Talismen or Talismans?

I've been married legally to my husband for almost 14 months, but we've been together a little more than 19 and a half years.  Yeah, I know.  We don't look that old.  Gays don't age like straights, so sue us. You get everything else. 

Anyway, last month we were in Palm Springs for a weekend, where Carl picked up a used book of Irish short stories. He's from Ireland, he writes short stories, it was meant to be.  Tonight, in front of the tv and the gin and the tonic and the red wine - really, just one drink each - Carl mentions that the book is filled with papers.

One falls out. It's a ballot receipt from Palm Springs dates, April 4, 1990.  The first day we became a couple (I'll leave the rather sordid and amusing details to your imagination).  The second drops out. It's a handwritten tag which reads "God Bless the business of wine forever."

WTF?  Well, ok, then. Duely noted. 

LAPD Atwater Community Relations Officer

Kenneth Aragon crashed his motorcycle at Larga and Fletcher yesterday and died shortly thereafter.  RIP.

Holiday Fireworks at the Americana?

That better be or Armageddon has come. Last year they didn't warn anybody either.  Jesus.

Soupy Sales

I well remember watching repeats growing up. RIP.

Atwater Police Activity

Holy shit. Piddling around facebook, all of a sudden I heard sirens and  a helicopter and for the next 45 minutes, my house was under surveillance for some reason. Helicopter lights all over it, police and detective cars parked in front, people with flashlights running back and forth and just me and the doggies. Lights out, sit in front, watch in dark and hope for the best and be grateful for the half a xanax I popped half an hour before. And now it's mostly silent. Not sure how I can possibly sleep soundly tonight.

Los Angeles Times

Though the LA Times has been actively disminishing itself over the last few years, today's edition proved once again that there are some really amazing writers working there. Read these three articles.

Dan Neil's review of a new Mazda is splendid and proof he deserved the pullitzer. Kenneth Turan's review of "Education" is also spectacular. And, of course, Bill Plaschke does a tremendous job at summing up the Dodgers victory.


I think I'll keep my delivery - it's money well spent.

Best. Poll. Question. Ever!

OMG, in the middle of my franks n beans dinner (no lie, I had a craving), the NRA called ME for a poll. A woman asked me to listen to a message from Wayne LaPierre (sp?) - about the UN forcing the world to ban guns - and then a guy got on the horn and asked me (I shit you not): "Do you think third world dictators AND Hilary Clinton should dictate our gun policy?" My response: "Absolutely." He gasped, chuckled and said ok and hung up. I think they may have gotten the wrong number.

Best. Poll. Question. Ever!

Police Activity

With helicopters hovering nearby for hours, I figured either the expected Santa Anas were engulfing Silver Lake or something else. It's something else, alright.

milesandhisdog

milesandhisdog
Originally uploaded by sardrinks ©

Ah, Hot Dogs. A love story.

Be Prepared

With fires raging around Southern California and the ever-present threat of a terrible earthquake, now is good time to remember to create an emergency kit, if you haven't already. Find out how.

Ted Kennedy

Rest In Peace.

LA Dogs Need Rescue

If you live in LA and you're hunkering for a senior German Shepard (or 3), the West LA Animal Shelter is looking for families to adopt them. Contact Samantha Westbrook at West LA Shelter

213-485-0494 (or 0495/0496)if you are interested.

Different Book Ends

With work reaching a crescendo today and tomorrow, I couldn't sleep very well. Not very unusual, but still worth noting. So, I got up relatively early after squeezing another hour of blood out of the rock that is my sleeptime and headed off for a walk around the Silver Lake Resevoir.

About a 1/6 of the way around, on the east side, I heard an impact and picked up head to search for the cause. I saw a kid on the street, his bike lay flat on the street and an older gentleman in the car right in front of them. The kid had a friend, also on his bike, who stood looking at him. Now, I don't know if the impact I heard was the car hitting the boy on his bike or the boy on the bike falling to the pavement just before almost getting hit by the car. All I know is everyone looked dazed. There even was a man in car behind the other car -- all seemed frozen, but I kept walking towards them.

The boy picked himself up, picked up his bike, moved off the street and after looking at what seemed like a couple scratches, hopped back on his bike and joined his friend on his way to school. The man in the car remained dazed and the car behind him slowly moved on. I felt like I wanted to call across to the kid, "Are you alright? If you're head hurts, go see the nurse." But, I didn't. It actually reminded me of a time when I was a kid and got hit riding my bike to school. I was shaken, but I picked myself up and rode on to school (after getting the person's info). I had a term paper due or something.

So, that was bookend number one. Bookend number two happened near the end of my walk where I encountered that very old lady, who's always dressed to the nines, walking around the resevoir. She clearly has some kind of dementia, but everytime she sees somebody, she could not be more ecstatic to see them. Today, it was a middleaged african-american woman and her dog. The old woman cooed at the dog and gave a wonderfully warm embrace to the other woman.

I guess the bottom line is I hope the kid is alright and I wish I could be as sweet and loving as that older woman is now.

Neglecting Blog

Man, I've been bad about keeping up with the blog. I've been pretty well focused on Facebook, but will try to turn my attention back here this week.

Meanwhile, do check out the Militant Angeleno who has (always) some interesting posts up...

Cancer

Leroy Sievers is hopefully resting in peace, but what he started, continues. Read more.

Little League Celebrates 70th Anniversary

Well, at least steroids haven't spoiled little league...yet. Beverly Hills celebrated in style, says the once great L.A. Times, and I tip my hat to the B.H. Cardinals, a team I once belonged to so many years ago.

Earthquakes

With the big swarm down south in Imperial Valley and the Alaska Volcano and the other earthquakes, I've gotta say earthquakes are definitely on my mind.

It's been 15+ years since the last "big one" in L.A. (it was huge if you were here, but not huge compared to how big it can be) and I can't help but think we've been experiencing earthquake weather (L.A. natives, you know it, you've sensed it).

Pack up the water and batteries, that's all I'm saying.

Natasha Richardson and Defamer

With all due respect to the late brilliant actress Natasha Richardson (R.I.P.), I cannot help but be befudddled by Gawker/Defamer's very poor (hopefully accidental and not contextual) same page advertising.  Oy.  There are systems in place to avoid something like this, people.

Gay Rights Are Civil Rights

Atwater Village

Lord, I do love Atwater Village. We've lived here ten years this coming May, and it has changed remarkably. On Saturday afternoon, I just loved that we were working on our front yard, staining our gate and our neighbors were out in force, planting new plants, working on their cars, just being present. We all were present and out in the street and it felt great.

Getting Interviewed By The New York Times

Ah, so that happened. A few weeks ago, out of the blue, a NY Times reporter gave me a buzz at work. I was so flummoxed by it, I actually asked him to prove that he was a reporter for the Times. Somehow, I believed him.

Anyway, he was doing a story on Gay Marriages and Engagements and wanted to know more about our relationship. I gave him a brief rundown of our lives together, when we got engaged (on the day the California Supreme Court announced the legality of marriage, in front of cheering strangers) and our actual marriage ceremony. A good story. No. Really. He was intrigued and we arranged to be interviewed by him the following week.

We spoke to the man for about an hour one morning. We shared a lot, were engaging, were funny and had the guy just seemingly really interested. After the hour, he said he'd call back in the next week or so if he had any further questions and said that if the paper wanted to, they'd send a photographer. We were thrilled.

Then, no call. No photographer. And, this evening in the Times, the article and no Miles and Carl. We're on the cutting room floor on the NY Times.

And it really doesn't matter because we still have each other and it's Valentine's Day and we're going out in our little L.A. neighborhood for some so-so Mexican food and some really fantastic margaritas and that's just gonna be great.

Silver Lake Violence

Apparently, there's been a noticeable uptick in violent crime in Silver Lake and all those who walk in the neighborhood should be aware. It's a big city. Be aware.

The Los Angeles Times Is Dead.

Long live the L.A. Times.  Today it was announced that the local news section was being discontinued and would be observed into the front section, making the front section more focused on local news rather than national and global.  Other than a few remaining columnists and photographers, the paper is dead to me.

Next time I get a subscription notice, I will not renew.  Well done, Tribune Company and Sam Zell. You killed an institutuion in less than a decade.

Obama Inauguration and the L.A. Times

As much as I detest what Sam Zell and the Tribune Company have done to hack away at the once really great Los Angeles Times, today's Times reaffirms my belief that the Times can still be a great newspaper and, in fact, today it is one, once again...at least for the day.

The Times sent several of their remaining top-notch reporters and columnists to DC and is fairly bulging with exhaustive coverage -- from a personal perspective, a local perspective, a national perspective and an international perspective. It's the kind of coverage that really only a big metropolitan paper can deliver.

More than that, though, is the the photo on page A25 by the Times' Pulitzer Prize winning photographer Carolyn Cole -- it's black and white, expands across the width of the paper and is absolutely timeless.  There is no possible way this image can be conveyed any better than in a newspaper.

So, kudos to the Times and Ms. Cole and, maybe, we can say that there now is also some hope for the Times.  I encourage you to go out and buy it today.

* Corrected for grammar, etc.

President Obama

Proud To Be An American

It's been almost 8 years and, now, finally, I am proud to be an American again. May Obama have the wind at his back, for he will need it.  Fingers crossed.

Middle East Horror

This poor palestinian doctor who worked both for Israelis and Palestinians came home to discover his daughters all killed by Israeli bombs.  Absolutely dreadful.   When will both sides have enough of this madness? Ever?



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