Take a deep breath, hold it for ten counts, and think of this:
instead of this:
Okay, okay. Breathe out. Let’s try that again. Deep breath.
Walking after Midnight
Lord knows I love a good pet costume. In my book, there’s nothing wrong with dressing up your pet in a hilarious outfit from time to time if the pet seems to enjoy it. Even if the pet doesn’t seem to enjoy it, if he or she tolerates dress-up time, and you save dress-up time for special occasions, there’s nothing wrong with dolling your guinea pig up as Chuck Mangione*.
But you should know when to say when. And I have a feeling that Midnight’s owners just didn’t know when to say when with this little white t-shirt. And one day she just couldn’t take it any more.
The look in her eyes seems to say that her owners also dressed her in onesies from time to time.
*Yes, I know Chuck Mangione actually plays a fluegelhorn, not a french horn.
Grumpy, Sneezy, Shoddy
Today’s “Around the world in LA” residence is probably not going to seem that special to Angelenos, I fear. But the fact that this place is met with, “Yeah, that place. Yawn…” just serves to further cement the fact that Los Angeles is truly a fantastic place. Today’s ho-hum residence is the Snow White Cottages in Silver Lake:
Some nice facts about the eight Snow White Cottages:
- They were originally the homes for Disney animators in the ’30s working on Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (sic). The Disney Studios were just around the corner.
- I know a somewhat short of stature songwriter who lives in one of the cottages. If he were one of the Seven Dwarves, I think he would be named Wistful.
- These cottages are just down the street from Marshall High School, which is famous for educating Miss America 1941 and being the site of the school carnival scene at the end of Grease where Olivia Newton-John gets all slutted up for John Travolta.
- I also have a friend who lived here after he kicked a nasty drug habit. I guess now that he’s clean he would neither be Dopey nor Sleepy.
- The cottages were featured in the David Lynch film Mulholland Drive. Unlike some other David Lynch productions, Mulholland Drive did not feature any dwarves.
- Elliott Smith also used to live here. Maybe he could have been Dopey or Sleepy.
- There are a bunch of other Black Forest-y sorts of houses nearby, including Walt Disney’s old residence, but I felt this post was getting too long to include them here.
- These cottages are in need of some basic maintenance. Unfortunately, the landlady appears to be ruining the Snow White Cottages by repairing the roofs with cheap tarpaper rather than the intricate thatchwork they had originally.
Go check them out before they’re completely cheapo-refurbed over.
Candy hats and chocolate bats
Weird – I was just talking about this very thing last night. Well, not this very thing:
Thanks for introducing me to Charlie the Unicorn, Julie!
Icicle, Icicle
Hooray, it’s autumn! I can tell it’s autumn because the current temperature in Los Angeles is 90°, but according to weather.com, it only feels like 87°. Hooray for autumn! Sometimes it’s easier to deal with autumn in Los Angeles by pretending you’re the only person alive after the next ice age has hit, and you’re naked, and you’re on a bicycle. Of course, if you’re naked and on a bicycle, you’re probably from Portland, and you probably don’t have problems with 90° weather on the 25th of September. I’m not in Portland right now, so I’m just going to have to pretend I’m naked on a bike. Want to join me?
Word of the day for Tuesday, September 22nd
I used to think that I was going to have the words “Peer Pressure” engraved on my tombstone, but I think I may have found a phrase that suits me even better:
“Esprit de l’escalier” is strictly translated into English as “spirit of the staircase,” but it refers to that feeling when you think of the perfect witty response to something… about five hours or minutes or days too late.
Of course, I intend to be cremated so I’m not sure how this tombstone epitaph thing is going to work.
Rocket Day
I think that anybody who is having a really bad time should make a point to have a Rocket Day in the desert, and bring other flying things for when the wind is strong.
Anybody who has a bad time on Rocket Day isn’t doing it right.
Fancy notions #15
Unlike many females, I never went through a horse phase as a girl. I don’t know why, but I just never could get that excited about horses. So why did I go and buy this embroidered horse patch?
I have no idea. So I’m giving it away to the first or most sincere person that requests it in the comments section. As an added bonus, I am going to throw in some almost comically large buttons.
Look how large those buttons are. Don’t you need some large buttons? As noted in Fancy Notions policy earlier, the quarter is not part of the giveaway, but you do have the option of purchasing this set of notions, including the quarter, for a bargain price of twenty-five cents. Your choice.
Cortez even more confused
In my explorations of Los Angeles homes that look like homes from other lands, I have found Barcelona before. But that was old Barthelona. I would now like to show you 20th century Barcelona in Los Angeles, courtesy of architect Charles Whittlesey and the Burrows Residence just around the corner from me:
I have mixed feelings about this place being made by an actual architect rather than just a kook with a bunch of grout and broken crockery, but I suppose it’s safer for the current inhabitants this way. Also, I guess 20th century is kind of old at this point, but do keep in mind that in America we’ve got some catching up to do.
