From the category archives:

Odds and Ends

Speaking of the Lincolns…

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Call me a sucker for GEICO commercials. As a MarCom professional myself, I not only admire the auto insurer’s inventiveness, but also have to confess to a tinge of jealousy at all the fun the company’s creatives must be having behind the scenes. After all, who wouldn’t want to work for a corporation with a [...]

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SoCal Kitsch: Pink Panther Muffler Man

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Muffler sculptures are a staple of auto garages everywhere, but thanks to our Car Culture, they’re especially ubiquitous here in Southern California.
As an art form, more often than not they lack imagination, frequently resembling uninspired robots or clunky mechanical aliens. When you come across one that’s truly whimsical — like this Pink Panther near the [...]

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Metropolis: A Must-See for Cinema Buffs!

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Seeking 2 hours and 45 minutes of golden silence on the silver screen? You can’t do any better than Fritz Lang’s historic 1927 film masterpiece Metropolis, now playing on the Laemmle’s Theatre circuit.
Set in the 21st Century, the silent classic envisions a futuristic world in which a seductive female android goads subterranean proletariat workers to [...]

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Back in the Saddle Again

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I swear this blog has more lives than a danged alley cat.
Yes, since Dateline>City of Angels was launched a few years back, it’s suffered more B-Western-style cliff hangers than any self-respectin’ blog deserves. In fact, when we last left our plucky Web journal, it was finally starting to hit its stride once more after a [...]

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Aliens Implicated in Mysterious Cattle Slaughter

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While the rest of us were carving up our turkeys for the holiday, it appears someone — or something — in southern Colorado was engaging in an otherworldly animal carving ritual of their own.
According to this Associated Press story, “a creepy string of calf mutilations” has left local ranchers and sheriff’s officials “mystified:”
“Four calves were [...]

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Happy Thanksgiving!

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Dateline>City of Angels will resume regular posting after the holiday weekend. In the meantime, enjoy this Gloria Gaynor parody, courtesy USA Green Card Center.

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Saturday Matinee: Bigfoot Roams Elysian Park!

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A purported sighting of the elusive Sasquatch along the trails of Los Angeles’ oldest city park near Dodger Stadium. Obviously this little clip is intended as a spoof, but even if it weren’t, there’s a glaring flaw in the video that should raise astute Angeleno eyebrows.
Can you guess what it is? Here’s a clue: Look [...]

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Old News: L.A.’s Dangerous Streets Revisited

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A week ago this blog brought you the news that L.A.’s streets have been ranked the nation’s third most deadly to pedestrians. But have our streets always been so mean?
Obviously, such statistics weren’t kept 117 years ago, but this April 21, 1892, Los Angeles Times “City Brief” may offer a clue:
“People should be careful about [...]

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Everything Comes Up Roses With Capt. Sully

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If there’s one thing you can count on, it’s for Tournament of Roses officials to bring a trademark “rosy optimism” to each New Year’s celebration.
For a year overshadowed by malaise like 2010 promises to be, could they have done any better to lift our spirits than naming Capt. Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger as the parade’s Grand [...]

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Yes, Mr. DeMille, We’re Ready for Our Closeup!

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Like Sunset Boulevard’s fictional movie fatale Norma Desmond, I hate the word “comeback,” so let’s take her cue and call this blog’s resurrection a “return.”
After a catastrophic attempt to update WordPress over a month ago, your humble blogger was left scrambling to recover hundreds of former posts and photos and redesign Dateline>City of Angels from [...]

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Pardon Our Dust

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If you’re reading this, you likely reached Dateline>City of Angels either through a back door or some search engine, and are now wondering why it appears so … incomplete.
Answer: We’re still under construction — or rather, “re-construction” — after a nasty blog crash several weeks ago. That reconstruction has meant changing locations to a new [...]

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Where Were You When the Eagle Landed?

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I count myself fortunate to have been a young witness to one of humankind’s proudest achievements. Forty years ago I, like millions the world over, gazed in awe as the Apollo 11 lunar module Eagle touched down at Tranquility Base.
A boy of seven, I was gathered with my brothers in our family living room along [...]

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Old News: When Those Freaky Circus People Come to Town

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There’s a certain historical irony in this month’s return of Cirque Berzerk (left) to the Los Angeles State Historic Park with a schedule of weekend performances. Over a century ago, L.A.’s City Fathers faced quite a conundrum over how to prevent such big-top hijinks from disturbing the Sunday peace.
Reporting on City Hall’s daily antics, the [...]

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Running With the RC Crowd

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Whenever there’s a lull here at the ol’ blog, you can bet I’m pouring all my energy into some paid writing gig. One of the great things about being a writer is the opportunity to learn all sorts of interesting stuff about a variety of subjects and then share those discoveries with readers.
Take for instance [...]

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Pop Quiz: SoCal’s Most Notable Flora

Thanks to the region’s famous mediterranean climate, Southern California boasts one of the richest mixes of native and exotic plant life found anywhere in the world. But here’s a thorny pop-cultural question for you…
What does the Bird of Paradise pictured here have in common with the rose, camellia and California Golden Poppy?
One little hint: We’re [...]

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L.A. in Quotes: Hollywood Gossip Edition

“Our town worships success, the bitch goddess whose smile hides a taste for blood.”
– Hedda Hopper (1890-1966).
The famed Los Angeles Times gossip columnist knew of what she spoke. The Perez Hilton of her day (albeit with a lot more class and clout), Hopper fomented a ruthless rivalry with Hearst newspaper columnist Louella Parsons beginning in [...]

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More Old News: Trouble at the Ol’ Coronel Place

If you’re a faithful reader of this blog, you’ve already met Antonio Coronel, 19th century L.A. mayor and leading citizen extraordinaire. Now it’s time to meet his widow Mariana, courtesy a news item carried by the Los Angeles Times 110 years ago this month.
Entitled The Coronel Mansion, the May 2, 1899, piece reports the courtroom [...]

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Old News: Living the Good Life in 1890s Glendora

Ahhh, Glendora… Garden spot of the Southland.
Well maybe not nowadays, but 119 years ago, the Los Angeles Times reported that “you can scarcely find a livelier place” in all Southern California…
“There are no loungers around the postoffice and stores. It is almost out of the question to get a man if you want one for [...]

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L.A. in Quotes: Tax Day Stimulus Edition

“We are taxed for schools — taxed as no people ever were — and the reason our children cannot go to school is because our money has not been properly used.”
–Major Horace Bell (1830-1918).
Major Bell was publisher of The Porcupine, a famous 19th Century weekly L.A. newspaper dedicated to skewering civic corruption and hypocrisy.
The above [...]

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What’s Your L.A. Experience?

Lately a number of Dateline>City of Angels readers have begun to share with me their personal stories and mementos of life in L.A. These have ranged from childhood memories of vanished landmarks to old snapshots of historic places to some really interesting ghost encounters and related urban legends — stuff too good to keep to [...]

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