RIP: John J. Ward, Bishop

Names and Faces

Sadly, this morning’s Los Angeles Times carried the obituary of John J. Ward, an archdiocesan auxiliary bishop and veteran of Vatican II.
Bishop Ward confirmed me. During my several years at St. John’s Seminary, I had the privilege of meeting and interacting with him on numerous occasions. “Modern Catholics” often took issue with his conservative ways, [...]

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L.A. Coroner’s Little Shop of Horrors Now a Dying Business

Cryptic L.A.

Considering how death rates trend upward during the holiday season, this macabre December 25 New York Times article profiling the L.A. Coroner’s Skeletons in the Closet store is oddly timely. (Still, it probably would’ve been better timed before Christmas to help last-minute shoppers needing gift ideas for those hard-to-please people on their lists.)
Ever on the [...]

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Bearing Christmas Greetings

Life in Angel City

Decorated for the holiday season, this Santa Bear guards the Ferndell entrance to Griffith Park. Someone has apparently taken it upon himself to ensure the statue is always dressed appropriately for every occasion. A few weeks ago the bear was wearing a winter sweater. During the summer he’s bare (bear?) naked.
The bear was a gift [...]

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The Lights Are On in Hastings Ranch!

Life in Angel City

Well, sort of… With the rain pouring and the troubled economy encouraging drastic energy conservation, the annual Upper Hastings Ranch Light Up seems more of a hit-or-miss event this year.
Driving through the soggy Pasadena enclave during a 10 p.m. deluge, I saw plenty of houses wired up with lights and displays, but few were actually [...]

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Moon to Glow Yuletide Red This Monday Night

Odds and Ends

While it won’t compare much with the Star of Bethlehem some 2000 years ago, the heavens are nonetheless aligning to deliver us Left Coasters our own special astronomical phenomenon just in time for Christmas.
According to a NASA alert, a holiday lunar eclipse will begin Monday, Dec. 20 at 10:33 p.m. PST, taking a “dark-red bite” [...]

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Sorry, These AREN’T the 12 Days of Christmas

Odds and Ends

Everyone has a pet holiday peeve. Mine is the ongoing misconception that the song The Twelve Days of Christmas is a countdown to December 25.
Gritting my teeth in L.A. freeway traffic this morning, I heard this popular mistake repeated again and again by local radio ads, newspeople, and rock stations announcing the start of their [...]

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L.A. Auto Show a Trip Down Memory Lane

Life in Angel City

Unless you’re totally pedestrian, you probably know the L.A. Auto Show has made its yearly return to the Los Angeles Convention Center, running Nov. 19-28. I’m headed that way tomorrow, filled with anticipation. It’s always hard to say which I enjoy most — seeing the exciting new automotive technologies and concept cars or bumping into [...]

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More Trash Talk From Victorian Los Angeles

Reading Room

Ever eager to view our region’s current events through the prism of its off-the-wall history, Friday’s garbage post (below) got me thinking: How did Angelenos handle their refuse problems, say, a century or so ago?
As you might expect, the answer isn’t very pretty.
Ralph Shaffer, history professor emeritus at Cal Poly, Pomona, has written an interesting [...]

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Get Ready to Pay Through the Nose for Dumping Your “Illegal” Trash

Life in Angel City

Fines for dumping illegal garbage in Los Angeles have skyrocketed drastically, thanks to a new city ordinance. Yet, strangely, officials waited weeks to launch their public awareness campaign for the new regulations, which actually took effect last month.
Aimed primarily at businesses, the law allows trashy offenders to be charged “administrative” fines of $500, $750 and [...]

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Stowed Baby Mummies Spark Film-Noir-Like LAPD Investigation

Cryptic L.A.

Sometimes it’s best not to snoop through somebody else’s old, abandoned luggage. Still, you can just picture the scenario as it unfolded Tuesday afternoon…
Rummaging down in the basement of an aging Westlake Neighborhood apartment building, the rental manager and a friend find three rustic steamer trunks. The discovery naturally piques the female pair’s curiosity. Do [...]

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Time Warp: William Desmond Taylor’s Sensational Death Scene

Cryptic L.A.

Today it’s a Ross parking lot, but on the evening of Feb. 1, 1922, the tract at 404. S. Alvarado was a Mediterranean bungalow court — and the setting for Movieland’s first real-life murder mystery.
Sometime before midnight, two shots rang out, killing famed actor-turned-Paramount-director William Desmond Taylor from behind. Neighbors shrugged off the noise as [...]

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L.A.’s Ouija-Inspired Bradbury Building

Cryptic L.A.

“Take Bradbury Building. It will make you famous…” That was the message George Wyman supposedly received from his dead brother, courtesy a Ouija board.
A mere draftsman, Wyman had been approached by millionaire Lewis Bradbury, who desired a structural marvel bearing his name in the downtown Los Angeles area. Wyman fretted over the assignment, but the [...]

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Detail Shot: Million Dollar Bison

Angeleno Sights

A close-up of the many bison and gargoyle reliefs adorning the old Metropolitan Water District (MWD) headquarters at 307 S. Broadway, Los Angeles. Designed by architect Albert C. Martin and dating to 1917, the MWD tower was part of the Million Dollar Theater complex, which also housed Edison Co. offices. The fanciful sculptures are the [...]

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Speaking of the Lincolns…

Odds and Ends

Call me a sucker for GEICO commercials. As a MarCom professional myself, I  not only admire the auto insurer’s inventiveness, but also have to confess to a tinge of jealousy at all the fun the company’s creatives must be having behind the scenes. After all, who wouldn’t want to work for a corporation with a  [...]

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Check It Out: The Haunting of America

Reading Room

From time to time your humble blogger likes to share some of his library finds with Dateline>City of Angels visitors. This week I finished The Haunting of America, a fascinating look at our nation’s ongoing obsession with the paranormal, from the Salem Witch Trials to Harry Houdini’s attempts to unmask modern Spiritualism.
It’s a strangely perfect [...]

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Time Warp: Hollywoodland’s Immortal Gates

Angeleno Sights

Brand spanking new 87 years ago, the Hollywoodland real estate development welcomes a handful of vintage automobiles through its Beachwood Canyon gates in this 1923 Los Angeles Public Library (LAPL) digital archives photo. Likely carrying property buyers, the cars are parked outside the new neighborhood’s sales headquarters.
Although not visible, the world-famous “Hollywoodland” Sign loomed over [...]

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Hollywood’s Legendary Bronson Caves Are Just a Stone’s Throw Away

Angeleno Sights

Recognize this gaping oriface in the Hollywood Hills? If you don’t, you obviously weren’t a fan of the 1960s Batman television series or numerous other Hollywood productions hearkening back to the Silent Era.
This is one of a handful of man-made excavations at the southwestern corner of Griffith Park known as the Bronson Caves. Featured prominently [...]

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Corpse Flower Creates Big Stink at Huntington

Cryptic L.A.

This past weekend, crowds lined up at the Huntington Botanical Gardens in San Marino, wanting to catch a glimpse of a flower known both for its humongous size (6 to 10 feet tall!) and its stench. The plant producing this startling, malodorous bloom is known by botanists as Amorphophallus titanum and by laypeople as the [...]

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Tripping Out to Pentecostalism’s Birthplace

Angeleno Sights

Believe it or not, this little Victorian in Los Angeles’ historic Filipino Town is widely recognized as the birthplace of Pentecostalism.
Yes, before Aimee Semple McPherson’s celebrity revivalism, the Spirit took hold of a small band of fervent religionists here at 216 N. Bonnie Brae in 1906, allegedly inspiring them to speak in tongues not heard [...]

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SoCal Kitsch: Pink Panther Muffler Man

Odds and Ends

Muffler sculptures are a staple of auto garages everywhere, but thanks to our Car Culture, they’re especially ubiquitous here in Southern California.
As an art form, more often than not they lack imagination, frequently resembling uninspired robots or clunky mechanical aliens. When you come across one that’s truly whimsical — like this Pink Panther near the [...]

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