Mister Earl's Musings from South Pasadena

Trees and Cars

2011-12-30T18:38:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I went to an event around the corner from this street, and I saw these two cars that had been damaged by a falling tree in the recent windstorm. This morning I went over to take some photos and ran into the owner who was meeting with someone from a car-salvaging company. These cars were in the driveway when a huge deodar cedar tree, which I would have mistaken for a pine, fell on them. The tan car has a 6-inch thick branch piercing the roof that goes all the way to the floor board. The lower photo shows another deodar cedar on another part of the property that is similar to the one that fell.

Christmas Breakfast

2011-12-25T06:43:00.000-08:00

Christmas morning can be a challenging time for a single Jewish guy who wants to go someplace for breakfast. Every year I get in my car and drive toward Pasadena. Very few places are open, but I always seem to find one.

One year, the bakery next to Mi Piaci on Colorado was open. Another year, it was Robin's in Hastings Ranch. It seems to vary from year to year, and I can't count on any place to be open from one year to the next.

Several years ago, as I made my way into Old Town on Christmas morning, I noticed that Ruby's Diner at the corner of Green and Fair Oaks was open. Ruby's was a '50s-style diner that had great food and waiters and waitresses dressed in 50s-style outfits. It also had an electric train that went around on an elevated track above the dining area. (Ruby’s has long since left Pasadena, but can still be found in some other Southern California locations.)

Sometimes my swing-dancing friends, and I would go there in the evening after a dance at Pasadena Ballroom Dance Association and dance in the aisles between the tables to the 50s music they played on the speaker system. I was really happy that Ruby's was open that Christmas morning.

Upon arriving, I realized that I needed to buy an LA Times to read as I ate, but decided I'd wait until after I ordered my meal. As I entered, a young woman greeted me and asked me if I was there for breakfast. I thought this was a rather odd question. It was around 8:00 a.m., so what else would I be doing walking into a restaurant?

I noticed that the waiters and waitresses were not wearing their usual red and white Ruby's outfits. Instead they were wearing blue jeans and flannel shirts. I thought, "That's funny, but it is Christmas. Maybe they just thought they'd let them wear regular clothes."

I was taken to a booth, and I sat down waiting for someone to bring me coffee and a menu and take my order. As I waited, I noticed that instead of the usual salt and pepper shakers on the table, there were those little paper envelopes. I also noticed that the utensils were plastic. I thought, "Well, it's Christmas. I guess they didn't want to bring in a full crew of dishwashers and table bussers."

I sat for quite a while without getting a menu or being offered a cup of coffee. I was becoming a little impatient, when suddenly two young waitresses appeared at my table. One had a pot of coffee and the other had a rectangular styrofoam plate containing scrambled eggs, bacon, hash browns, and toast, which she began to place in front of me.

"What's this?" I asked.

"It's breakfast," one of them said in a tone that suggested the answer should have been obvious.

"But I didn't order this," I said.

Just then a lightbulb went on in my head.

"Is this a free breakfast for the homeless?" I asked.

"Yes," she said.

"Oh," I said as I thought about sliding down under the table from embarrassment,

"I can't eat this. I didn't realize... There’s no sign or anything out front…"

"Don't worry about it," she said, "We have enough food to feed 500 people and only 50 have shown up. We're just going to have to throw it out."

So reluctantly, I began to eat my free Christmas breakfast. I looked around sheepishly at the other diners. There were a few homeless-looking people, and a few large tables of what appeared to be special-needs patients.

I had to eat my breakfast without the company of a newspaper because, you see, I felt so guilty for being there, I didn't have the nerve to show I had disposable income by getting up and spending a quarter on the LA Times.

After I was done, I went over and offered to pay for my food or to make a donation.

The waitress said, "There's no way you can. We don't have registers working, and all the food's been donated and paid for. We're just going to have to send all the leftovers to the park where they're serving lunch, and there will be way too much food."

I just shook my head and rolled my eyes, still very embarrassed. At least, as they say, I got a story out of it!

Small Town

2011-12-10T12:31:00.000-08:00

Members of the South Pasadena High School Band make their holiday rounds by playing in front of Shakers diner and Bristol Farms Market.

The Cover for Trout Fishing in America

2011-11-25T07:49:00.000-08:00

"The cover for Trout Fishing in America is a photograph taken late in the afternoon, a photograph of the Benjamin Franklin statue in San Francisco's Washington Square.

Born 1706--Died 1790, Benjamin Franklin stands on a pedestal that looks like a house containing stone furniture. He holds some papers in one hand and his hat in the other.

Then the statue speaks, saying in marble:

PRESENTED BY

H. D. COGSWELL

TO OUR

BOYS AND GIRLS

TAKE OUR PLACES

AND PASS ON.

Around the base of the statue are four words facing the directions of this world, to the east WELCOME, to the west WELCOME, to the north WELCOME, to the south WELCOME. Just behind the statue are three poplar trees, almost leafless except for the top branches. The statue stands in front of the middle tree. All around the grass is wet from the rains of early February.

In the background is a tall cypress tree, almost dark like a room. Adlai Stevenson spoke under the tree in 1956, before a crowd of 40,000 people.

There is a tall church across the street from the statue with crosses, steeples, bells and a vast door that looks like a huge mousehole, perhaps from a Tom and Jerry cartoon, and written above the door is "Per L'Universo."

Around five o'clock in the afternoon of my cover for Trout Fishing in America, people gather in the park across the street from the church and they are hungry.

It's sandwich time for the poor.

But they cannot cross the street until the signal is given. Then they all run across the street to the church and get their sandwiches that are wrapped in newspaper. They go back to the park and unwrap the newspaper and see what their sandwiches are all about.

A friend of mine unwrapped his sandwich one afternoon and looked inside to find just a leaf of spinach. That was all.

Was it Kafka who learned about America by reading the autobiography of Benjamin Franklin....

Kafka who said, 'I like the Americans because they are healthy and optimistic.'"

- Richard Brautigan

Police Unions, South Pasadena, and Art Salinas

2011-10-28T19:45:00.000-07:00

I appreciate and respect the work of those who serve as our public safety officials. On the other hand, I have serious concerns about some of the tactics their unions employ.

In a column in the Pasadena Star News on February 2, 2010, Larry Wilson wrote of a law firm in Upland, CA called Lackie, Dammeier & McGill. They are former police officers who advise police unions on the tactics they should use to obtain higher wages and benefits. Wilson revealed what was on the firm’s website back then. The more controversial stuff has since been moved to a private area of the website.

Wilson wrote, “We know what the lawyers have advised officers' associations to do—guilt-trip the electeds, give money to their campaigns, use crime as a wedge issue in order to scare the public, use work slowdowns and the blue flu to get what you want.”

Wilson went on to describe what else was on the website, “From "Negotiations After Impasse": "Now is the time those political endorsements, favors, and friendships come into play." From "Political Option": "The association should be like a quiet giant in the position of, `do as I ask and don't (tick) me off."'

From "Let the Games Begin": "Storm City Council"; "Billboards - Nothing seems to get more attention than a billboard entering the city limits which reads that crime is up and the City could (sic) care less about your safety," even when that is not true.

"Public Ridicule - Blunders by the City Manager, Mayor, or City Council members or wasteful spending should be highlighted and pointed out to the public at every opportunity."

"Focus on an Individual: Avoid spreading your energy. Focus on a city manager, councilperson, mayor or police chief and keep the pressure up until that person assures you his loyalty and then move on to the next victim.”

Ironically, just one day after Wilson's column appeared and only a short time after it was clear that Police Chief Watson would be sent packing, Councilman Mike Ten thought it would be a great idea to show a video, Police Officers Under Attack, at the Council meeting. Well, we know that Mr. Ten's on board with the program.

So how do these tactics play out in South Pasadena? Four years ago, David Sifuentes, a Fire Captain and union official with LAFD, who’d only recently moved to town, was elected to City Council. Sifuentes received about 95% of his campaign contributions from the police and fire unions. His campaign manager was Jeffrey Monical, a public-safety union consultant who runs a firm called Lavell Communications.

Next thing we know, Sifuentes and Monical decide that it would be a great idea not to renew Police Chief Dan Watson’s contract although they never pointed to anything specific that made this necessary. In fact, in the entire time Sifuentes has been on the Council, he never once discussed the police department with Watson.

When Watson tried to get answers about why the Council didn’t want to renew his contract, he was told by the City Manager that some Councilmen were “uncomfortable” with him calling them, and he was ordered not to contact them.

So it’s clear, it wasn’t anything Watson had done that made Sifuentes and Monical move Watson out: Watson points out that Sifuentes never had a substantive conversation with him about the police department. Maybe he wasn’t as favorable to the POA as they wanted him to be, but it appears that the primary reason was they wanted to pay off retired sergeant Joe Payne for deciding not to run for City Council. There is no doubt that Sifuentes knew that Payne would be the next police chief before Watson even knew that his contract would not be renewed. In an article in the South Pasadena Review on October 26, 2011, Watson says he was aware from two sources in early 2010 that Sifuentes had told people that Payne would be the next Police Chief. This was before the job was even announced. Even in December 2009, people around City Hall were saying that Payne would be the next Chief.

Payne admitted to the South Pasadena Review that he’d discussed the job with SIfuentes “months earlier.” This is what South Pasadena got when it elected a POA-backed candidate.

After the spontaneous community uproar at the removal of Watson, it appears that Sifuentes feared he would lose if he ran for reelection—something that would not be good for the higher political aspirations he’s rumored to have.

So what did he and Monical do instead? They found a surrogate candidate, Art Salinas. Salinas is one of the few candidates who is taking union money—his largest contributor to date is the POA—and at his campaign kickoff, he introduced Jeffrey Monical, the union consultant, as his “campaign advisor.”

Salinas is saying all the right things. He even says he objects to the back-room way that Watson was removed, says he won’t tolerate back-room deals. Wanna bet? Do you really think Salinas will be “his own man” when Sifuentes, Monical, and the POA come knocking with the next step in their game plan, whatever it may be?

I recently emailed Salinas and asked him how he could expect us to believe that he’s against back-room deals when he’s supported by the champions of the back-room deal. Salinas’ answer was as you might expect.

First he points to the fact that 4 of 5 councilmen supported the decision, “I must believe their decision was based on what they believed to be in the best interest of the City. If it was a bad decision, and done in an underhanded, non-transparent, manner, how do 4 of 5 support it?”

Well, let’s see, maybe it’s because they all felt beholden to the POA and its political pressure. Maybe it’s because we have a Council of horse-trading less-than-honorable players. It appears that Cacciotti and Putnam were under heavy POA pressure to go along with the plan. Sifuentes and Ten were already on board.

Salinas goes on, “Furthermore, if as you say Mr. Sifuentes was responsible, that he got three other Councilmen to agree with him says a great deal about his leadership ability.“

Really? Even bullies have leadership ability. That’s exactly what they do have. What they don’t have is character and good intentions. Leadership ability is only part of the story. It’s what you do with it that matters.

Then comes the bizarre part, “If Dr. Schneider was against the move as he says, if it was done improperly, and if it was so wrong for the community, why didn’t he stop it? Isn’t that what we want from our leaders?”

Salinas’ thinking is so twisted that he’s willing to blame the one councilman who refused to go along with the plan, and who, by the way, was the only one not beholden to the POA. This in spite of the fact that his own backers, Sifuentes and Monical, were the perpetrators of the plan.

Sounds to me like Salinas has drunk the Kool-Aid. Do we want a guy who thinks like this on the City Council? Can we trust that when it’s crunch time Salinas will not be right there, ready to do whatever Sifuentes, Monical, and the POA want? I don’t think so.

There’s a reason the POA is putting its money behind Salinas. They will want a return on their investment.

Letter in the Star News

2011-09-27T06:29:00.000-07:00

This letter from M.A. Abassi appeared

in the Pasadena Star News yesterday.

I wish I knew who M.A. Abassi is.

Letters to the editor: South Pas

council

Posted: 09/25/2011 07:47:09 PM PDT

South Pas council
With the City Council elections coming up in South Pasadena, residents should take note of the endorsements each candidate is receiving, which serve as a reliable indicator of where their allegiance will lie once in office.

Larry Wilson's recent column reveals that candidate Art Salinas is being supported by Tom Jacobs and the police union. The same union that was instrumental in the coup to remove former Chief Dan Watson. It is also to be noted that Salinas has hired well-known union political consultant Jeffrey Monical as a campaign advisor.

If you think that the police union is supporting Art Salinas because he is tough on crime, think again. The South Pasadena Police Union, like all public employee unions, hopes to handpick those City Council members who will vote for the union's interests when the time comes to re-negotiate the union contract.

As many other cities have discovered recently, those contracts often come at the expense of the taxpayers and residents of those cities. The more money that goes toward police salaries and benefits, the less money is available for libraries, schools, social services and infrastructure improvements.

In deciding who to support, follow the money and watch the endorsements - it can tell you all you want to know about the candidate.

M.A. Abbasi
South Pasadena

Larry Wilson's Pasadena Star News Column

2011-09-21T21:02:00.000-07:00

September 21, 2011. Pasadena Star News

Columnist Larry Wilson comments on an

exchange between me and South Pasadena

Police Chief Joseph Payne.

Larry Wilson: When a police chief

dares to post online

THE South Pasadena watchers among us, weary of the disaster that has been the turgid construction project on Fair Oaks Avenue being the only subject of conversation in town, harken back to the glory gossip days of last year, when a police chief was ousted in a political coup.

Regular readers will recall the situation. And they will recall that, here in the post-Wild West, chiefs of police outside a megalopolis don't report to an elected mayor or the members of a city council. Democracy is not the point here - it's the taint of patronage, and favoritism, that comes with political placements.

That's why we have city managers, appointed by the elected leaders, to whom all other professional staff in the city report - usually with the exception of a city attorney, and sometimes a city clerk; in the case of South Pas, the treasurer is also elected.

But it was very fishy, as I reported, the way popular, affable former Chief Dan Watson was drummed out of town. (From all reports, by the way, the former LAPD commander is doing fine as the new chief in Mammoth Lakes, an excellent place to round out a career.) His ouster seemed to many in town to come out of closed-session council meetings, not any independent action by the city manager. It also seemed to come out of the blue, and to not be tied to any dereliction on Watson's part. Word was, I reported, that the former South Pas officer who was installed as chief had talked about running for council himself, and that a cabal of the current council talked him out of it by dangling the chief's job before him.
I called the council members who went along with the putsch - Mike Cacciotti, David Sifuentes, Philip Putnam and Mike Ten - the Gang of Four, and lauded Councilman Richard Schneider for not going along with the purge.

I know that Sifuentes is not running for re-election. But I see that he was at the kick-off for candidate Art Salinas, and that his campaign manager is Jeff Monocal, who works with the police union. Tom Jacobs, head of the police union, was at the event, and was introduced.

But something I find particularly interesting is an exchange I read this week in the comments section of a South Pas blog. Local Ron Rosen, who I think sometimes calls himself "Mr. Earl" in anonycommentary, writes: "Looks like we have someone using an assumed name. If I were guessing, I'd guess it's one of the players in the story. Mike Ten? Joe Payne? David Sifuentes? A member of the POA?" Then a certain Joseph Payne responds: "Not me, Ron. The days of `Mr. Earl' notwithstanding, I have never felt the need for disguised posts, and I resent your reckless inference to anonymous posts. To put your claims in perspective, when a police chief loses the support of the council, city manager, and the POA, it's time for a change of scenery . . . Any one of those three spells trouble. As far as my appointment, sometimes the ends justify the means."

Do they?

This past Sunday, the chief bowed out bowed out of the conversation, promising to comment no more.

Richard and Karen Carpenter Performing Arts Center, Long Beach

2011-04-20T23:31:00.000-07:00

All American Asphalt

2011-04-15T21:16:00.000-07:00

Ever since All American Asphalt has been tearing up Fair Oaks Avenue in South Pasadena, several of us pointed out that the work crews didn't look very professional, and some of the work looked shoddy. Today we bring you the reinstallation of the newspaper stands in front of Starbucks/Wells Fargo at Fair Oaks and El Centro. It seems that one of the stands is facing the wrong way. Yes, folks, the stand in the lower right opens out to the street, as you can see by the way we propped the door open. Shoddy, unprofessional? Whatever could we have been thinking?

Too bad they took away the "Sandblasting" sign before we could take a picture of it. It looked like something a 7-year old would have done, and the writing was barely large enough to see.

Lost and Found

2011-04-02T20:56:00.000-07:00

I found this print in a frame in South Pasadena on April 1. If it's yours, contact me.

Earth Quakes and Tsunamis

2011-03-11T05:39:00.000-08:00

I do a gratitude list almost every morning. I have a hard time being thankful that my part of the world is OK when other parts of the world are not.

Cold Sunday Morning in Pasadena

2011-02-20T17:15:00.000-08:00

Hahamongna with a Twist

2011-02-12T14:56:00.000-08:00

What do you do when you get the day wrong for the Hahamongna Walkabout? You watch a frisbee golf tournament. That's what!

Here's what I learned: Frisbee golf is very sophisticated. Like regular golf, each player has several frisbees that they use for different situations, depending on what they need to do. There are putter frisbees and distance frisbees and frisbees that curve and frisbees that go straight and frisbees that glide. Each player carries a bag of frisbees around, just like golfers carry bags of clubs. These are not your regular frisbees, either. These are all special frisbees. Some guys were telling me that the frisbee's characteristics change as they get beaten up, and some of them get better. It's against the rules to manually alter a frisbee, but changes that occur naturally from using it are ok. Below is one manufacturer's chart showing all the frisbees it makes and what each one's characteristics are.

A disc golfer goes for the hole, which is that basket thing in front of the red car next to the dumpster. The disc in mid-air is right in front of the rock behind the red station wagon.

Here's what I came to see to begin with. Here's the info on the Hahamongna Walkabout scheduled for February 19, 2011. http://www.savehahamongna.org/walkabout.htm

No on 14 - Martin Luther King, Jr.

2011-01-17T12:08:00.000-08:00

"Would you want your daughter to marry a realtor?" In 1964, Proposition 14 was on the California Ballot. The purpose was to overturn the Rumford Act, which prohibited discrimination in housing. The California Realtors Association supported Proposition 14, thinking homes would be harder to sell if neighborhoods became mixed, or perhaps that property values would fall if people began to move out of neighborhoods in large numbers. Proposition 14 passed by 65%, but was later declared unconstitutional by the California Supreme Court and the U.S. Supreme Court. This is a button from the anti-14 campaign.

Christmas Breakfast Reprise

2010-12-25T09:40:00.000-08:00

[At the special request of Karin, the Altadena Hiker, the engineer of the best Christmas Train around, mystery woman of the East Denas, and Queen of All Internet Smackdowns, whose every wish is my command (whether she knows it or not), and who, I might mention, is tall enough to be the perfect height, I'm reposting for the third consecutive year, my Christmas Breakfast Story.]

Christmas morning can be a challenging time for a single Jewish guy who wants to go someplace for breakfast. Every year I get in my car and drive up to Pasadena, and I always seem to find at least one place that's open. One year, the bakery next to Mi Piaci on Colorado was open. Another year, it was Robin's. It seems to vary from year to year, and I can't seem to count on any place to be open year after year.

Several years ago, as I made my way into Old Town on Christmas morning, I noticed that Ruby's Diner (http://www.rubys.com/) at the corner of Green and Fair Oaks was open. Ruby's was a '50s-style diner that had great food and waiters and waitresses dressed in 50s-style outfits. (It has long since left Pasadena, but can still be found in some other locations like Fullerton, for example.) Sometimes my swing-dancing friends and I would go there in the evening after a dance at PBDA (http://www.pasadenaballroomdance.com/) and dance to the 50s music in the aisles between the tables. I was really happy that Ruby's was open that Christmas morning.

Upon arriving, I realized that I needed to buy an LA Times to read as I ate, but decided I'd wait until after I ordered my meal. As I entered, a young woman greeted me and asked me if I was there for breakfast. I thought this was a rather odd question. It was around 8:00 am, so what else would I be doing walking into a restaurant? I noticed that the waiters and waitresses were not wearing their usual Ruby's outfits. Instead they were wearing blue jeans and flannel shirts. I thought, "That's funny, but it is Christmas, and maybe they just thought they'd let them wear regular clothes."

I was taken to a booth, and I sat down waiting for someone to bring me coffee and a menu and take my order. As I waited, I noticed that instead of the usual salt and pepper shakers on the table there were those little paper envelopes. I also noticed that the utensils were plastic. I thought, "Well, it's Christmas, I guess they didn't want to bring in a full crew of dishwashers and others."

I thought it was odd that it was taking so long for them to come and take my order, when suddenly two young waitresses appeared at my table. One had a pot of coffee and the other had a rectangular styrofoam plate containing scrambled eggs, bacon, hash browns, and toast, which she began to place in front of me. "What's this?" I asked. "It's breakfast," one of them said. "But I didn't order this," I said.

Just then a light went on in my head. "Is this a free breakfast for the homeless?" I asked. "Yes," she said. "Oh," I said trying to slide down under the table from embarrassment, "I can't eat this. I didn't realize..." "Don't worry about it," she said, "We have enough food to feed 500 people and only 50 have shown up. We're just going to have to throw it out."

So reluctantly, I began to eat my free Christmas breakfast. I looked around sheepishly at the other diners. I saw a few homeless-looking people, and a few large tables of what appeared to be special-needs patients. I had to eat my breakfast without the company of the LA Times, because you see, I felt so guilty for being there, I didn't have the nerve to show I had disposable income by getting up and spending a quarter on a newspaper.

After I was done, I went over and offered to pay for my food or to make a donation. The waitress said, "There's no way you can. We don't have registers working, and all the food's been donated and paid for. We're just going to have to send all the leftovers to the park where they're serving lunch, but there will be way too much food."

So that's the story of my embarrassing Christmas breakfast at Ruby's Diner.

The Great Tamale Headline Keyboard Smackdown

2010-12-21T06:47:00.000-08:00

It all started when Facebook Friend Kris decided to present her tamale-party dinner. She placed it on her computer, but used a newspaper as a "barrier" to protect the keyboard.

I followed suit with a tamale, a plate, a newspaper, and a keyboard. The Tamale Headline Keyboard Smackdown was on. I thought the Giants World Series Victory was a nice touch.

We soon discovered we'd been hoarding some interesting headlines. Rules: Tamale (or part thereof), plate, keyboard, newspaper.

Lorena Bobbit touch

Were we suckers?

Lemon or not?

Which one's the Jesus Juice?

SF GIANTS - WORLD SERIES CHAMPIONS

2010-11-02T18:52:00.000-07:00

The Following is from a blog called RocketShoes

by Drew Hoohorst

This is why I’m a Giants fan. This exact moment. Scratch that: this is why I like stupid, grunt grunt sports in general. San Francisco, this very moment.

It’s legitimately a magical time in San Francisco right now. I have the fortune of working approximately two blocks away from AT&T/”For Christsakes, it’s PacBell” Park, and it’s been absolutely surreal. If a unicorn came around the corner and high fived me right now and said, “Go Giants”, I wouldn’t even take an earbud out. I’d just high hoove him right back and point and smile.

For people who don’t understand why people love sports so much, move to a town where this kind of thing might happen, and you’ll get it.

This team has done something to this city that is unreal. It’s even more unreal because this is San Francisco. Home of the polarizing “I hate your district NO I HATE YOUR DISTRICT LET’S MAKE OUT THOUGH BECAUSE WE BOTH LOVE SAN FRANCISCO” landscape. Hipsters hate marina guys. Marina guys hate hipsters. We judge every goddamn thing on the planet that isn’t organic, and then can’t understand why people judge the crap out of us right back (irony alert). I mean…I work down the block from a fucking artisan grilled cheese store. This town is, by no means, indicative of the rest of the American landscape. We’re just weird, and we embrace the living crap out of it.

And right now, everyone is a Giants fan. Everyone. Your grandma. That homeless guy directing you into a wide open parking spot and then expecting you to congratulate him for his non-feat with a dollar. Right now? I’d give him two. Because this town is effing electric.

You know what? To all the people who hate “bandwagon” fans? Let it go. Who cares. You know who you are? You’re the guy who liked the Kings of Leon and then got mad when everyone else did. You’re the guy who said “this band is SO good”, and then when someone said, “hey I agree” you said NO YOU DON’T ONLY I CAN LIKE THEM. That’s silly. Knock it off. Let them in. Buy them a beer, or a kombucha. Whatever it is. I don’t care. Just let this happen and stop Eeyoring the crap out of our unlimited happiness we’re on the brink of.

I love sports for this reason. Every now and then, everyone just stops being so damn frumpy and acts like our city is just a big college. You ever been to a college town that really loves their team a scary amount? Like, Ray Finkel’s Mom amounts? It’s great. You know why? Because everyone is just actually nice to each other. You have a common bond. And whether or not it’s a bond that is contingent upon a guy throwing a ball or waving a wooden stick, it’s an awesome bond.

I love this time. I find myself smiling at people when I buy coffee. I see my friends who bicker over ridiculous crap calling each other and inviting each other to hang out. I see strangers hugging because a guy from the Dominican Republic is hitting sac fly’s. Marina guys are wearing the same goddamn t-shirt hipster guys are wearing. HOW CAN YOU NOT BOTTLE THIS MOMENT UP? We’re in a vacuum. Enjoy it.

I have grown up with the Giants. My brother and I spend half of our “that’s so adorable that they are ACTUALLY best friends” time talking to each other about them; it genuinely brings us together. It’s in the blood of my family, and I was taught from a very young age to bring a blanket to the ‘stick because it’s never a comfortable temperature in this city. My mother and father brought our family together with this ridiculous game. If you never lived here or you’re just getting on the bandwagon? Let me be your creepy metaphorical father and open the front door and hand you a beer. Welcome. We love you, too.

So fear the Just for Men beard. Embrace the fact that every woman in town is in love with the good guy (THAT NEVER HAPPENS IN REAL LIFE). Embrace the fact that we have a pitcher that resembles one of the greatest characters in film history, one Mitch Kramer (he even smokes pot…how San Francisco is that?). Embrace it.

No matter what happens, San Francisco, embrace it. This is why we like sports. Because they are ridiculous, and they make people really happy when we’d usually just bide the time complaining about what we don’t like about each other.

Embrace it, San Francisco. This is why we like each other. Right now.

South Pasadena City Council Exposed

2010-09-17T05:53:00.000-07:00

[This editorial appeared on September 16, 2010, in the Pasadena Star News and related San Gabriel Valley News papers. It's nice to know that someone with a voice has some sense.]

We've reported since late last year on the odd way popular former South Pasadena police Chief Dan Watson was removed from his job - or, as the city would have it, did not have his contract renewed. He was recently hired as police chief by the town of Mammoth Lakes.

In theory, the appointed city manager, rather than the elected City Council, appoints chiefs of police. But we've also reported on the strong public perception in South Pasadena that the Watson resignation and the looming - and now, as of Wednesday night, actual - appointment of a retired former South Pasadena sergeant, Joe Payne, was engineered by council members, many of whom have known Payne for decades, not by relatively new City Manager John Davidson.

Because personnel issues are discussed in closed sessions, it will remain hard to prove much about whether a putsch was engineered in South Pasadena. But we certainly know that the council abused California's open-meeting laws when it met with Payne and another chief candidate using the ruse of an executive session labeled "performance evaluation of the city manager." A leading open-government expert said that fudging of the facts violates California's Brown Act.
Joe Payne is well-known and well-liked in South Pasadena, his hometown even after he left the force. If his appointment sticks, he may well be an excellent chief - we hope so. But community concerns about the whole process deserve to be addressed by City Hall.

Citizens know that, whether or not Payne will really be a pushover for the salary demands of the union he belonged to for decades, he was recently glowingly profiled in a city employees' union newsletter as a "stalwart" and a "workhorse." They know that four of five council members - the principled exception being Richard Schneider - were behind the move to dump Watson by "inviting him to reapply for his job," a dishonor he declined. They know that, though Payne indeed served the department for a long time, it's highly unusual for a policeman who's never been in senior management ranks to take over a department, even in a small town. South Pas has 25,000 residents, for instance; Sierra Madre about 11,000. Yet when the latter hired Marilyn Diaz as chief, she came as a commander from the Pasadena Police Department.

Come clean, South Pasadena. Confession is good for the soul.

My Kind of Town

2010-08-06T22:50:00.000-07:00

I was enlisted to fly to Chicago to teach two one-hour classes. Things got off to a good start when I misplaced my car keys with just enough time to head for the airport. Luckily, I found the backups. Got to the airport. Long lines to check bags at American, but none were moving. I have no idea what these counter people were doing to go so slow. An agent tells me there are shorter lines at the other end. She's right, but they were moving even slower. Takes me a full hour to get checked in and through security.

We get on the plane a little late and when we're all on and ready to go the pilot announces that the navigation computer isn't working right. We sit for an hour while they fix it. At some point, some people get up and head for the front of the plane. The attendants announced that people should sit down, but apparently some got off. Finally we taxi out to the runway. But then, we pull off to the side. The captain explains that because some people got off, they have to recalculate the weight and fuel. We wait, and wait, and wait. The captain is pissed, "I'm not getting the information I need to take off," he tells us. Then they have the attendants come out and hand count the passengers. I mean come on. If you knew it was important why didn't you count the ones who got off? Why did you let them get off in the first place? Who knows what's going on? Maybe they had to retrieve their bags or something. After about 45 more minutes of sitting by the side of the taxiway, we finally get to leave. When I ask out loud if they can go over the safety instructions again, no one laughs. And don't expect free drinks anymore when this kind of stuff happens. These planes don't carry enough food and drink to go around. They routinely run out of the "food" they're selling.

When we arrive in Chicago two-and-a-half hours late, we learn that there's no gate for us. That's another twenty minutes. I look at the news on my Blackberry. Seven dogs dead on American Airlines flight to Chicago earlier that morning. This is not AA's day. Or maybe it's their usual, I don't know. As we get off, the captain announces that our bags will be at carousel 5. Our flight is not on the monitors at the baggage claim. I ask an agent and she tells me that our bags will probably come out on carousel 7. She doesn't tell all the other passengers that. Why bother? She also tells me that the monitors are broken. After probably 45 minutes I see that our bags are coming out on carousel 7. After I get mine, I go back and tell the others who are waiting at 5 to go to 7. For a moment, I'm in control of the baggage area. Is there a work slowdown at American?

But that's not the story. The story is how the big 300 pound guy, who looked like he had no business walking into a Hyatt Regency, jumped in between my friend and his wife as we're walking into the revolving door at our hotel after dinner. The guy blocks the door with his foot and starts pounding on the glass. My friend is trapped inside the door, and I'm in the back, exposed to the street, but there are two guys behind me. At first I think the guy who's blocking the door is crazy and he's throwing some kind of weird tantrum. But then the guys behind me are kind of getting up too close to me and telling me to push on the door with both hands as hard as I can, as if this happens all the time and they know just what the cure is. This makes little sense to me. In split seconds, I'm trying to decide if the door is broken and the crazy guy is trying to help fix it, but I keep seeing he's blocking it. "He's blocking the door," I say. The guys behind me keep telling me to push with both hands. But I realize it would be futile, and I also realize that I have no particular need to get through this door, so I say, "Why would I do that?" and step aside and over to one of the regular doors. Only when I'm in the lobby and they are gone do I realize that this was all about picking my pockets, but they didn't get anything. I don't leave things that exposed, and I never committed both hands to pushing the door as they wanted me to.

Well I'm glad their little plot was foiled and I didn't have to spend today in Chicago trying to figure out how to fly without identification or money. These guys seemed like amateurs. I could give them some tips on what they did wrong, but I'll save that for another day.

It's My Birthday Too, Yeah!

2010-07-30T17:36:00.000-07:00

My friend Dixie Jane, mother of Laurie over at Glimpses of South Pasadena, wrote this lovely poem for me today, and I just had to share!
Thanks again, DJ!

Let the celebration get started
And the banners all unfurl
Tomorrow is a day to remember
It's the birthday of Mister Earl.

Dixie Jane would not find a new beau
She's just not that sort of a girl
But she would fly the miles it would take
For a dance with Mister Earl.

It's memories you'll make
With champagne and cake
As we give the dance floor a twirl
Happy Birthday, dear friend, and many, many more
To the man we call Mister Earl.

Save Hahamongna

2010-07-06T20:08:00.000-07:00

On July 12, the Pasadena City Council will consider whether or not to build soccer fields in Hahamongna Watershed Park. We oppose the building of these soccer fields. Hahmongna is a watershed that should remain in its natural state. Soccer fields can be placed anywhere. A watershed like this cannot be replaced.

For more information please look at these websites:

http://www.savehahamongna.org/index.htm

http://fohwp.org/index.html

Many bloggers all over the San Gabriel Valley agree that Hahamongna must be saved. Here are the links for some of them:

Altadena Above It All
Altadena Hiker
A Thinking Stomach
East of Allen
Finnegan Begin Again
LA Creek Freak
Mendolonium
Mister Earl's Musings
My Life With Tommy
Pasadena Adjacent
Pasadena Daily Photo
Pasadena Latina
SaveHahamongna.org
Selvage
The Sky Is Big In Pasadena

Webster's Fine Stationers Web Log
West Coast Grrlie Blather

Fifth of July

2010-07-05T09:27:00.000-07:00

looking out the fishbowl
at this beethoven bust
ever since the canine
no one's looking at us
but i bet with a running start
we could leap out of the water
a two foot drop to the oriental rug
and no one would be bothered
we could flip and flop across the hardwood floor
hold our breath through the lawn
the bust now sits where a globe used to be
canada should be at the end of this street
and lake louise is where i want to be

it's the fifth of july
feeling independent
please step aside
the celebration's over
we're now on our own for the first of our lives
on the fifth of july
now what

looking out the kennel
at the dying oak tree
ever since the newborn
no one's looking at me
but i bet with these incisors
i could gnaw through this lead
a two mile run to the county line
a two state run to the sea
i could run through the briars and the brambles
where a rabbit wouldn't go
so fast the hounds couldn't catch me
like a johnny horton show
and anywhere is where i wanna be

it's the fifth of july
feeling independent
please step aside
the celebration's over
we're now on our own for the first of our lives
on the fifth of july
now what

one if by land
two if by sea
three if by phone or facsimile
four if by plane
five if by boat
six if bilingual
seven by goat
eight by ten glossies of me

looking out the bedroom
at the snowy tv
ever since commencement
no one's asking 'bout me
but i bet before the night falls
i could catch the late bus
take small provisions and this beethoven bust
i could find work in the outskirts of the city
eat some fish on the way
befriend an old dog for a roadside pal
find a nice couch to stay
a pull sofa, if you please

it's the fifth of july
feeling independent
please step aside
the celebration's over
we're now on our own for the first of our lives
on the fifth of july
now what

FIFTH OF JULY

by Eddie from Ohio - A folk-rock band from Virginia

Artwork by Suzanne Thiel, Lansing, Michigan

Fourth of July

2010-07-04T15:32:00.001-07:00

Comerica Bank Restoration Update

2010-07-04T10:22:00.000-07:00

The bank as it looked from circa 1960 to 2009. The clock, over what once was and is now again the main entrance, continued to operate. This was a branch of Security Pacific Bank at some point, but I don't recall that it was used for anything but a furniture store since I arrived in South Pasadena in 1981.

In this photo, taken June 20, 2010, the restoration is complete, and the palm trees have been planted. The one thing they didn't get right in the restoration is the ATM machine, which was much more understated in the 1920s.

In 1920, the First National Bank building on the corner of Fair Oaks and Mission in South Pasadena looked like this. Notice the streetcar tracks in the middle of Fair Oaks:

A careful examination of the back of the building reveals that the stonework is a facade. I presume the original stonework was a facade as well. The folks at the bank say they will display a photo of the 1920 bank on their wall soon. Comerica is only using the front portion of the building. They plan to lease out the rear portion, although from the looks of the raised concrete slab and the concrete room in the center of the rear space, the lessee will have a lot of jack-hammering to do.

Restoration

2010-06-12T09:24:00.001-07:00

In 1920, the First National Bank building on the corner of Fair Oaks and Mission in South Pasadena looked like this. Notice the streetcar tracks in the middle of Fair Oaks:

Today, almost completely restored and about to open as a branch of Comerica Bank, it looks like this:

For more information, including a glimpse at what the building looked like in the interim, see today's post on Laurie Allee's wonderful blog Glimpses of South Pasadena.

A careful examination of the back of the building reveals that the stonework is a facade. I presume the original stonework was a facade as well. To see what the building looked like before this restoration, go to Google Maps and look at the street view of Fair Oaks and Mission.

Pasadena City Hall

2010-05-09T17:49:00.000-07:00

These photos were taken during Pasadena Public Information Officer Ann Erdman's tour of city hall for several local bloggers. I especially loved hearing about the history of the building, which only cost a little more than a million dollars when it was built in the 1920s.

La Super Rica Taqueria

2010-05-03T23:06:00.001-07:00

The Santa Barbara taqueria that Julia Childs made famous. It's at the corner of Milpas and Alphonse. Exit the 101 at Milpas and head toward the mountains. It's tasty, unique, and funky. Most of the time there's a line, but this day it was not as busy as usual.

Twyla

2010-04-24T07:29:00.000-07:00

WHY "CUSS-FREE WEEK" IS SUSPECT

2010-03-09T22:34:00.000-08:00

I'm always wary of people who think they know what's best for others. When the State Senate refused to go along with the Assembly in adopting "Cuss-Free Week," Brent Hatch, father of the founder of South Pasadena High School's "No Cussing Club" said, "This is basically saying to people, especially kids, 'We don't care what you do.'" That's right, Mr. Hatch. When it comes to my personal conduct, the State Legislature should not care what I do. I wonder about people, like Mr. Hatch, who would love to control my personal life. You just wonder what they're hiding.

Take Republican State Senator Roy Ashburn, for example, whose built a career fighting against gay rights:

Reporting from Sacramento - A Republican state senator from conservative Bakersfield said Monday that he is homosexual, days after a report that he had been at a gay nightclub in Sacramento before being arrested on drunk driving charges while behind the wheel of his state car last week.

Sen. Roy Ashburn returned to work after being on leave since his arrest early Wednesday not far from the Capitol. The incident had touched off speculation about Ashburn's sexual orientation because a Sacramento television station said it occurred after he left a gay club. And Ashburn drew fire from activists for voting against gay-rights legislation.

The senator, who avoided reporters in the Senate chamber Monday afternoon, broke his silence in an interview on Bakersfield radio station KERN-AM (1180) in the morning, saying the episode had led to "restless nights" and "soul searching."

Ashburn told radio host Inga Barks that he owed his constituents an explanation. She responded, "Do you want me to ask you . . . the question, or do you want to just tell people?"

"I am gay," Ashburn answered. "Those are the words that have been so difficult for me for so long. But I am gay. But it is something that is personal and . . . I felt with my heart that being gay didn't affect -- wouldn't affect -- how I did my job.

"Through my own actions," said Ashburn, a divorced father of four, "I made my personal life public."

The arrest, widely discussed on Internet blogs, in newspapers and on TV, brought accusations of hypocrisy against the senator.

In 2005, Ashburn, like all but one other Republican in the Senate, voted against a bill that would have allowed same-sex marriage in California. The bill was later vetoed by the governor.

Ashburn also voted no, along with most of his GOP colleagues, on legislation passed last year that designated May 22 of each year as Harvey Milk Day, in honor of the slain gay-rights leader.

"It is unfortunate he helped spread the bigotry that forced him to stay in the closet," said Geoff Kors, executive director of Equality California, a group supporting gay marriage. "We hope he now takes this opportunity to educate people in his district and throughout the state that his sexual orientation is irrelevant."

Ashburn said his votes "reflect the wishes of the people in my district."

The senator announced months ago that he would not seek reelection this year. He had been under fire from conservative leaders in his district for voting with Democrats a year ago to approve tax increases.

"His recent drunk driving incident certainly adds to the concerns about his personal responsibility and his regard for the taxpayers whose vehicle he was driving," said Martin Bertram, president of the nonprofit Republican Assembly of Kern County.

He said the senator's revelation that he is gay "will not win him favor among conservatives," but he did not see Ashburn's past votes as hypocritical.

Ashburn faces arraignment next month in Sacramento County Superior Court on two misdemeanor counts involving driving under the influence of alcohol.

Ugly City Government

2010-02-13T06:46:00.000-08:00

This is from the Ostrich Feeder (http://cheynegateley.com/wordpress/)

He Who Must Not Be Named: Joe Payne

"I’d like to thank those of you who got in touch with me. And I heard roughly the same story enough that it’s worth posting. The South Pasadena Review already wrote that Joe Payne, a reserve officer for the South Pasadena Police Department, said he was approached by David Sifuentes months ago about the police chief position. I haven’t heard a bad thing about Payne. He’s well-liked among the ranks, and he worked for the SPPD for 35 years before he retired two years ago. The South Pasadena Police Officers Assn. maybe thinks he’d push for pay hikes. That helps to make sense of Mike Ten’s presentation, which implied South Pasadena is the deadliest place on Earth for a cop. That’s an assertion that seems to contradict the recently released Uniform Crime Report showing (yet another) significant drop in crime under Chief Dan Watson’s leadership.

Payne isn’t entirely without baggage. According to the L.A. Times, he’s one of six who sued the city after being demoted in the wake of scandals that plagued the department in the late 1990s. There’s nothing to suggest he was a bad cop, it’s just that when former Chief Michael Berkow came in to clean house, he thought there were too many cooks in the kitchen.

Anyhoo, here’s what I’m hearing is raising the hackles of residents:

The perceived arrogance of council members who plan the ouster of — and the successor to — the city’s police chief behind closed doors.
Elected officials who are giving the appearance of ignoring their constituency in favor of deep-pocketed campaign donors."

That’s pretty much the story we’ve been hearing for months. My question is: If South Pas is so much in the grips of dangerous criminals, why would we get rid of an experienced police chief and put in a man who has never run a department? Rumor has it that Joe Payne was planning to run for City Council, but changed his mind. Do you think that David Sifuentes or his man, Jeff Monocle, convinced Payne not to run for Council in exchange for the Police Chief job? That would explain why the Council needed to move Dan Watson out, in spite of his good record. That’s the rumor that’s going around, and it’s known that Sifuentes and Monocle have tried to convince other candidates not to run in the past. So far, every single rumor in this ugly mess has proved true, so I think it’s a safe bet that there was a deal in place all along. I would have thought that the exposure of Joe Payne’s name would cause the Council to back off of him, but it’s now clear that the Council is so arrogant and unconcerned about what the citizens want or what’s good for South Pasadena, they simply are beyond caring how bad anything looks. And this looks bad. The Council members will do what they want to do, no matter what the public outcry is. The question is whether the citizens of South Pasadena will accept a town run by unions and a City Council whose purpose is to do the unions' bidding. - Earl

Larry Wilson's Pasadena Star News Column

2010-01-17T07:39:00.000-08:00

Larry Wilson: South Pasadena will pack council chambers for Chief Watson

Posted: 01/16/2010 08:54:16 PM PST

South Pasadenans are keeping up the pressure on their City Council to reverse the ill-conceived, purely political putsch of police Chief Dan Watson.

Last week and this coming week as well, hundreds of them have signed a full-page ad in the local weekly, the Review, urging the council to reverse the decision to force the popular chief out.

The members of the council know he's done an excellent job, turning around a department formerly beset by numerous problems. With eight years of service, he's one of few longtime department heads in the city. Yet four out of five council members, the only principled exception being current Mayor Richard Schneider, were behind the wink-and-a-nod direction to Watson's actual boss, City Manager John Davidson, to throw out Watson. Or, rather, to "invite him to reapply for his job." Word from a number of locals is some council members have another candidate for chief, a former local officer himself. The latter wanted to run for council but was convinced to drop out and wait for an opportunity to lead the department. A few in the officers' union like that prospect, hoping for a new push for higher pay and unsustainable pensions.

Davidson serves at the pleasure of the council and is in a tough spot on this one.

If it wasn't just a wink and a nod that gave the direction to Davidson, then the council has violated California's Brown Act. Otherwise it would have had to report out its closed-session vote to direct Davidson to dump the chief. Here's Section 54957.1. of the open-records act: "(a) The legislative body of any local agency shall publicly report any action taken in closed session and the vote or abstention on that action of every member present ... Action taken to appoint, employ, dismiss, accept the resignation of, or otherwise affect the employment status of a public employee in closed session pursuant to Section 54957 shall be reported at the public meeting during which the closed session is held."

Didn't happen.

Look for dozens of South Pasadenans to turn out at Wednesday's council meeting to give the electeds a chance to undo their bad work.

[Emphasis added.]

Sad Day for South Pasadena

2010-01-08T22:51:00.000-08:00

The City Council was unmoved by a unanimous outpouring of support for Police Chief Dan Watson on January 6 and voted to proceed with not renewing his contract. They knew he would retire, and he has. There is no transparency here. For unknown reasons, the Council wanted Watson out, but they won't say why. They chose to do this right after the November election and during the holiday season, so it would not attract much attention. This is old-style back-room politics at its finest. Shame on them.

Keep the Chief

2009-12-24T10:14:00.000-08:00

I happened to pick up the South Pasadena Review yesterday and saw an article from last week about the City Council of South Pasadena wanting to have Police Chief Dan Watson reapply and compete for his own job. Dan Watson is a good man and a good police chief. In yesterday's issue of the Review, one person who spoke at the last City Council meeting stated that because there appear to be no performance issues with the Chief, it leads one to believe that there are other, self-serving reasons why some on the City Council apparently want to replace him. As many others do, I think this is outrageous.

Why would a City Council replace an experienced Chief with no performance issues, with someone else? Sounds very suspicious to me. What effect will this have on the morale of the South Pasadena Police Department and other city departments?

If you are a South Pasadena resident, please raise your voice in support of the Chief by emailing the city manager and city clerk, spreading the word, and attending the next City Council meeting on January 6. We need to make it clear that this is wrong and that if Chief Watson is removed from his job, those responsible will pay with their City Council seats when they come up for reelection.

Christmas Breakfast - Reprise

2009-12-24T05:34:00.000-08:00

[I posted this last Christmas Eve, and decided to post it again for those of you who, like me, have short memories or just didn't see it the first time. The rest of you will just have to enjoy it again, like an old friend.]

Christmas morning can be a challenging time for a single Jewish guy who wants to go someplace for breakfast. Every year I get in my car and drive up to Pasadena, and I always seem to find at least one place that's open. One year, the bakery next to Mi Piaci on Colorado was open. Another year, it was Robin's. But it seems to vary from year to year, and I can't seem to count on any place to be open year after year.

Several years ago, as I made my way into Old Town on Christmas morning, I noticed that Ruby's Diner (http://www.rubys.com/) at the corner of Green and Fair Oaks was open. Ruby's is a '50s-style diner that had great food and waiters and waitresses dressed in 50s style outfits. Sometimes my swing-dancing friends and I would go there in the evening after a dance at PBDA (http://www.pasadenaballroomdance.com/) and dance to the 50s music in the aisles between the tables. I was really happy that Ruby's was open that Christmas morning.

Upon arriving, I realized that I needed to buy an LA Times to read as I ate, but decided I'd wait until after I ordered my meal. As I entered, a young woman greeted me and asked me if I was there for breakfast. I thought this was a rather odd question. It was around 8:00 am, so what else would I be doing walking into a restaurant? I noticed that the waiters and waitresses were not wearing their usual Ruby's outfits. Instead they were wearing blue jeans and flannel shirts. I thought, "That's funny, but it is Christmas, and maybe they just thought they'd let them wear regular clothes."

I was taken to a booth, and I sat down waiting for someone to bring me coffee and a menu and take my order. As I waited, I noticed that instead of the usual salt and pepper shakers on the table there were those little paper envelopes. I also noticed that the utensils were plastic. I thought, "Well, it's Christmas, I guess they didn't want to bring in a full crew of dishwashers and others."

I thought it was odd that it was taking so long for them to come and take my order when suddenly two young waitresses appeared at my table. One had a pot of coffee and the other had a rectangular styrofoam plate containing scrambled eggs, bacon, hash browns, and toast, which she began to place in front of me. "What's this?" I asked. "It's breakfast," one of them said. "But I didn't order this," I said.

Just then a light went on in my head. "Is this a free breakfast for the homeless I asked?" "Yes," she said. "Oh," I said, "I can't eat this. I didn't realize." She said, "Don't worry about it. We have enough food to feed 500 people and only 50 have shown up. We're just going to have to throw it out." So I began to eat my free Christmas breakfast. I began looking around at the other diners. I saw a few homeless-looking people, and a few large tables of what appeared to be special needs patients. I felt so guilty, I didn't have the nerve to get up and buy a newspaper.

After I was done, I went over and offered to pay for my food or to make a donation. The waitress said, "There's no way you can. We don't have registers working, and all the food's been donated and paid for. We're just going to have to send all the leftovers to the park where they're serving lunch, but there will be way too much food."

So that's the story of my embarrassing Christmas breakfast at Ruby's.

Holiday Cards

2009-12-11T17:35:00.000-08:00

My friend Karin over at Altadena Hiker did a piece on Holiday Cards today. Like her, I don't often send out Holiday Cards, but there was one time I did. The year was 1994. O.J. Simpson had been tried for murder. During the trial, Judge Lance Ito had ordered prospective jurors not to look at, or listen to, or say anything related to O.J. Simpson. So I created a Halloween costume, a juror, who could neither see, hear, nor speak. I even went to the courthouse on Halloween and it made some of the papers. That year I did my one and only Holiday Card.

Six Degrees of Garage Sale

2009-10-02T21:15:00.000-07:00

Dottie's and Bob's Daughter
Dottie and Bob's Wedding Gift Table 1949
Mister Earl c. 1959
Sister Earl c. 1959

Today I was in Orange County visiting my mom, who has been having some health issues. I spent the day running back and forth between her apartment in a senior community and the assisted-living facility where she is at the moment. On one of these trips I noticed a very professional-looking sign saying that there was a garage sale in a nearby neighborhood. It was a Friday afternoon and I figured a sale with such a professional-looking sign would probably be pretty good.

I pulled up to the house and began to look around the driveway, which was filled with all sorts of knickknacks. There seemed to 5 senior citizens presiding over the sale: a husband and wife in their 80s, another couple in their 70s, and another male friend in his 70s. I noticed a framed chalk drawing of a young girl with big wide eyes and picked it up. "We have a drawing just like this," I said. "My sister and I had chalk drawings done one day when we were kids." "That's my daughter, " said the older lady. "She hates that drawing." "Ours were done in San Francisco, at Fisherman's Wharf, probably around 1960," I said. The lady nodded, "So was that." "You're kidding. San Francisco? Fisherman's Wharf?" "Yes, it was a young man who was doing kids' pictures." "I can't believe it," I said, "it must be the same guy. My mom has those drawings of me and my sister hanging in her apartment just down the street."

A few minutes later, the 80-something husband came out from the back of the garage with a watercolor painting of a woman probably in her 30s, who looked like a cross between Dale Evans and Della Street. "Who do you think this is?" he asked me. "It must be your wife," I said. "No, it's my girlfriend," he joked. "Are you selling that?' I asked. "No," said the wife, "I want him to throw it away." "Why don't you give it to your kids?" "They don't want it. I don't want it. What's past is past. I want it thrown away." "How about if I take it?" "No, I want it thrown away." At this point, one of the 70-something men was spiriting it away in the back of the garage, hoping to save it from the trash bin no doubt. A few moments later, the two 70s men called me over and said, "Look at this." It was photos of the older couple's wedding back in the 1940s. There was a photo of the table full of wedding gifts. Just a photo of 1940s appliances would have been worth having. There was some discussion between the older lady and these fellows about whether they should keep her wedding photos or throw them away. The men and the lady were in a struggle over whether her memories should go into the trash or be saved.

"I feel like I just walked into the middle of an I Love Lucy episode," I said. She buried her face in her hands, laughing uncontrollably for several minutes. "Touche!" she said. After a few more comments about the coincidence of the chalk drawings by the same street artist from 45 years ago, I said goodbye, but as I said it, I got an idea.

I went back to my mom's place to get her some shoes to wear at physical therapy and I took the chalk drawings of my sister and me off the wall. After I delivered the shoes to my mom and did a couple errands for her, I returned to the garage sale. I walked up the driveway, picked up the chalk drawing of her daughter, and brought her the three drawings. "Here they are." "Yes," she said, "It's the same eyes. It's definitely the same artist." We then began to talk about how she and her husband were finally selling their house and moving to a retirement home. I pointed to my mom's car, which is covered with scrapes and dings. "We're going to have to take her driving privileges away from her. It's getting too dangerous. Look at that car." "Yes," she said. I'm going to have to give up my license soon too." "It's going to be rough on my mom," I said, "She won't like it." "Tell her if she keeps driving and hurts someone it will probably be a child, and the pain of hurting a child will be unbearable and will kill her." We talked a little more, told each other our names. "You must be a very gentle man," she said, "Because you brought those drawings over." As I was leaving I saw a box with a ceramic figurine in it that said, "Bears from the Past." "What's in that box?" I asked. She opened it carefully and said, "It's a unicorn. Take it to your mother." And so I did. It's a magical unicorn with a missing horn.

2009-09-07T21:57:00.000-07:00

Where there's fire, there's smoke

2009-08-30T08:58:00.001-07:00

Yesterday the mountains and the flames were visible. Today the smoke has spread out so that you wouldn't even know the mountains are there.
La Canada from the Rose Bowl, with hawk.
The mountains behind the Rose Bowl have disappeared.

Morning sun over South Pasadena.

Fire on the Mountain

2009-08-29T22:07:00.001-07:00

Corporate Giving

2009-06-20T06:51:00.000-07:00

I don't know about you, but whenever I go to the supermarket, Vons or Pavillions, they always ask me to give to a charity, usually to fight some disease. "Would you like to make a small donation to ...?" they ask. "Would you like to round up your change to give to...?" I'd like to say, "Would you like give a small donation to the Mister Earl Foundation?" or "Can I round down my change so I can afford...?"

They often have a large bottle of soda in front of the checker with a note on it that says something like, "If our checker fails to ask you to donate to pancreatic cancer, you get this bottle of soda free." What they don't tell you is that the bottle of soda causes pancreatic and several other cancers.

They say that one of the best ways to combat prostate cancer is, well, to keep using the prostate as much as possible. The other day the checker at Vons asked, "Would you like to make a small donation to fight prostate cancer?" "I gave last night," I said.

Streets of San Francisco

2009-06-07T16:15:00.001-07:00

Streets of San Francisco
The tip of Angel Island points the way

From Tiburon

Belvedere (17th highest income place in the US) seen from Tiburon
BelevedereHouse of the Skinny Folks

Muir Woods

2009-05-17T19:14:00.001-07:00

Kansas City

2009-04-06T20:53:00.000-07:00

A little snow to greet me
The mighty Missouri from Quality Hill
The old Livestock Exchange (red in center) and Kemper Arena (white on left)
The town of Parkville, MOPark College in Parkville, MO
Apartment buildings on Brush Creek could easily front Central Park in NYA car that would be at home in Venice Beach
There is a price for walking in front of my camera without asking
Restored ceiling at Union Station
The farm at Lee's Summit

What's In, Or Not In, a Logo?

2009-02-28T10:56:00.001-08:00

New Claussen Pickle Lid

Old Claussen Pickle Lid

New Starbucks Logo

Old Starbucks Logo

Where the Bacon Comes From

2009-02-07T06:33:00.000-08:00

In response to Margaret's Great Bacon Caper Challenge http://margaretfinnegan.blogspot.com/2009/02/i-challenge-you-great-bacon-caper.html

Here is where most of the bacon originates. Find the pig in this photo!

Get Over It (But Maybe I Wouldn't Either)

2009-01-31T06:34:00.000-08:00

I was writing to Coachblogger about my high school and it made me recall this story. About 5 or 6 years after high school, I was working at a local pizza parlor. The manager was a year older than I and had attended the high school that was our rival. One day he was telling me that he'd played basketball. I remembered some of the amazing games that our two high schools played. So I said, "Do you remember that game for the league championship, when Bob Somerby hit that foul shot with no time remaining to win the championship for us?" Without even waiting for one split second, and 5 or 6 years after the fact, he exclaimed, "That wasn't a foul!!!"

The Interview

2009-01-23T23:38:00.000-08:00

Brett over at Coachblogger25.blogspot.com was "interviewed" on his blog by another blogger, and he offered to interview anyone who asked per the guidelines listed below. Here are his questions to me, and my responses.

1) You don't reveal much on your profile, why so guarded in what you tell others about yourself?

Well, the internet is a very public place. Most people don't realize how much can be found out about them with a few searches. There are reasons I don't want anyone to just be able to find out a lot of details about me. Enough said...

2) I noticed that you have some great pictures on your blog, do you take your own shots that you post?

Thank you for the compliment. Yes, I take my own photos, but I don't consider myself a photographer, as compared to some of the more "focused" photographers with blogs. I guess I do have a natural eye that gets me by to some extent. Maybe I'll develop my skills more as I go along. I have a pretty basic Kodak digital camera that I got about five years ago. Kills me that my old Nikon is obsolete, but at least I don't need to buy film and get it developed! In my house, I have a great photo that I took with a Kodak Brownie in 1959 at Seals Stadium in San Francisco. It's a black and white of Orlando Cepeda in the on-deck circle with Willie Mays at the plate in the background. The Giants were playing the NL Champion Braves that day, and we were in the third row! I discovered blogs quite by accident when I was looking for something about South Pasadena, the town I live in, and stumbled on Laurie Allee's blog, Glimpses of South Pasadena. She's really a good photographer. That got me reading several other blogs, and I found your blog when you commented on hers!

3) Living in Pasadena, do you get caught up in the Rose Parade and if so, how many have you attended?

Yes I do. I love to go see the South Pasadena float as it's being built. One year I did an email photo essay of the South Pas float from chassis to teardown. Even included a photo of the float on TV. I think I've been to about 5 or 6 parades in 27 years here. One year I bought tickets for me and my parents. A couple years I got primo tickets right in front of the Elks Club from a friend who worked at Arco. A couple years, I just showed up in the morning with a chair. This year, at 6:40 am I looked at the clock and turned to my girlfriend, who'd never seen a Rose Parade before, saying, "We've got time to make it up there if you want to get dressed and go." She said "Yes!" and that was that. We got a good spot and had a great time. Even more fun than the parade for me is seeing the floats as they're being built over at the Rose Palace, Rosemont Pavilion, and some of the other locations. (Just like I think batting practice and fielding practice before a baseball game is more interesting than the game itself.) This year, we got to see a bunch of floats heading west on Huntington Drive at around 8 pm on New Year's Eve as we headed over to Sierra Madre for dinner. My girlfriend thought that was one of the highlights.

4) What do you enjoy most about having your own blog?

I registered my blog just so I could post comments to other blogs. That's almost more fun to me than posting on my own blog. But I also like being able to share photos with other people, and tell a few of my stories like the Christmas Breakfast at Ruby's Diner and an upcoming one about how I fought city hall and won. I got some urging to get going with a blog from some of the other local bloggers. It's good to have a place to post things you want to share with others.

5) What do you like about reading other blogs?

I love humor most of all. Altadena Hiker is really funny, as is Mademoiselle Gramophone, and your story about Alani's cussing is just hysterical. I also like many of the serious things I read and learn from the blogs. Today I read a great article by Margaret Finnegan about her abusive father. There's a lot to learn about, although I did kind of get started sharing a lot of information on Laurie's blog that I had picked up about South Pasadena. Several of the Pasadena-area bloggers have met for lunch the last couple months, and it's fun to get to know some of the other bloggers in person. Lots of really bright, accomplished people. And I think Coachblogger25 is amazing. One post makes me laugh and the next makes me cry.

Now it's your turn if you would like me to interview you just leave a comment and I will email you the questions! Here's the directions:

1. Leave me a comment saying, "Interview me."

2. I will respond by emailing you five questions. (I get to pick the questions).

3. You will update your blog with the answers to the questions.

4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.

5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions

Begin Obama

2009-01-20T14:22:00.000-08:00

This photo appeared at SFGate.com (the SF Chronicle's website) today, and I just had to share it. "Normally this street sign would say "END BUSH," but the signs on Bush Street have been changed to "OBAMA" on Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2009, in San Francisco. (Kurt Rogers / The Chronicle)"

Doo-Dah Craftman Smackdown?

2009-01-18T21:35:00.001-08:00

Did you say you wanted to see another craftsman?

2009-01-16T17:29:00.001-08:00

One of my favorite local craftsmans

2009-01-15T16:08:00.000-08:00

This is at Stratford and Oxley in South Pasadena. It's low and long, and it shows how the dark colors and the large eaves make them very difficult to photograph.

One for Laurie's Smackdown

2009-01-13T20:41:00.001-08:00

Due to the thousands of cards and letters saying the Gamble House was just too easy, I hereby enter this little one, which is in the "Small and Bushy" category.

The Gamble House on Orange Grove

2009-01-12T22:23:00.001-08:00

Here's a photo of the Gamble House that I took on the way to the 2005 Rose Bowl game.

This photo is not entered in the Smackdown (unless there's a separate "Big and Non-Bushy" category.)

The Lake Shrine

2009-01-08T17:16:00.000-08:00

At the end of Sunset Boulevard near Pacific Coast Highway is one of the best kept secrets in Los Angeles: The Lake Shrine. http://www.seeing-stars.com/Churches/LakeShrine.shtml The shrine belongs to the Self-Realization Fellowship http://www.yogananda-srf.org/. It's a great place to visit. Here are some photos from my visit on January 3, 2009.

January 1, 2009

2009-01-01T17:28:00.001-08:00

The South Pasadena float wraps up the 2009 Rose Parade as it approaches Sierra Madre Boulevard.

December 31, 2008

2008-12-31T18:37:00.001-08:00

Did someone say the Rose Parade sucks...

It's never too late to start...

Or to practice...

Or to pretend you're somewhere else..

Or to wear your best sunglasses ...

Or to say... "Take this, Vermont..."

South Pasadena Float 12 27 08 - 1

2008-12-27T15:21:00.000-08:00

Flowers sit in buckets of water in the Bristol Farms trailer, waiting to be put on the float.

The Oaklawn Bridge in the background was built by the famous architects, Greene & Greene, in 1906 to promote sale of homes in the Oaklawn area to which it leads by foot from Fair Oaks Avenue.

Rose Parade's shoemakers.

South Pasadena Float 12 27 08 - 2

2008-12-27T15:11:00.000-08:00

The white fiberglass float has been painted in its final colors. All that remains is to glue on flowers or other vegetable matter that will cover the paint. Here this cricket has already received his dark green coat of vegetation, as his other colors await.

Volunteers remove each flower from its stem and place it on a tray to give to other volunteers who will glue the flowers onto the float.

Oaklawn Bridge, Greene & Greene, 1906

Christmas Breakfast

2008-12-24T07:11:00.000-08:00

Christmas morning can be a challenging time for a single Jewish guy who wants to go someplace for breakfast. Every year I get in my car and drive up to Pasadena, and I always seem to find at least one place that's open. One year, the bakery next to Mi Piaci on Colorado was open. Another year, it was Robin's. But it seems to vary from year to year, and I can't seem to count on any place to be open year after year.

Several years ago, as I made my way into Old Town on Christmas morning, I noticed that Ruby's Diner (http://www.rubys.com/) at the corner of Green and Fair Oaks was open. Ruby's is a '50s-style diner that had great food and waiters and waitresses dressed in 50s style outfits. Sometimes my swing-dancing friends and I would go there in the evening after a dance at PBDA (http://www.pasadenaballroomdance.com/) and dance to the 50s music in the aisles between the tables. I was really happy that Ruby's was open that Christmas morning.

Upon arriving, I realized that I needed to buy an LA Times to read as I ate, but decided I'd wait until after I ordered my meal. As I entered, a young woman greeted me and asked me if I was there for breakfast. I thought this was a rather odd question. It was around 8:00 am, so what else would I be doing walking into a restaurant? I noticed that the waiters and waitresses were not wearing their usual Ruby's outfits. Instead they were wearing blue jeans and flannel shirts. I thought, "That's funny, but it is Christmas, and maybe they just thought they'd let them wear regular clothes."

I was taken to a booth, and I sat down waiting for someone to bring me coffee and a menu and take my order. As I waited, I noticed that instead of the usual salt and pepper shakers on the table there were those little paper envelopes. I also noticed that the utensils were plastic. I thought, "Well, it's Christmas, I guess they didn't want to bring in a full crew of dishwashers and others."

I thought it was odd that it was taking so long for them to come and take my order when suddenly two young waitresses appeared at my table. One had a pot of coffee and the other had a rectangular styrofoam plate containing scrambled eggs, bacon, hash browns, and toast, which she began to place in front of me. "What's this?" I asked. "It's breakfast," one of them said. "But I didn't order this," I said.

Just then a light went on in my head. "Is this a free breakfast for the homeless I asked?" "Yes," she said. "Oh," I said, "I can't eat this. I didn't realize." She said, "Don't worry about it. We have enough food to feed 500 people and only 50 have shown up. We're just going to have to throw it out." So I began to eat my free Christmas breakfast. I began looking around at the other diners. I saw a few homeless-looking people, and a few large tables of what appeared to be special needs patients. I felt so guilty, I didn't have the nerve to get up and buy a newspaper.

After I was done, I went over and offered to pay for my food or to make a donation. The waitress said, "There's no way you can. We don't have registers working, and all the food's been donated and paid for. We're just going to have to send all the leftovers to the park where they're serving lunch, but there will be way too much food."

So that's the story of my embarrassing Christmas breakfast at Ruby's

More from December 13

2008-12-13T08:45:00.001-08:00

South Pasadena Float Mechanical Check - December 13, 2008

2008-12-13T08:16:00.000-08:00

Today they took the South Pasadena Rose Parade float out for a thorough mechanical check. Once they pulled it out onto Fair Oaks Avenue, you didn't want to be behind it!

Schuco Cars from my childhood

2008-12-03T05:25:00.000-08:00

Images from the Santa Ynez Valley - November 21

2008-11-29T06:24:00.000-08:00

Sylmar Sunday

2008-11-17T18:47:00.000-08:00

Here are a couple photos I took in Sylmar on November 16.