Tag: local

useless parks

The city government here wants to build a new shiny city hall. The residents are skeptical. To avoid a vote on the subject, the government first tried funding the new city hall without a bond issue. This was noticed. Then, there was an election.

The new city council has three times shot down a proposal to build the new city hall on land previously designated as “open land, future park.” The last news was that they directed the city government specifically to finalize plans for theh park.

After the angry meeting that resulted in this decision, our Mayor, who supports the new city hall, made a career suicide statement:

“Personally, I don’t think it’s the end of this. I think there are people who are committed to … not building useless parks,” Mayor Steve Rosansky said at the end of a lengthy, impassioned speech in which he accused fellow council members of caving to “political expediency.”

A final goodbye to Apollo Books

http://www.dailypilot.com/articles/2007/01/15/features/dpt-closed15.txt

They held on a few months after they announced their retirement, but now it’s gone for good. The Apollo, in its original location at 18th & Newport, was a big part of my education. Others had the same experience; we found entirely new worlds in stacks of dusty paperbacks.

If I win the lottery I’m going to run a bookstore until I’m poor again.

vive Pescadou

I had one of the great meals of my life last night at Pescadou Bistro. They put on a holiday prix fixe, and mom and I went to the early seating, which was cheaper and also got us home before the… stuff started down on the peninsula.

Three courses, choice in each. I had the quail and foie gras over baby lettuce, with pears. Entree choice was filet mignon with peppercorn sauce, mashed potatoes, and endive. Dessert was a warm chocolate cake with creme fraiche. The other options were a first course of lobster bisque, a second of seabass or venison, and a third of an apple/camembert tart.

Pescadou is serious French food, which doesn’t mean stuffy or expensive or pretentious, but it does mean attention to detail and tradition. It also means reasonable portion sizes, unlike the U.S. tradition in celebratory meals of forcing an entire farm down your throat.

Everything was made… just… perfectly. The owner and staff are friends after years of going there. It’s more like showing up to someone’s house in a medium sized southern French town for dinner than it is like a restaurant. It’s nothing like any other restaurant around here, that’s for sure.

The three course prix fixe was $52. With tax and tip and two glasses of wine for mom and some fizzy water for me, $80/person. That’s about as expensive as a meal can get there. The usual dinner prix fixe is $25.

Please don’t change, Pescadou.

items

  • Driving down Chapman in Orange today I saw a woman in a witch costume. By “witch costume” I mean the full Wicked Witch of the West outfit with conical black hat, flowing black garments, weird shoes. I could not figure out what this meant on the day after Thanksgiving in Southern California. As a bonus, the entire effect was ruined by the large neon pink duffel bag she was carrying.
  • The cranberry ginger cherry relish made by salome_st_john is Cranberry Crack.
  • culfinglin is a very cool person and I enjoyed the long convo over coffee today tremendously.
  • The “Holiday Season” has arrived in the traditional way here in Southern California. Today I was tailgated by my first SUV-with-grille-mounted-wreath of the season!
  • My cat has been staring at me a lot lately.
  • The new Pynchon has arrived. I am simultaneously eager to start it and afraid of its bulk. It’s like having an entire ten pound cheesecake in the house.

Attention Diedrichians: Monday is The End

(simulcast to )

Monday is the last day of the old 17th Street Diedrich. It would be great if people showed up to drive old Dixie down, or something. Perhaps in the evening until they shut it for good?

Apparently some “regulars” including Michael-guy-with-glasses are showing up on Sunday at 3. I dunno if those are going to be people I/we/you like, but I will probably stop by in case.

But I really think it would be cool if as many of us as possible buried the old ship next Monday evening.