[hollywood]

Some new walk/don't walk (actually pedestrian/hand) signs have started to appear. They do a flashing countdown of the number of seconds you've got left to get across to the other side. Now, if they would just play the Mission Impossible theme or maybe the Ventures' Walk Don't Run.

Saw a guy noodling around on his laptop. He had a very fluffy toy poodle with him. It was pure snow white except for the first 3" of each paw which had been dyed yellow--to simulate boots, I guess.

[The Scream]

I keep running into a big Russian family shopping at the Armenian store and Korean store nearby. They go to the Armenian store to stock up on Russian/Eastern European ingredients like caviar, smoked fish, salami, hams, etc... Then I see them at the Korean store with two grocery carts full on kimchi and every Korean condiment or prepared food available. I think they are probably from a part of Russia with a large Korean population. Every time I see this family I think that this trio of cultures are most likely to meet in this little part of Los Angeles. I wouldn't expect to see this in say Lancaster.

2-3 kids in my daughter's second grade class have cell phones that their parents send them school with "in case of an emergency". They all get dropped off and pick up by their parents, are under constant supervision....

Woman calling out to her Pomeranians, "Brittany!!! Ashley!!! Girls come to mommy!"

1/2 Korean, 1/2 Indian child named Myung-Ki Achuthanandan*

Shawarma tacos

Raw food version of bibimbap at the Farmer's Market (don't know if it's still there)





*Name changed to protect the innocent and maybe something like this could happen in Colorado.

[flyfish]

The Scream, on Jul 21 2006, 05:03 PM, said:

Shawarma tacos.

Hmm, if word gets out about this in Ottawa, there could be trouble...

Fly

[The Scream]

flyfish, on Jul 22 2006, 12:00 AM, said:

The Scream, on Jul 21 2006, 05:03 PM, said:

Shawarma tacos.

Hmm, if word gets out about this in Ottawa, there could be trouble...

Fly

They serve these at a Lebanese style place.

Funny thing is tacos al pastor or tacos arabe are actually shawarma tacos, but obviously made with pork instead of lamb or chicken. There's a lengthy thread about this on another food forum (not eg). All these years I never made the historical connection, until a food scholar pointed it out to me.

[flyfish]

The Scream, on Jul 21 2006, 08:07 PM, said:

They serve these at a Lebanese style place.

I guessed that...

The Scream, on Jul 21 2006, 08:07 PM, said:

Funny thing is tacos al pastor or tacos arabe are actually shawarma tacos, but obviously made with pork instead of lamb or chicken. There's a lengthy thread about this on another food forum (not eg). All these years I never made the historical connection, until a food scholar pointed it out to me.

Very interesting, all of this. We have a BIG Lebanese population here and and shawarma places are everywhere, many with "royal" names: Shawarma Palace. Shawarma King. Shawarma Prince, etc. DH says he wants to open a place called Shawarmaduke.

Next time I am speaking to our local Shawarma Nazi, I just might mention the taco concept...

Fly

[ludja]

hollywood, on Jul 21 2006, 01:20 PM, said:

...

Saw a guy noodling around on his laptop. He had a very fluffy toy poodle with him. It was pure snow white except for the first 3" of each paw which had been dyed yellow--to simulate boots, I guess.

Well, not LA but still California... We were walking on the walking/bike path in north Santa Cruz to escape the heat last weekend and we saw a large standard white poodle standing in the front window of someone's house. It's tail was somewhat trimmed to be a poofball and it was dyed bright pink! (And yes, we saw it move...) I laughed a little more thinking of your post. I haven't seen this around much...

[Wilfrid1]

I thought poodles were naturally pink, like flamingoes.

[The Scream]

Years ago in the Valley I would frequently see this standard sized poodle who was a support dog for a paraplegic man in a wheel chair. The poodle always wore a vest, rather smart looking ones with lots of pockets sort of like fishing vests but brightly colored in blue, red or pink. I saw that dog at Mrs Gooch's (now Whole Foods), the post office, the mall, in restaurants quietly sitting on a chair... It was sort of weird because I would run into that dog more often than people I knew.

[Jaymes]

Wilfrid, on Jul 27 2006, 11:24 AM, said:

I thought poodles were naturally pink, like flamingoes.

Actually, flamingos are not naturally pink. They're naturally white. They only turn pink because of the food they eat.

[mongo_jones]

eating poop turns you pink? oh dear.

[hollywood]

mongo_jones, on Jul 27 2006, 10:44 AM, said:

eating poop turns you pink? oh dear.

Is that how you get pink eye?

[hollywood]

People say that two athletic shoes strung together and tossed over a utility wire signal the nearby presence of drugs in LA. Maybe. But today I was driving toward South LA on the Harbor Freeway when I spotted not one but two pairs of such shoes on a wire over the freeway. Someone plainly went to some effort to achieve this effect. Alas, no illicit substances in sight.

[mongo_jones]

i thought it marked gang territory.

[hollywood]

mongo_jones, on Jul 27 2006, 03:21 PM, said:

i thought it marked gang territory.

Guess it depends what you're looking for. Gangs=drugs.

[monkeymay]

Interesting. Yesterday I walked the 5th St. stretch from Spring to Broadway and witnessed 12 drug deals go down. I think it was mostly heroin, but I have seen quite a lot of Vicodin bandied about. As you walk along, people call out various letters of the alphabet depending what they're offering, so the sound is not unlike an atonal poem to illicit drug usage. It was facinating watching the hand off -drugs were dispensed usually from the bottom of a cigarette pack from which a small corner had been torn off, money palmed and without breaking stride you keep walking, like the receiving a baton in a relay race. All of this happens on a narrow sidewalk a block long, underneath the scafolding of an enveloped old building being retrofitted for yuppies.
Fifth St. empties out into Pershing Square where a large metal grate on the sidewalk is embedded with hundreds of cigarette butts of different lengths and colors, so it sort of looks like a Mondrian done in beige and white. I meant to take a picture, it's pretty impressive. Standing beside the grate was a large shirtless black man playing castanets to the music pouring through his headphones. He waved his arms around clacking and dancing, ignoring everyone who was trying to step around him, trying to entice people to join him.
Nobody accepted.

The other day I saw a woman pushing one of those baby jogger strollers around the park with a kid inside who had on a pair of headphones and was staring at a small computer screen. Kid was maybe four or five and oblivious to his surroundings. I thought it was really perverse.