Today’s news chum brings three stories about how size really does matter…

• Granada Hills. Granada Hills Charter High School has bought the Northridge campus of Pinecrest Schools. Granada, longtime champs in the Academic Decathalon, and a former LAUSD school gone charter, hasn’t said what they are going to do with their $5.6 million dollar purchase, but they do have a waiting list of over 2,000. Mind you, this is a former LAUSD campus that has accumulated $5.6 million. Pali (which has also gone charter) had Rose Gilbert to donate money, but never went so far as to buy land of its own.
• Soap. The world of laundry soap has gone to the premeasured packets. An interesting side effect of this: people are now using less laundry soap, and the profits of the soap manufacturers has gone down. Left to their own devices, people use more soap than they really need. Detergent sales are down 5.1 percent compared with the pre-pod age. Profit margins for pods are as much as 5 percent lower than for the liquid stuff.
• Ummm, Is That a Banana In Your Pocket?. According to a report in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS, pronounced, oh, never mind), researchers led by Brian Mautz, now a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Ottawa in Canada, studied how 105 young Australian women rated attractiveness in males. Guess what? Women like men with larger penises. Now folks, I just report the facts as I see ‘em. The question is: How do the women see ‘em?

On that note, I think it is time for bed. Oh, wait, that didn’t come out right. Oh, damn, I better quit while I’m ahead.

Good night, folks

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I was going to write today about some interesting historical things that have been forgotten, such as a Jewish Cemetery in East LA, or how forgotten gaming magazines such as the General are finding new life on the Internet. But instead, there’s a new issue nagging at me: Paywalls.

Those of you who remember my writing a few years ago remembered that I drew heavily from the New York Times. Today, I rarely cite the time, because they introduced a metered paywall. I thought about paying, but their rate of $3.99 a week was far too expensive when you added it up. You might note I cite the LA Times heavily even though they have a paywall. This is because I subscribe to the paper version of the LA Times, and that gives me digital access.

This week, word came about about more papers going to the paywall model. The San Francisco Chronicle has added a paywall; some, but not all, articles will be on SFGate. However, many of those will point to the full version behind the paywall. The Orange County Register is adding a complete paywall. The Sacramento Bee already has a paywall for some material. The San Diego U-T has a paywall.

Nationally, the Gannett papers have added paywalls (except USA Today, which they’ve redesigned to make unreadable). The Washington Post is adding a paywall. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch may add a paywall. The Chicago Tribune has a paywall. Expect it soon at your local regional paper, if it is of any size.

I understand why papers are doing this: the online advertising model is proving to be unworkable. To survive and be profitable, papers are doing what they can. However, I feel it is hurting the country. We are going back to a model where people will primarily get their news from a local, slanted, media voice (combined with bloggers who are not trained journalists). Before paywalls, one could read a number of different sources, draw a line down the middle, and determine a more unvarnished truth. That’s much harder.

Plus, it will be much harder to learn what is going on elsewhere in the country. USA Today was revolutionary in that they provided news for the entire country — yes, just one paragraph, but that was more local news than you often got. That’s getting much harder, although you can go to the sites for the local TV stations — but they don’t provide as much in-depth written reporting.

I’m sad to see the paywalls go up. I know it will certainly impact where I go for news.

Music: Elaine Stritch At Liberty (2002 Original Broadway Cast) (Elaine Stritch): “The Ladies Who Lunch”

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Today, while eating my lunch of chicken salad and matzah, I was staring at my list of accumulated articles to see if there was a theme. Suddenly it popped out to me — all of these stories are about people or things that are facing and surviving adversary:

• Robert Clary. Mention Robert Clary to most people, and they won’t recognize the name. Folks from my generation will — Clary was a popular singer (I have his album singing songs from “Gigi”) and played LaBeau on Hogans Heroes. Clary is also a survivor. The Paris-born Clary spent three years in a concentration camp before making it big in New Faces of 1952, and went on to play a major role in Heroes with fellow Nazi survivors Warner Klemperer and John Banner. For 20 years, Clary has traveled the U.S. and Canada, speaking at schools, colleges and other venues about the horrors of the Holocaust.
• Margaret Cho. Many folks may be familiar with the comic Margaret Cho, who also had an ABC sitcom many years ago. Cho writes of her experiences going to a Korean spa, and how the traditional women there reacted to her heavily tattooed naked body. In the article, she talks about her tattoos are a mark of her survival: “”These were all women of various sizes and shapes and some, like me, bore the marks of a difficult life. My tattoos represent much of the pain and suffering I have endured. They are part of me, just like my scars, my fat, my eternal struggle with gravity. None of our bodies are ‘perfect’. We live in them. They aren’t supposed to be ‘perfect’. We are just us, perceived flaws and all”
• Gary Richards. Most people probably don’t recognize Gary Richards. Those in the Bay Area will recognize his pen name: “Mr. Roadshow”. I know Gary because he occasionally tosses a SoCal question my way (and I truly wish the LA Media News Group would have him write a column for the LAMG papers). Gary recently wrote a column about a situation he is being forced to survive: He can’t drive. Gary was just diagnosed with something called Charcot foot, a disease that can cause the bones to deteriorate. No walking or driving for at least 6-8 months. He has to use a walker, and remain immobile as much as possible. This on top of a previous injury: he has been an amputee since age 11, when bone cancer took his left leg above the knee. Especially with Gary’s job, not being able to drive must be incredibly frustrating; I remember when I was laid up with a broken right foot and a good left leg. I’m sure we all with Gary a speedy recovery.
• Petroleum Mosaic. Our last survivor is not a person but a thing: A mosaic of the petroleum industry in Los Angeles that miraculously survived the destruction of the Wilshire Grand Hotel. The story of how the mosaic was discovered and researched is fascinating.

Music: Sing for Joy (Rabbi Gershom Sizom/Abayudaya Jews of Uganda): “Shema”

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Today, I’d like to tell you a story about signs. No, not the exodus from Egypt. That’s tonight — didn’t you read my post from yesterday? This is a story about some different signs; I’ve got to get this written up so I can go set the Seder table and listen to my favorite table setting music (Amazon). In particular, I sincerely doubt these are signs that Moses saw as he was escaping from Egypt.

Unless he was parking, that it.

Parking signs can be very confusing. Witness what is happening in Los Angeles, specifically in Hollywood. There the signs are extremely confusing with different rules for different hours and arcane limitations. Some claim it is intentionally predetory. The article cites dueling signs, four or five to pole, that go on and on:

Tow-Away No Parking Any time (arrow pointing left)

Tow-Away No Parking 6 p.m. to 3 a.m. (arrow pointing right)

2-hour parking Mon.-Sat. 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sun. 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. (arrow pointing right)

I could imagine it could be worse in San Francisco. There they have introduced demand-based parking, where the parking rate for a particular block changes monthly based on the demand for the space — spaces more in demand cost more. I would image they would need variable LED signage there!

New York City has attempted to resolve this problem in a different way. They are attempting to design parking signs that actually make sense, with a clear focus on the hours where parking or stopping is prohibited, stating the hours when parking is permitted, and identifying any commercial restrictions. Their signs look good; I’m not sure how they would work in Los Angeles with preferential parking districts added to the mix.

Lastly, I’ll note that it isn’t hard to make your own sign. That’s what I did recently. I ordered a custom “Reserved Parking Sign” for in front of our house where I park the vanpool van. Really nice aluminum sign. Of course, I attached it to the tree with wire-ties .

Now to go and set the table…

Music: An Evening With Sutton Foster – Live At The Café Carlyle (Sutton Foster): “Late Late Show”

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