NANCEE E. LEWIS / Union-Tribune Dr. Paul Teirstein (from left) conducted an angioplasty along with Dr. Andrew Ferguson and technician Jerald Guajardo.

The weekend before 84-year-old Mark Atkinson's scheduled triple bypass surgery, the mood in his Orange County home was somber. “We spent the weekend getting his spiritual needs taken care of,” said his wife, Carmel. Atkinson had a complicated blockage in his left main artery, which supplies most of the blood to the heart.

The jet set, too, feels the pain. Louis Gonda, a regular on the Forbes list of the 400 richest Americans, has put two jets on the market. Interested parties could pick up the pair for $108 million.

During the vice presidential debate last week, a telling moment came when moderator Gwen Ifill asked Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin who was at fault for the nation's credit crisis: “greedy lenders” or “risky homeowners who shouldn't have been buying a home in the first place”?

You've been given a breather – an opportunity to relax about the stock market and take action with your investments if you feel you must. At least, that's the way it looked at the end of the week, when the House passed the bailout plan that's supposed to free up money for lending and save the economy from more serious distress.