Author Archives: JimArnoldLA

Man throws kid overboard for crying.

Man threw 7-year-old son overboard for crying

No, really.

This kind of story makes me so insane! In a country where gay and lesbian parents or wannabe parents are routinely subjected to denials of adoption or other inferences into their fitness for being parents for kids who desperately need parenting, any sociopath idiot straight person with a penis or a vagina can make a baby.

We have no “tests” of parental fitness for straight people. Well, I gotta tell you, just because you’re straight it doesn’t mean you’re fit to be a parent. Like this Neanderthal on this boat in the story. Hopefully, he will never be allowed near that kid again, except to give him the money he’s going to need for all the therapy bills he’ll have over the course of his life.

Makes you think twice about mandatory sterilization for the terminally assholic.

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Off the rails – the case for taxing the rich

 

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Honestly, from where I sit, the huge greed crisis we find ourselves in now began with the Republican rise in the 1980s, with Ronald Reagan and his cronies. That’s also when we saw the first large groups of homeless people on our streets. If you were born after 1980, or even the mid-70s, you would never remember that once this was a very different country.

I’d really urge you to watch this as he makes the case in a quite entertaining way, and also really illustrates the difference between the left and the current incarnation of Republican thinking. Spread and discuss.

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Notes from Ground Zero

Thinking about the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, I remembered that I wrote out my impressions of visiting Ground Zero in December, 2001, almost three months after the attacks but long before the site had been “cleaned” entirely.

I was living in San Francisco at the time and was in New York for a convention, one that had been postponed from that September. I mainly wrote these for family members (hence the reference to SF and to Milwaukee).

What I heard, what I saw, what I felt, what it was like.

Notes on Ground Zero, December 2001

Took C Train subway down 8th Avenue which stopped at Chambers St. downtown. When we walked up the stairs to street level, first thing I noticed was muddy grey dust all over and that kind of smell in the air you often smell at a construction site (concrete?). Also, there was a burning smell you sometimes got a whiff of.  It was a gray day but very warm for Dec. 2, probably mid-50s, probably warmer than SF.

I followed the crowd down the block and we made a right turn down Broadway. On the right you could see the cranes and an immense (I would say, 6 or 7 stories high) pile of rubble that had a lot of girders and steel twisted in circles, like pretzels. I think this was the 47-story building that collapsed late in the afternoon of September 11.

Walking further, I got stuck in the Sunday crowd, which was stopped at an intersection where a large wooden barrier had been erected, like the kind that normally surrounds a construction site. On the barrier were signs, pictures, notes, banners from elementary school children, flowers, incense, baseball caps, ribbons, balloons, candles and other memorial-type items. The crowd there was alternately reading the memorials and trying to take pictures of the devastation beyond, or taking pictures posing with the police officers who were guarding access to the WTC site.

That barrier was adjacent to the building used as a staging area for the rescue/recovery volunteers, so I was able to see them reporting for work or leaving, or getting food and coffee. Lots of people with disposable coffee cups. The sidewalks downtown there are not as wide as some other areas of Manhattan, so there was a lot of pedestrian gridlock. There was a general quietness to the people, not really a hush, but you could overhear parents telling their kids what had happened here, describing the two buildings that were destroyed, and other conversations were about September 11 and what was remembered about that morning.

I walked past Trinity Church which was intact and no longer looked even dusty. Looking in the other direction down Wall Street, I could see the NY Stock Exchange just a block or so away. It is remarkable that it reopened just a few days after the attacks, as it is about 4 blocks away from Ground Zero and these are short, very old streets/blocks and I imagine that the ubiquity of huge stone/brick buildings shielded that area from raining debris.

I walked west on the street adjacent to Trinity Church, and several of these east-west streets are now ripped up for subway repair, as the tunnels under the WTC collapsed and all have to be rebuilt. So these streets were covered with enormous timbers, which is what I remember from Metrorail construction along Wilshire Boulevard and Vermont Ave. in L.A. when they were building the subway there. Also, there were a number of rat poison bait-contraptions placed against buildings. I imagine that many downtown rats were displaced by the destruction, and I wonder if being a rat was an advantage that day, if scurrying about in the dark below ground was a ticket to survival. (OK, I am kind of weird, but you know that already.)

From that vantage point, you were mostly free of the crowds and the strollers, because the access was over wooden planks and loose asphalt and harder to get to. I could see fire department hoses shooting streams of water onto the pile of rubble mentioned earlier – not sure if the buildings are still on fire, but I can’t imagine why they would be watering it if not. Some windows in that collapsed building were intact.

Of the WTC itself, all I could see from behind police barriers was that section of the façade still standing which you see in all the news photos. It’s about 3 or 4 stories high and appears to be a corner of one of the buildings – I think south tower. I believe they are going to preserve it as part of a memorial which is why it is still standing.

My final vantage point was from an overpass-type area on West Street (the street that eventually runs along the Hudson River) looking north (so my walk was almost in a circle) and from there I saw the rubble trucks leaving the destruction zone. They were like huge dump trucks and were stopped at the checkpoint and washed down. (Perhaps to get the dust off? So much dust..) I also saw an ambulance leave with lights flashing, no siren, wondering if it was carrying body parts or what. What else would be there almost 3 months after the fact?

What you don’t see on the news is the circle of devastation around the WTC. There is a big hole there, as those two buildings are just gone, but there are enormous structures adjacent, probably bigger than almost any buildings in Milwaukee or SF, that have enormous gashes in them, corners knocked off, evidence of fire, and windows blown out. These have been vacated and reminded me of red-tagging after an earthquake. The circle beyond those buildings is lesser damage, with a number of skyscrapers actually being covered in what looks like tarps – I expect that is so windows and other loose stuff doesn’t rain down into the street. Beyond that, you have the street level, and all the shops that would normally be there – pizza joints, dry cleaners, groceries, hair salons, etc. just shuttered and closed. There is dust everywhere, and those streets are very quiet.

My last view of this was from the Rainbow Room on the 65th Floor of Rockefeller Center, where I went with (note: my aunt, now 90) Joan Arnold for a drink (well, mineral water!) before dinner. From uptown there you could see what looked like a hole in the ground with light rising up from a pit. They work on cleaning up 24 hours a day. I think they have still only recovered a few hundred bodies out of about 3,000.

New York around Rockefeller Center and the Dolby office and my hotel (both on 55th Street near 5th Avenue) seemed mostly normal to me. The big stores have their Christmas windows in, the shoppers were out, and the lights were festive. The skaters and the tree at RC were just as I remember them from other times there at this time of year.

The saddest thing for me to see in NY this trip were the fire station houses you would walk past, all having memorials outside of them and pictures of the firefighters from that station who died that day. These were everywhere and unavoidable. Yet at the same time, there was the usual sirens and careening through the streets of fire and police trucks, the only difference being that the vehicles now fly big American flags.

I was glad to see it, happy to be back in NY, happy to fly again. I can already tell that people are starting to let their guard down a little, which I don’t think bodes well, but you have to live your life too, and it makes no sense to go about worrying about things you cannot control.

  • Jim Arnold, 2001.

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The Petting Zoo

Why do I think you’re in the mood today for some pictures of bunnies, piggies, other furry little creatures, and little kids?

That’s right, at least in this post, no exploding jets, no collapsing buildings, no former presidents or bagpipes allowed. Take a breather.

As promised from last week, the petting zoo at Studio City Farmer’s Market.

Goats and a bunny.

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Kids and the animals

Bunnies take charge.

Little piggy little piggy.

Who let you in, you big cow you...

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New Bike Lane Comes to Downtown Los Angeles

In traffic-choked L.A., a car lane is given to bicycles.

 

Photo, J-Blue, Bike Lane (not the one in the story)

So happy to see stories like this, city government making good on their pledge for more bike lanes.
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This one is from Koreatown to Downtown on 7th Street. The plan calls for 200 miles of bike lanes every five years, though (according to the story) some wonder if there’s funding to actually accomplish it.

I’m hopeful they do. Always have thought L.A. is a perfect bike town – great weather, fairly flat except for that band of hills separating city from valley, etc. – but even those are manageable.

Also hopeful that L.A. drivers – who are aggressive, who feel entitled to any patch of asphalt, who can be fracking murderous assholes with 3-ton battering rams! – will get with the program and learn to coexist on the road. This means, fellow cyclists, you must also follow traffic laws and become predictable –  the best way to stay alive and in one piece.

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Metropolis Books Leaving DTLA

Metropolis Books Website.

 

I was sad to see this story about Metropolis Books closing its doors.

Like so many small indie bookstores, this is hardly a surprise. It took a lot of guts for Julie to open this store, in an area slowly becoming able to support such a business, in an era (in 2006!) where the consolidation of corporate brick and mortar bookstores and the demise of small ones was already taking place.

I went to at least one reading here, which was great – intimate, fun, a very pleasant space for books.
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Stop by Metropolis before it closes – she’s making a video about the store, you can be in it.

btw – doesn’t that reporter look like he just stepped right out of 1978?

Stayin’ Alive.

 

 

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Happy Birthday to Pati!

Link to Metafour on Myspace

Pati Arnold belting one out

Happy September 7 Birthday to my lil’ sister Pati in Milwaukee!
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Besides being a sister, a daughter, a mom and a (gulp) grandmother, Pati’s also a wonderful jazz singer. Check out the link to Myspace location of Metafour, a group she sings with, and listen to some of the standards she’s got there, like “Cheek to Cheek.”

I’m in heaven.

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Yet More Farmer’s Market Pix, this time Studio City

Something easy for lazy Sunday of a 3-day weekend: More pictures from a Farmer’s Market, to add to the ones I’ve already posted on the blog of Los Feliz and Palm Springs.

Today I bought tomatoes, broccoli, eggs, peaches, spicy greens mix, and a chocolate chip muffin (which is already gone) and carried it all home in a backpack on my bike.

In addition to the pony rides at this Market, there’s a petting zoo. Next time, I’ll take pictures there.

Super Sweet


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Strollers and balloons are big at the Studio City Farmer's Market

orchids

I was too big to go on the damn pony ride.

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Murder on the Red Line

You don’t want to be Todd Martens.

Red Line train at Union Station

Above, first-hand account by Los Angeles Times staffer Todd Martens on the murder that took place on the subway car he was riding in last week.

I’d read the stories in the Times earlier, but this blog account is much more detailed and written in a way that any of us might write it if we were witnesses, as opposed to being journalist-witnesses.

I hadn’t realized that the murder took place in the first car in front – directly behind the operator cage.

This is usually the car I choose to ride in if I can – I know it’s got an empty wall for bikes, and usually there’s fewer people – though certainly not at rush hours. Also, like Todd points out in his post, you can see through the front windows of the train in that car and actually see what the tunnels look like, what the stations look like from afar, etc.
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Which is why a father took his small son to that car that day for his first train ride. This, almost impossible to believe. Who wants to bet that was the first and last train ride this kid will ever have?

This stabbing murder last week was the first homicide on Metro since it started. Since then, there’s been another stabbing, this one in Pasadena, so far not fatal.

It’s not going to make me stop riding Metro – I saw that as one of the advantages in moving back to Los Angeles from Palm Springs, that I wouldn’t need to use a car for every single trip anywhere.

But it does give you pause. The other night I entered the Red Line in that first car with my bike on a fairly quick trip home to Valley Village, only 5 quick stations between Sunset/Vermont and North Hollywood, the end of the line. Like it’s said, you never know what you’re going to get, and what I got was a really loud drunk man (another “transient” – don’t know – dirty backpacks, skateboards – what is it with the weaponization of skateboards? – and scary looking pit bull, who was not a service animal… you get the idea) who was trying to encourage the train occupants to sing Happy Birthday to him, or to “party” with him in some way. He didn’t appear to physically threaten anybody and the dog was, I have to say, well behaved, probably embarrassed for its owner. But this guy was verbally frightening, especially considering the recent events. And we were trapped in a moving train, buried beneath the bloody earth of Hollywood. I thought most of the passengers did their best to ignore him, looking out the windows at the black walls shooting past, or at their shoes. As I’d hoped, he, the dog and another companion left the train at Hollywood and Highland, which seems to be an area with a lot of these types anyway. The train car was again silent, and sped away into the night.

 

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Science on Happiness

Happiness: Why am I still bummed out?


Interesting article on the nature of happiness.

Somewhere in it the author (John Keilman) says people tend to be happier after 50. From my own experience, I would agree with that. Maybe it’s because of the accumulated life experience, which does seem to indicate that things rarely (though sometimes they do) go as bad as we imagine they will.

Also, as the story points out, as we age we seek moderation more than the extreme thrills – I’m not sure that applies to everyone, but certainly I can see myself in that camp.
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What makes you happy? I can list that first cup of coffee in the morning, leafy trees, movie theaters, kids laughing, and yes, those checks in the mail. The knowledge that I have a warm bed waiting for me. Memories of past loves and the anticipation of more in the future.

I learned a while ago that happiness is not something that magically appears, but a decision I can make about a particular moment in time. I’ve liked that power, though I’ll be the first to admit it doesn’t always work.

But sometimes, it does.

 

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