Check Out

I mentioned in March that I'd ventured past the Pasadena border to check out a book from the Glendale Central Library. Yesterday I checked out Glendale's Pacific Park Branch at 501 S. Pacific Avenue. It's part of a community center, next door to a school. A lot goes on there.

I chose this branch because they had a copy of the book I wanted. I knew they had it because I checked the website before I went over there. You don't have to guess, then find out when you get there that they don't have it or someone checked it out. I love that. Plus the librarians were extremely friendly and helpful. It was a convenient, snappy visit.

There's a lot to love about any library. (I like inconvenient, dusty, slow-poke libraries as much as I do snappy ones.) The Pasadena and Glendale systems enhance each other by being one big system, at least in effect. I can use my Pasadena library card to check books out of the Glendale library. I can return a book I checked out in Glendale by taking it to a Pasadena branch, and vice versa. And if I can't get to Glendale to pick up a book they have, they'll deliver it to the Pasadena branch of my choice.

All of that's paid for with my tax money. It's a pretty good deal.

Favorite Place in Glendale

My Burbank friend and I have finally found the perfect middle ground: Favorite Place (that's its name) in Glendale.

I'm not a foodie. I'm not a restaurant reviewer. I can't describe the delicate blabbedy blah on the palate or the minglings of fine spices in the this and the that. What I can tell you is the food is fresh and tasty and unusual, the service is not just friendly but downright sweet, and the atmosphere is all charm.

From a glimpse of the outside you could be fooled into thinking you're about to enter a greasy-smelling diner to sit at a Formica counter and drink coffee that's been sitting on the burner since last night. But don't judge a restaurant by its storefront. And do call ahead for reservations.

Favorite Place has unself-conscious class. Also they have rose petal lemonade. Who else has rose petal lemonade?

No Darwin Awards Yet

Close, but no cigar. I wonder where that saying came from.

We had a good time here Friday making fun of predictions of the rapture. We weren't the only ones. The internet is rife with photos of piles of clothes left empty. At parties last night, people celebrated not being raptured. I heard of a gathering where they released 20 blow-up dolls filled with helium. Hilarious.

It's a tad less hilarious for those who believe(d) in this stuff. 

I don't think Harold Camping deserves 100% of the blame. Sure, he perpetrated a fraud (and collected $18 million from his followers to advertise it), but it's not like he forced people to believe him. Folks needed this. They ate it up. A few wanted so badly to leave this awful, awful earth that they sold everything they had and spent their life's savings in the process.

$18 million. Imagine if Camping had decided to do something good, like help people.

They say God helps those who help themselves. You know the story about the guy stranded in the flood who's sure God will save him? A boat comes by and he refuses to get in it, saying "God will save me." A raft comes along with friendly folks aboard. He says no to their offers of aid. "God will save me." A helicopter comes but he won't climb on. "God will save me," he says. Finally, when the water's up to his chin and there's no help in sight he calls out, "God, why haven't you saved me?" and God says, "Hey! I sent you a boat, a raft and a helicopter! That's all I've got!"

Some churches have offered consolation and counseling to those followers of Camping whose hopes were dashed along with their bank accounts and their pride. Maybe a few will see the hand of their God in that generosity, offering a life raft. But when Camping has disappeared from the limelight, the rest of the cowards who are too lazy or scared or just plain tired to help themselves will seek out some other Jim Jones, who will be more than glad to lead them by their noses to their ignominious doom.

I feel sorry for these people, I really do. It makes me angry to see them abused. But they make it so easy for the bad guys.

I post at midnight. I hope this story doesn't get any worse by morning.

If only the numerals in the photo said "2012." Close, but no cigar.

A New Noise

The theater for A Noise Within, the classical theater company soon to be moving to Pasadena from faraway Glendale, is rising atop the Stuart Pharmaceuticals Building like a new layer on a concrete cake. A rendering of what the interior will look like accompanies William Goldstein's article on Hometown Pasadena. In fact, HtP's been covering the move particularly well.

The 1928 Masonic Temple Building ANW leaves behind in Glendale is a lovely old has-been. My guess is she was tough to heat on cold days, impossibly hot in the summer and they probably had to incorporate her plumbing noises into their sound design. But she's an old beauty all the same. I don't know what's in the building's future, but keep an eye on Cinema Treasures. They usually have good info and the best pictures of these faded dames.

Goldstein's article is about ANW's final show in their old space. Right now the nights are neither cold nor impossibly hot. A good time to see a play.

There's No Place Like Home Page

Okay, I get it. I'm not welcome. Don't come this way, don't knock on this gate, haunted alley, I'd turn back if I were you.

Yet just across the way, at 222 E. Harvard Street in Glendale...

...is the Glendale Central Library, where you're most welcome this Saturday morning at 10:00 a.m. when I'll be speaking to the Alameda Writer's Group about blogging. It's called "Blog Your Writing Career: Ten Tips for Putting Your Best Cyberfoot Forward." The meeting is free and you don't have to be an AWG member to attend.

I'm not sure if I like the "Cyberfoot" thing. Too cute, maybe. But I wrote it, so I'm stuck with it for now, and you get the idea. If you're thinking about blogging or if you're blogging and nobody's reading, come on by.

By the way, the driveway just west of the haunted alley will take you into the parking lot on the corner of Harvard and Maryland. Validate your ticket at the library's front desk and you can park three hours for free.

I hope to see you, ruby slippers or no.

Shape Shapes

My weekend's shaping up to be creative. I hope you get to do what you want to do, too.

Have a beautiful holiday!

Inspiration for the photo: John Sandel

Zen Monday: #90

Zen Monday is the day you experience the photo and give us your thoughts rather than me telling you what I think the photo's about. There's no right or wrong. It means what you think it means, or what you want it to mean.

I look for a photo worth contemplating or, failing that, something odd or silly. Unless I absolutely must say something I stay out of the comments box to avoid influencing the intellectual path of the discussion (because when I get in there everything goes down hill).

As I post each new Zen Monday photo I add a label to last week's to identify it if necessary.