Filipe, and Ron go with Bob.

For the rest of this week all the players seem as if they actually enjoy the hours and hours of gut-busting workouts.

Time for the challenge: Part 1 has each contestant distributing the amount of weight they’ve lost to the competitors of their choice.

Kristin describes the game this way:

Read the full story