Stuff I Saw on Sunday

I decided to take a drive this morning.  I drove to El Segundo, where I lived from January of 1989 until I fell ill in May of 2009.  I drove up and down Main Street.  Some places are unchanged from my first days in the small-town city buried in the midst of an urban megalopolis.  Others are gone.

Part of the reason I went there was it is the closest place where I can get food from a certain chain.  The other was so I could drive home on Vista Del Mar and look out at the ocean.  I opened the car windows and smelled the sea air, marveling at how well they can control the sewage plant odors now.  When I first moved there, we called is Smell Segundo more than once.  I watched people laying on the beach, sailing on the waters and just having fun.  It was relaxing.  It was invigorating.  I promised myself that the next time I start to feel overwhelmed, I will drive right back there.

As I drove north on Vista Del Mar I remembered spending many hours in weekday morning traffic on that road.  There had been recent changes in the set-up of this critical north/south thoroughfare that reduced traffic to one lane in each direction.  Thankfully for those who use that road for their morning commute, those "improvements" have been removed.  I'm willing to wager that the morning drive through there still sucks, but unwilling to test it for myself.

There is an exit from the northbound 405 onto Culver Boulevard.  It has a stoplight there and a great big "No Right on Red" sign there.  I watched four of the five cars in front of me at that light turn right on the red signal.  I was surprised when the last car in front of mine didn't do the same.  I guess I'm not the only one who obeys traffic signs.  I am concerned about safety, but I'm also worried that a ticket would ramp up my insurance premiums significantly.

* * *

Once again, people who had paid in advance for admission to the Pride Festival in West Hollywood were turned away because the venue was already at capacity.  A fresh example of the 6 P's.

Prior
Planning
Prevents
Piss
Poor
Performance

Fix this for next year.

* * *

In 1983, Air Force Captain William Howard Hughes, Jr. withdrew $28,000 from 19 banks and vanished.  He worked with command, control and communications surveillance systems, specializing in radar surveillance.

35 years later, he's been caught living under a false identity.  News reports claim that he says he was depressed about being in the Air Force.  There had been speculation he had defected to the Soviet Union.   Now it appears he's been here all this time.

35 years of hiding, living in fear.  Now he faces 5 years in prison for desertion.

* * *

Random Ponderings

If Travel Channel had brought back Adam Richman as the host of Man v. Food, I'd be watching.  The new host isn't awful, but he doesn't bring Adam's genius to the show.

Watched TMZ on TV and saw a piece about how one of their people had a chance to ask Al Pacino a question; and all she could come up with was "how are you feeling?"  Reminded me of my days as a radio reporter.  President Reagan was arriving in Las Vegas and I wanted to go out to try to get in a question.  Instead, the news director sent the "pretty, blonde" reporter who...well, let's just say she wasn't a deep thinker.  She does get the president's attention and suddenly she has him right there, live on the air.  Her brilliant question was, "say hi to Las Vegas, Mister President." I wonder if she wound up as a TV reporter, which was her dream job.

Why am I not surprised that people were trying to pitch replacement programs for Anthony Bourdain's CNN show Parts Unknown?  Calling such people vultures is insulting to vultures.

I look at lists of people involved with upcoming movie projects and wonder "how many of them knew and kept silent" about Harvey Weinstein's sexual proclivities.  How many knew "Hollywood's Worst-Kept Secret?"

Watching the video below gives me hope for the future.