Blurring the line between art and life

Tonight after work, I stopped by Kwik-E-Mart. What makes this Kwik-E-Mart more special than any of the others across the U.S.? It's in Burbank and The Simpsons writers and animators work right down the street. So, if there were a convenience store that inspired Kwik-E-Mart, it would be here.

In honor of The Simpsons movie opening tonight, I'm posting pictures from my trip to Kwik-E-Mart.

Kwik-E-Mart's Wall of Fame. The Animators' version of the headshot.

A close-up of the drawing 3rd down on the right.

Mmm... donuts

Kwik-E-Mart's stance on fruit.

It Never Rains in L.A. in the Summertime?

I woke up this morning to an extremely rare sound: raindrops hitting the sidewalk. That's right it rained today in L.A., in July, in the middle of summertime. According to the National Weather Service, we received about 1/10 of inch of precipitation and there's a 20% chance of it raining tomorrow.

For those Chicagoans who don't understand why I am blogging this event, rain in L.A. in July is about as elusive as the strike zone for a White Sox bullpen pitcher this season or a World Series win for the Cubs.

Milestone

This was the reading on my odometer this morning. My car has hit the 10,000 mile point. Boo hoo. I've had my car for 19 months so 10,000 isn't bad mileage for the length of time I've owned my car. It's just sad to see my odometer hit the 5-digit mark.

Using the current data, I figured out my car is on track to hit 100,000 in just slightly under 14.5 years. I don't even want to consider how old I'll be then... And, yes, I am that much of geek.

Pink's

Yesterday, I blew my diet (and am now regretting that action after I got on the scale this morning and viewed the results) and went to Pink's. Pink's, named after its founder Paul Pink, is an iconic Los Angeles hot dog stand that has been in business since 1939. It sells hot dogs, Polish sausages (though they call them "Polish dogs" here), hamburgers, burritos and variations thereof. Pink's claims to have the "world's best chili dogs", which is their basic style hot dog but there are many toppings one can choose to put on a hot dog. The tell-tale sign this stand is for real is it did not offer ketchup as a topping of choice, which, of course, is sacrilege. It wouldn't be a hot dog stand in Hollywood if there weren't hot dogs named after movies and celebrities. One can order the Lord of the Rings Dog (BBQ sauce and onion rings top that dog). Even Martha Stewart blessed this stand as there is a hot dog named after her. Her dog's toppings include relish, onions, bacon, chopped tomatoes, sauerkraut and sour cream. Homesick New Yorkers and Chicagoans can also choose their hometown toppings.

The wait was long.

Very Long! It was nearly an hour.

But I prevailed and ate a Chicago-style Polish dog.

All-in-all, the food was decent. Eating at Pink's can only be a special treat and the long line does discourage me from eating there. Also, my waistline wouldn't be able to handle it. If I really wanted an authentic Chicago hot dog, I wouldn't go there. There was no celery salt and the toppings came on top of a Polish sausage instead of a hot dog. One word of advice: don't order the lemonade. It tasted like Kool-aid.

My Co-workers

Every spring at work, deer invade the campus and stay through the fall. Deer are everywhere. When I left work last week, there were eight deer grazing outside the door of my building. The amazing thing is that they are not scared of people. There have been several times I've seen the deer walking amongst us on the same campus sidewalks my colleagues and I use.

The deer are wild and not domesticated. My employer constantly reminds us not to feed the wildlife and I haven't heard of any stories of anyone doing so. The deer and us workers peacefully co-exist.

You don't see her because I've cropped her out of the picture (I didn't take this picture), but there was a woman standing just on the other side of the table. This table was being used for check-in point at an awards ceremony. I guess the deer thought they should have received an award also.

Scandal

When I lived in Milwaukee the city competed with everything Chicago, whose large shadow extended well beyond those 90 miles between the two cities. Everything from Summerfest to Milwaukee's lakefront development was compared to what Chicago did. Chicago, secure in its position as being the preeminent city of the Midwest, was too busy watching what New York did to care about Milwaukee. I would suspect that the rivalry between Chicago and New York is just as one-sided as the Milwaukee - Chicago rivalry.

Los Angeles has the same rivalry with New York, perhaps not as intense as the Chicago-New York one, but it does exist. This week a scandal broke which can only rival that of a Mayor Guiliani scandal. A few weeks ago, our mayor, Antonio Villaraigosa, announced that he and his wife of 20 years were splitting. He was going to move out of the mayor's mansion but still work from there. His wife will retain residence at the mansion (and at taxpayers' expense?!?). Apparently, the mayor's mansion is similar to the office/residence balance of the White House. Many local newscasts reported on the separation, including a Spanish-speaking station, where a woman newsanchor read the story about the Mayor leaving his wife. The story may have raised a couple eyebrows and was a topic in casual conversation but nothing out of the ordinary.

It broke this week that the woman newscaster, Mirthala Salinas, knew about the separation earlier than the announcement because she's been the Mayor's "girlfriend" for the past year. Not only had she been in a relationship with the Mayor, she also covered City Hall. Ya think there may have been a conflict of interest? As someone who majored in journalism in college, I am aghast by this woman's ethics. The press is suppose to report on political stories not become part of the story. I'm not naive enough to believe this is the first time the line has been blurred but where does this woman draw the line and not contaminate her reporting? Where is her objectivity? I read yesterday that she was put on paid administrative leave by Telemundo. Good, I hope she is fired.

As for Villaraigosa, he cancelled his public appearances this week. The talk here in L.A. is if his political career (not only if he will be re-elected as mayor but there had been talk about him running for governor and/or eventually for president one day) can withstand the scandal. Where do private, personal affairs end and public interest begin in politicians' lives? Does how a politician conduct his personal life effect his ability to run a city? Will he have enough clout left to run a city? These are questions Angelenos are asking themselves this week. Scandal didn't appear to hurt Guiliani but his leadership during 9/11 was strong enough to withstand any kinks scandals may have left. I'm too new to L.A. to guess what the voters will do about the future of Villaraigosa and I certainly hope that we don't have an event like 9/11 to test the leadership skills of our Mayor. I will concede to New York on that one.