The Distressed But Still Functional Eagle Rock Library

I rode my bike to the Eagle Rock branch library (that's my bike on the right with the green panniers) to pick up "Fighter," a book about the Battle of Britain by Len Deighton. So far it's pretty good in that it dispenses with the loyal band of brothers tripe in favor of a clear-eyed assessment.

This is a view of the library to the left of the entrance. The head librarian ordered yellow tape put around the bushes to keep the local homeless population from living in there (and sleeping upright in the library chairs during the day). I once stopped off at the library on my way home from Trader Joe's with a bag of food in my basket. I was only in the library for perhaps 2 1/2 minutes but when I came out my $15 bag of food was gone (crackers and cooked frozen chicken wings among other things). I was indignant at the thief and furious at myself at being so trusting. I jumped on my bike and rode up and down all the local streets trying to find the thief. It was only a week later that I realized that all the local transients I saw hanging out by the library were living in the bushes at night. I went back there and searched and found a matted Trader Joe's bag ground into the mud.

The homeless lived there for the better part of the year until the library finally kicked them out. I still see them around though (there is a service center for transients just half a block away) but I don't think they live any longer in the bushes.

If this had happened in Glendale, the homeless would never have been allowed to set up shop in the bushes right next to a building used by hundreds of kids every day. Glendale has so many cops, if someone gets pulled over for having a broken tail light or expired tag, in five minutes they have 5 squad cars at the scene.

A cool late winter morning on the patio but still warm enough to sit outside, sip coffee and read the paper.

Now if I only had something better to read than the LA Times.

Golf Couse

The sign looks better than the golf course does.

Now It Begins

A US helicopter just shot up six friendly Libyans who were coming to help a downed US pilot. I guess he panicked and called for bomb drops. Everyone was scared and trigger happy. "Shoot all ragheads!"

What are we doing in this country? We have so much money, the economy is so good we can afford to take on yet another endless war?

And where the fuck is congress?

US to Blockade Libyan Ships

Now the Mission Creep Begins. First it was just a no-fly zone. Then we began attacking air defense facilities, command and control centers, tanks and trucks. Now we're thinking about blockading their ships. How long will it be before we hear calls for boots on the ground? And when that happens--Welcome to the next never-ending Mideast War.

Evacuation of Tokyo

Sometime in the next week or ten days the winds around the Japanese nuclear reactors that are leaking radiation are going to shift from blowing toward the ocean to blowing southwest, which is to say, towards Tokyo. The Japanese people initially won't panic but the French, the Americans the Scandinavians will. They will monopolize all the planes, trains and aircraft out of the area, at which point the psychological contagion will spread and panic will sweep over Tokyo.

Since there is no good place to put 17 million people there will be no solution. A worldwide depression is not out of the question.

And people still argue there is no over-population problem in the world.

LL Bean Models--Better Than The Girl Next Door

The female models in LL Bean catalogs are generally blond Nordic looking women. They dress modestly (no cleavage or camel toe pants). They use little make-up, wear wedding bands and are often depicted with small children in the background. The impression LL Bean tries to give is that of women who are happily married (or soon will be).

I like it. I wish more women took the same approach. Perhaps they don't for fear they'd end up with someone like me.