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| Griffith Observatory by George Townley 2020 |
Karen Wynn Fonstad was a cartographer who exhaustively mapped J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth, the setting of “The Hobbit” and “The Lord of the Rings.” (NYT gift article)
People have lost their homes and everything they own. Some have lost their lives to the conflagration in California. Nothing will ever be the same. Much iconic architecture has also been reduced to ashes in the LA fires.
Burger steering: “We absolutely draw the line at driving with a gallon of Coke in one hand and a three-pound tub of fries clutched between our sweating thighs, while using a dripping Deluxe Double Bacon MegaBurger with Extra Pepper Jack as the sole point of contact with the steering wheel.”
The city with the largest population in the world has a population of 32,054,159. I bet you can’t name it.
Men’s godawful hairstyles in the1970s I may have gone out with a couple of these guys. via Memo Of The Air
The margin between life and death is a pixel large. Loser Lane captures the abject terror of cycling in Doug Ford’s Toronto via Web Curios
Onion sandwich based on the classic James Beard hors d’oeuvre via everlasting blort
Corvette Winter Photographer Frank Stefanko tells how he shot this iconic photograph of Bruce Springsteen in 1978 in Haddonfield, New Jersey.
The 25 best places to travel in 2025 (BBC) I’ve been to the Azores (twice) and the Dolomites and recommend them both. Several of the others are on my radar: Wales which is my mother’s birthplace, Haida Gwaii and Oslo.
In Pacific Palisades and Malibu, some houses with fire-resistant designs remained standing amid neighborhoods of destruction. Architects Explain Why
Cute: 36 Things to do if You’re Bored (via)
The way I feel this morning: 46,000 years old... and alive
A small town In Georgia, a shocking murder and a well-liked killer. She was an attractive blonde, drove a flashy Cadillac, and hugged every single customer who came into her establishment. She spoke lovingly at every table, dressed in her blue satin dress with the puffy crinoline petticoat. via Miss Cellania
Golden Needles: The last cowboy boot masters of El Paso.
In Benghazi life is a journey.
Juanita and I got married on the roof of the Griffith Observatory in 1988. Hmm, when I was a small boy, in the early 1960s, my mother took me with her to work, which involved a lot of driving around all over L.A. The very most special days were when my mother would say, just out of the blue, something like, "Ya know, we're not too far from the--" And I'd shout, "Yes!" because of course she was about to say either Fern Dell or the observatory. A lot of creative people exposed to that magical place as children were affected the same way as I was. Prompt ChatGPT with, "TV shows and movies that show the Griffith Observatory, and art works of all forms featuring it." I was just thinking of the Rocketeer movie (1991), and the Star Trek Voyager episode with Sarah Silverman, and Rebel Without A Cause, of course, but it turns out that there are lots more than that. The stylized poster art is my favorite. I can feel the air, and hear the echoey-ness. And moving around inside there, in my memory, shows everything in higher resolution than almost anything else in my life-- all the exhibits, which I'm controlling myself from listing here and describing at length. Marilyn, you wrote about places you've been and places you'd like to go again. I'm in Northern California now, and I don't have a lot of money nor spare time, but the Griffith Observatory is a place I'd like to go back to. I still have the can of Bob's Big Boy coffee we got, down the hill, after the wedding. It's unopened but it's probably ruined. It's very rusty. I'm afraid to handle it. It's fine where it is.
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