I did a half year in LA back in 80, lived in Redondo, the Strand. Cool place for single folx. Always something to do. Prolly won’t go back. Don’t want to wring anybody’s neck.
DrTedNelsonAugust 19, 2019, 12:50 PM
LA — so bad Paul can smell it from Blighty!
BillHAugust 19, 2019, 1:47 PM
Nice little town when we lived there ’70-73. We put up in a Hollywood apartment just off Sunset for three months while our SF Valley house was being completed. Older three kids (12-15) roamed Sunset with their friends after school. Fancy them doing that today.
First they came for our plastic grocery bags. Then they came for our plastic straws. Now they’ve come for our plastic water bottles … Starting Tuesday, the sale of plastic water bottles will be banned at San Francisco International Airport … California has many dumb laws and statutes and bans, but this one is especially brainless—spurred by futile self-righteousness.
… Karl Malden’s famed Streets of San Francisco are filled with needles and human feces, which the city spends $30 million a year to clean up—ineffectively. But heaven forbid you want to buy cold water in a disposable bottle at the airport.
I don’t know if this goes on elsewhere, but locally I see every intersection everywhere in the Southland is under construction. They are moving the traffic signals and street lights about ten feet in one direction or the other. They do this because the wheelchair access ramps that were built, and then re-built and re-fitted with braille pads, and then refitted with talking crossing signals,are still not ADA compliant enough. They are rebuilding every intersection like this so that there can now be two ramps with yellow braille pads, and speakers in the crossing signal, where formerly one was sufficient. That’s eight ramps to build; four, and sometimes more traffic signals to relocate per intersection. How much do you figure it costs to move a few tens of thousands of traffic signals?
In the meantime there are potholes in the intersection that would take the front wheel off a Cadillac.
And this isn’t even LA, proper…
JWM
SkorpionAugust 20, 2019, 1:26 PM
Spot on. I escaped L.A. in ’93, in the wake of the riots, and dread my occasional returns to visit the family and friends who still insist on living there. Of course my adoptive home — the SF Bay Area — is catching up to Hell Lay in terms of general unlivability; I think any American city with a base population of 100k or more will soon follow suit.
Real World Address for Donations, Mash Notes and Hate Mail
Gerard Van der Leun
1692 MANGROVE AVE
APT 379
Chico, Ca 95926
Green Pants Interior by Klahn
Who Am I? by Carl Sandburg
My head knocks against the stars.
My feet are on the hilltops.
My finger-tips are in the valleys and shores of universal life.
Down in the sounding foam of primal things I reach my hands and play with pebbles of destiny.
I have been to hell and back many times.
I know all about heaven, for I have talked with God.
I dabble in the blood and guts of the terrible.
I know the passionate seizure of beauty
And the marvelous rebellion of man at all signs reading “Keep Off.”
My name is Truth and I am the most elusive captive in the universe.
Duty, Beauty, Liberty, Country, Honor, Family, Faith — Plus a few simple easy to follow rules for guys
Men saw the stars at the edge of the sea
They thought great thoughts about liberty
Poets wrote down words that did fit
Writers wrote books
Thinkers thought about it
Take it where you find it
Can’t leave it alone
You will find a purpose
To carry it on
Mainly when you find it
Your heart will be strong
About it
Many’s the road I have walked upon
Many’s the hour between dusk and dawn
Many’s the time
Many’s the mile
I see it all now
Through the eyes of a child
Take it where you find it
Can’t leave it alone
You will find a purpose
To carry it on
Mainly when you find it
Your heart will be strong
About it
[Chorus]
Lost dreams and found dreams
In America
In America
In America
Lost dreams and found dreams
In America
In America
In America
And close your eyes
Leave it all for a while
Leave the world
And your worries behind
You will build on whatever is real
And wake up each day
To a new waking dream
Take it where you find it
Can’t leave it alone
You will find a purpose
To carry it on
Mainly when you find it
Your heart will be strong
About it
[Chorus]
Change, change come over
Change come over
Talkin’ about a change
Change, change
Change come over, now
Change, change, change come over
I’m gonna walk down the street
Until I see
My shining light
I’m gonna walk down the street
Until I see
My shining light
I’m gonna walk down the street
Until I see
My shining light
I’m gonna walk down the street
Until I see
My shining light
I see my light
See my light
See my shining light
I see my light
See my light
See my shining light
Gerard Van der Leun
Comments on this entry are closed.
I did a half year in LA back in 80, lived in Redondo, the Strand. Cool place for single folx. Always something to do. Prolly won’t go back. Don’t want to wring anybody’s neck.
LA — so bad Paul can smell it from Blighty!
Nice little town when we lived there ’70-73. We put up in a Hollywood apartment just off Sunset for three months while our SF Valley house was being completed. Older three kids (12-15) roamed Sunset with their friends after school. Fancy them doing that today.
“California’s Biggest Cities Confront a ‘Defecation Crisis’: Lawmakers ban plastic straws as a far worse kind of waste covers the streets of San Francisco and L.A.” by Charles Kesler on Aug. 16, 2019
https://www.wsj.com/articles/californias-biggest-cities-confront-a-defecation-crisis-11565994160
“What Will California Ban Next?: Snatching away plastic bottles is the latest blunder in a state thick with invasive laws.” by Andy Kessler on Aug. 18, 2019
https://www.wsj.com/articles/what-will-california-ban-next-11566158511
First they came for our plastic grocery bags. Then they came for our plastic straws. Now they’ve come for our plastic water bottles … Starting Tuesday, the sale of plastic water bottles will be banned at San Francisco International Airport … California has many dumb laws and statutes and bans, but this one is especially brainless—spurred by futile self-righteousness.
… Karl Malden’s famed Streets of San Francisco are filled with needles and human feces, which the city spends $30 million a year to clean up—ineffectively. But heaven forbid you want to buy cold water in a disposable bottle at the airport.
I don’t know if this goes on elsewhere, but locally I see every intersection everywhere in the Southland is under construction. They are moving the traffic signals and street lights about ten feet in one direction or the other. They do this because the wheelchair access ramps that were built, and then re-built and re-fitted with braille pads, and then refitted with talking crossing signals,are still not ADA compliant enough. They are rebuilding every intersection like this so that there can now be two ramps with yellow braille pads, and speakers in the crossing signal, where formerly one was sufficient. That’s eight ramps to build; four, and sometimes more traffic signals to relocate per intersection. How much do you figure it costs to move a few tens of thousands of traffic signals?
In the meantime there are potholes in the intersection that would take the front wheel off a Cadillac.
And this isn’t even LA, proper…
JWM
Spot on. I escaped L.A. in ’93, in the wake of the riots, and dread my occasional returns to visit the family and friends who still insist on living there. Of course my adoptive home — the SF Bay Area — is catching up to Hell Lay in terms of general unlivability; I think any American city with a base population of 100k or more will soon follow suit.
Proposal: All Yanks pronounce LA as the Brits do, with the LEES as in the waste/scum it is.