SON MIS LOCURAS

I really hate when saying it in English completely changes the meaning.

Cindylu over at Lotería Chicana posted recently on her relationship to the nopal. I don’t have a nopal story of my own, but I have a favorite nopal. It takes up all of a hillside on the road home, near Rose Hills.  Every time I drive by I am reminded of what it is to be big, bad, and prickly.

At 3:44 a.m. yesterday, an e-mail arrived informing me that my 8 a.m. flight had been cancelled.  Two minutes later, I was rebooked onto a 12:44 p.m. flight.  Too bad my brain doesn’t have an inbox, because I didn’t see either of these messages until I was awakened by the alarm clock at 5 a.m. 

Because I had to be in D.C. for an evening meeting, the rebooked flight didn’t work and I found my way into an 8:30 a.m. flight.  All seemed good, until I tried to check in and there was no ticket for me.  Apparently, my travel agent thought “rebook the flight” meant “Reserve the seat, don’t book it.”  Argh!

A few calls later I was on my new flight.  When I found out my original flight’s cancellation was because of United’s maintenance inspections, I felt better about my morning’s travails.  ”Better not to be on it if it’s not safe,” I consoled myself, as I boarded my new flight on American.   

The new flight even pulled away on time. 

Then it sat.

For 40 minutes.

Behind a plane that couldn’t seem to dislodge itself from the vehicle that had towed it away from the gate.

Guess United wasn’t the only one with maintenance issues that day.

The point of this photo was supposed to be that, yes, a digital camera that decided to go swimming with you can work again.  This particular camera was cryogenically treated for three months, then air dried for another four. 

Yeah, so I did have to get another camera in the interim, but one day, this one came back.  This photo was supposed to show that the camera’s photo quality is just as good as before, but nightfall kind of got in the way.  Oh well, I still think the full moon looks very cool.

This billboard at the corner of Beverly and Atlantic Blvds in East L.A. made me laugh out loud yesterday.  I think the idea behind it is that mom has a lead role in making fajitas, but the way this ad’s phrased, it looks like she is the “star” in a movie called “Pork Fajitas.”

My mother’s gonna be mad when she sees that Farmer John called her a “puerco” or a “fajita.”

There are just a few amusing things about the name of this water distribution store in Bell Gardens.  First, did its owners really choose an abbreviation that brings to mind “dark water”?  Second, it seems “Dark Water” is located at the corner of Jaboneria and Florence Avenues.  Nothing like a dark water store on the corner of a street named after a soap factory.

I’m always amazed when I hear about people who make up elaborate stories regarding their past.  I mean, it’s hard enough keeping actual reality straight.

Today, the L.A. Times has a piece on a guy who has been charged with falsely claiming to have a Medal of Honor.  According to the L.A. Times, Xavier Alvarez, a local water district official nicknamed “Rambo” by his colleagues (why a water board needs a Rambo is apparently an entirely different issue), told the following stories:

• He was a 25-year veteran of the Marine Corps;
• He rescued the U.S. ambassador during the siege of the embassy in Tehran (and that during that rescue he was shot twice, but still managed to hang from the helicopter on his way out and take the American flag off of the embassy as he left);
• He was married to a Mexican starlet (but couldn’t be seen with her because of photographers);
• He played ice hockey for the Detroit Red Wings (but only at a minor league level); and
• He was a police officer for a local city (only to be dismissed for using excessive force).

My favorite part of the story, he was tripped up by a female former Marine.  Alvarez started spewing his made-up military past and the woman started asking him questions.  Although initially impressed, the woman became suspicious and called the FBI.  Alvarez initially told the FBI everything he told her was a lie because she was annoying him and he wanted to “hold her off.”  Ok, except for the FBI found a tape of himself telling the lie about being a Marine and getting a Medal of Honor on tape in July.

1. You wake up only to find your mother has cut a bunch of branches from the pomegranate tree down the street in order to decorate your house for fall, and
2. You go run your errands and find out that your dry cleaner has burned to the ground, taking your 11 shirts, two slacks, and all but one of your suits (so much for that dressier look I was trying out).

A side benefit of L.A.’s outrageous heat this week is that you can sit out in shorts and a t-shirt well into the night.   For that reason alone, seeing  “Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?” at the Hollywood Forever cemetery last night was kind of cool.  Although Cinespia has been doing these movie screenings for six years, I was still impressed by how nice it was to be seeing an outdoor movie in the middle of L.A. (I mean, only one police helicopter came zooming by). 

There were palm trees all around, the Hollywood sign in the background, grave stones just out of sight, and picnics galore. 

Next month’s screening is of “The Exorcist.” 

Back in the day, a Slip n’ Slide was THE way to cool down on a warm summer afternoon.  You’d gotten too old for the wading pool, so you brought out the yellow piece of plastic and launched yourself at the ground.  If you were poorer or just resourceful, you did the same with lots of saran wrap or a tarp and some dishwashing soap.  If you had nothing, you just swamped the lawn and dealt with the grass burns and green skin.

Nowadays, the Slip n’ Slide seems to have morphed with the jumpy thing kids have at parties.  They don’t get scarred quite the way we did (unless they use lots of soap and end up on the sidewalk), but it does evoke the same summertime fun.

Mike over at Franklin Avenue posted a piece on a converted drive-thru dairy now carpet shop and his hope for the survival of one of its attributes.  I too have been thinking about internal architectural conversions and marveling at what they say (or the story you can try to tell) about communities’ tastes and marketing in general.

Two of my favorite makeovers:

Taco Bell goes to Aloha Food Factory in Alhambra and Der Wienerschnitzel goes to Ceviche Loco in Bell.

Of course, there’s also the IHOP gone sushi on the Westside, Bob’s Big Boy now Noodle Planet in Alhambra, and Sizzler gone El Pescador in Highland Park, but I didn’t have time to get photos of those. Any you like?

Went to the Arclight this weekend to see “The Bourne Ultimatum” with a friend who’d never been there.  She was impressed by the assigned seating and the introduction that was given by an usher who promised, “the experience of a lifetime.”

She only had to wait an hour or so to get that experience.  At the end of one particularly brutal fight scene (the one involving Desh, for those who’ve seen the film), the screen went black, lights started flashing, and the alarm sounded. 

Fire alarm. 

Really.

We all evacuated just long enough to walk around the building and back in through another door.  Then we were told it was a false alarm.  Only the best at this “once in a lifetime” theater.