From the category archives:

Odds and Ends

Old News: When Those Freaky Circus People Come to Town

There’s a certain historical irony in this month’s return of Cirque Berzerk (left) to the Los Angeles State Historic Park with a schedule of weekend performances. Over a century ago, L.A.’s City Fathers faced quite a conundrum over how to prevent such big-top hijinks from disturbing the Sunday peace.
Reporting on City Hall’s daily antics, the [...]

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Running With the RC Crowd

Whenever there’s a lull here at the ol’ blog, you can bet I’m pouring all my energy into some paid writing gig. One of the great things about being a writer is the opportunity to learn all sorts of interesting stuff about a variety of subjects and then share those discoveries with readers.
Take for instance [...]

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Pop Quiz: SoCal’s Most Notable Flora

Thanks to the region’s famous mediterranean climate, Southern California boasts one of the richest mixes of native and exotic plant life found anywhere in the world. But here’s a thorny pop-cultural question for you…
What does the Bird of Paradise pictured here have in common with the rose, camellia and California Golden Poppy?
One little hint: We’re [...]

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L.A. in Quotes: Hollywood Gossip Edition

“Our town worships success, the bitch goddess whose smile hides a taste for blood.”
– Hedda Hopper (1890-1966).
The famed Los Angeles Times gossip columnist knew of what she spoke. The Perez Hilton of her day (albeit with a lot more class and clout), Hopper fomented a ruthless rivalry with Hearst newspaper columnist Louella Parsons beginning in [...]

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More Old News: Trouble at the Ol’ Coronel Place

If you’re a faithful reader of this blog, you’ve already met Antonio Coronel, 19th century L.A. mayor and leading citizen extraordinaire. Now it’s time to meet his widow Mariana, courtesy a news item carried by the Los Angeles Times 110 years ago this month.
Entitled The Coronel Mansion, the May 2, 1899, piece reports the courtroom [...]

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Old News: Living the Good Life in 1890s Glendora

Ahhh, Glendora… Garden spot of the Southland.
Well maybe not nowadays, but 119 years ago, the Los Angeles Times reported that “you can scarcely find a livelier place” in all Southern California…
“There are no loungers around the postoffice and stores. It is almost out of the question to get a man if you want one for [...]

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L.A. in Quotes: Tax Day Stimulus Edition

“We are taxed for schools — taxed as no people ever were — and the reason our children cannot go to school is because our money has not been properly used.”
–Major Horace Bell (1830-1918).
Major Bell was publisher of The Porcupine, a famous 19th Century weekly L.A. newspaper dedicated to skewering civic corruption and hypocrisy.
The above [...]

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What’s Your L.A. Experience?

Lately a number of Dateline>City of Angels readers have begun to share with me their personal stories and mementos of life in L.A. These have ranged from childhood memories of vanished landmarks to old snapshots of historic places to some really interesting ghost encounters and related urban legends — stuff too good to keep to [...]

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Taking in the Prose Parade

Now that I’ve come to the end of my documentary film class (more about that later), it’s time to play catch-up here at the ol’ blog. Let’s start with a new addition to the Dateline>City of Angels blogroll: Prose Parade.
Launched a few weeks ago by my friend Linnea Hunt-Stewart, Prose Parade’s focus is grammar and [...]

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Stuff My Grandma Knew, No. 1: Use a Breadbox!

With another Great Depression potentially looming over these United States, I’m discovering the simple stuff my grandma’s generation did to stretch a dollar.
For example, two weeks ago I got a breadbox, which is already proving a surprisingly nifty little investment.
Beyond the aesthetics of a tidy countertop, there’s a science to breadboxes, and Grannie knew it. [...]

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For Auld Lang Syne, My Dear, Remember the Lyrics!

Tonight, at thousands of New Year’s Eve parties across America, a cultural tragedy will strike along with the midnight hour.
Countdowns will end, horns and shouts of Happy New Year will ring out, and drunken revelers will launch into a rousing chorus of Auld Lang Syne, only to realize within a few bars that no one [...]

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Gageteria: In Vinturi Veritas

Whether you’re a wine lover yourself, or gift shopping for someone who is, you’ll find this handy gadget the perfect item for holiday sippings.
Called the Vinturi, it’s a clever little “instant decanter” that can liven up your reds straight from the bottle. I discovered this $39.95 gizmo during a recent wine excursion through the Santa [...]

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So Much for SoCal’s ‘Deadly’ Shake and Bake Reputation

Quakes, wildfires, flash floods, mudslides, and now Storm Watch 2008. Amid all the local media hype that invariably goes with natural hazards like these, you’d think Southern California was the nation’s most dangerous place to live.
Not so, according to a new “Death Map” (left) prepared by researchers Kevin Borden and Susan Cutter at the University [...]

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BlogoBuzz: The Halloween Edition

Dateline>City of Angels would like to take this opportunity to wish readers a Happy Halloween and announce a special treat: Before dusk descends and the little costumed urchins hit the streets, I’ll be posting this site’s very first Podcast Report. (Be sure to check back here shortly!)
Technologically challenged as I am, this podcast was a [...]

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Photo Op: La Purísima Basks in the Late-Day Sun

For me, a visit to this mission is always like a trip back in time.
Off the beaten track just outside Lompoc, La Purísima was founded in 1787 as the 11th of California’s 21 missions. It moved to its current site in 1812 after a huge quake destroyed the first complex, four miles away.
Now a California [...]

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BlogoBuzz: Urbanization, Poachers Eat Away at Venus Flytrap

Did Venus Flytraps captivate you as a child?
Carnivorous plants may not have been the fascination of every kid on the block, but I was admittedly geeky enough to have a whole terrarium of them.
I could try to justify my offbeat hobby by claiming it was educational, but the truth is it was just plain cool [...]

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BlogoBuzz: Ghosts in the Weight Machines?

Do the dead need to tone for the afterlife? Apparently so, if you can believe the security cams at the Anytime Fitness center in Overland Park, Kan. Sometime, somehow, in the late hours when the building was otherwise vacant, someone or something tripped the motion-sensitive cameras into action. When staff later inspected the surveillance footage [...]

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Introducing “Cryptic Sights”

As promised last week, Dateline>City of Angels is introducing several special treats for the Halloween season. The first is “Cryptic Sights,” a series of visits to noteworthy tombs and markers throughout the Southland.
Ranging from the famous to the obsure to the just plain bizarre, you’ll find the first one, below, dealing with the rather strange [...]

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Friday Flix: Boozing It Up in the Face of Certain Death

Talk about dumb! Not much more to say about this party crowd, except that sadly we’ll probably be reading about them in the post-hurricane missing-person reports.

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D’oh! Simpsons Behind Bars

You never know what — or who — you’ll run into at the local rummage shop. While out practicing night shots along La Brea, I also stumbled across Homer, Marge and Bart jailed among the shabby chic of this floodlit corner vintage yard.
Hopefully someone will spring them soon and give them a good home. Of [...]

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