{"id":3222,"date":"2009-01-14T11:15:00","date_gmt":"2009-01-14T19:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/?p=3222"},"modified":"2009-01-14T11:15:00","modified_gmt":"2009-01-14T19:15:00","slug":"aint-that-the-chum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/?p=3222","title":{"rendered":"Ain\u2019t That The Chum?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Some accumulated news chum for the week:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><i>From the \u201c<b>Where Do We Go From Here?<\/b>\u201d Department: <\/i> This is mostly for <a href=\"http:\/\/bdot.livejournal.com\/\" class=\"lj-user\">bdot<\/a>, who I seem to recall has a soft space for this place. The LA Times has <a href=\"http:\/\/www.latimes.com\/news\/local\/la-me-monastery14-2009jan14,0,3690756.story\" target=\"_blank\">a nice article today on where the Mt. Calvary Monastary will go next<\/a>. The spiritual retreat was destroyed in the recent Tea fire in Monticito, and the monks are contemplating its future in a fire area, in light of the aging of the monastic order\u2019s members.\n<li><i>From the \u201c<b>Pappy Parker\u2019s Noodley Appendage<\/b>\u201d Department:<\/i> The LA Times has <a href=\"http:\/\/www.latimes.com\/business\/la-fi-noodle14-2009jan14,0,5784482,full.story\" target=\"_blank\">a nice \u201cColumn 1\u201d piece<\/a> (which they rarely do anymore) about a former <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bigboy.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Bob\u2019s Big Boy<\/a> in Alhambra that has been converted to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.noodleworld.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">a noodle restaurant<\/a>. The founder always loved Bob\u2019s, and when the Alhambra location closed, purchased it for his noodle restaurant. In homage, however, he has retained a Big Boy statue, and pays $1\/year to license it. That reminds me&#8230; I need to go out to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bobs.net\/\" target=\"_blank\">Burbank<\/a>, home of one of the original restaurants (still operating) designed by <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Wayne_McAllister\" target=\"_blank\">Wayne McAllister<\/a>.\n<li><i>From the \u201c<b>And The Economy Keeps Rolling Down&#8230;<\/b>\u201d Department:<\/i> Today brings news of both <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2009\/01\/15\/technology\/companies\/15nortel.html?_r=1&#038;hp\" target=\"_blank\">Nortel Networks<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/aponline\/2009\/01\/14\/business\/AP-Gottschalks-Chapter-11.html\" target=\"_blank\">Gottschalks<\/a> filing for bankruptcy. Closer to home, we\u2019re seeing a victim of the collapse of the auto industry: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.dailynews.com\/breakingnews\/ci_11448583\" target=\"_blank\">Superior Industries is closing their Van Nuys Factory<\/a> next to the Van Nuys Flyaway. 290 workers will lose their jobs.  Superior supplies aluminum wheels to Ford, General Motors, Chrysler, Audi, BMW, Jaguar, Land Rover, Mazda, Mercedes-Benz, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Seat, Skoda, Subaru, Suzuki, Toyota, Volkswagen and Volvo.\n<li><i>From the \u201c<b>You Knew It Was Coming<\/b>\u201d Department:<\/i> Come the end of March, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sfgate.com\/cgi-bin\/article.cgi?f=\/c\/a\/2009\/01\/13\/BUSF159G7K.DTL&#038;type=business\" target=\"_blank\">WaMu will be history, its brand replaced by Chase<\/a>. Chase plans to invest $300 million in refurbishing and renaming the 708 California branches and another $75 million to open 20 more this year. The Chase logo will also appear on 1,900 ATMs across the state by the end of the first quarter. Of course, as with the side effects of the auto industry, this cost California jobs: both at the Pleasanton and San Francisco operations centers, as well as earlier cutback at the loan operations departments in Chatsworth. Chase said it will honor the free checking WaMu offered to existing clients. For now, customers can also continue to use their WaMu checks and debit cards. Dimon said the company is studying how it will alter or combine the product offerings of the two banks.\n<li><i>From the \u201c<b>10101010 10111000: The TV Series<\/b>\u201d Department:<\/i> There\u2019s more information coming out about <a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/wp-dyn\/content\/article\/2009\/01\/13\/AR2009011303060.html?hpid=moreheadlines\" target=\"_blank\">the push to delay the DTV switch<\/a>. Yes, the coupon program has run out of money, and there\u2019s no quick fix&#8230; but there are costs to the delay as well, both in the electricity for operating two transmitters, the staffs coordinating the switch, etc. Quite interesting to see the background. However, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.stltoday.com\/stltoday\/business\/stories.nsf\/manufacturingtechnology\/story\/4233E3217DEECD558625753E000C35AE?OpenDocument\" target=\"_blank\">in some markets the switch is already starting<\/a>: On Monday in St. Louis, KNLC Analog 24 will go all digital, freeing its analog channel for use by KMOV Analog 4\u2019s digital channel, which is now on Digital 56. The article notes how boxes will need to rescan for signals, which makes sense for us but will probably confuse most folks. As this transition comes closer, I\u2019m even more thankful I have <a href=\"http:\/\/www.directv.com\/DTVAPP\/index.jsp\" target=\"_blank\">DirecTV<\/a>, although I\u2019m curious whether DirecTV will ever broadcast some of the Digital subchannels that are now available in local markets.\n<li><i>From the \u201c<b>He\u2019ll Have Pie With That<\/b>\u201d Department:<\/i> Wednesday\u2019s paper brings news of the death of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2009\/01\/13\/business\/13callender.html?_r=1\" target=\"_blank\">Don Callender<\/a>, the man responsible for bringing us the food of his mother, Marie&#8230; especially her pies. Waistlines will stop their expansion for one minute in his honor. Even after selling Marie Callender\u2019s he remained in the business: in fact, the day after he died his <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mydesert.com\/article\/20090114\/LIFESTYLES0201\/901140313\" target=\"_blank\">Jackalope Ranch restaurant in Indio, Calif.<\/a> opened.\n<li><i>From the \u201c<b>Secret Asian Man<\/b>\u201d Department:<\/i> Alas, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.latimes.com\/news\/obituaries\/la-me-patrick-mcgoohan15-2009jan15,0,3951859.story\" target=\"_blank\">Number 6 has died<\/a>. Star of <i>Danger Man<\/i>, <i>Secret Agent<\/i>, and <i>The Prisoner<\/i>, he was one of those great actors. I remember watching the Prisoner when KCET ran it in the 1980s, and having intense discussions about it in the UCLA Computer Club. I just hope that the recent post from the <a href=\"http:\/\/mayor_of_tv.livejournal.com\/\" class=\"lj-user\">mayor_of_tv<\/a> about <a href=\"http:\/\/syndicated.livejournal.com\/mayor_of_tv\/231610.html\" target=\"_blank\">the planned remake of <i>The Prisoner<\/i> TV Series<\/a> didn\u2019t send him to his grave prematurely. Haven\u2019t heard about it. Later this year, AMC is planning to present <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.wired.com\/underwire\/2009\/01\/amc-lifts-the-v.html\" target=\"_blank\">a six-hour miniseries adaptation of &#8220;The Prisoner&#8221;<\/a>. All together now: But why?\n<p>ETA: <i>From the \u201c<b>That\u2019s Two<\/b>\u201d Department:<\/i> We also lost <a href=\"http:\/\/hosted.ap.org\/dynamic\/stories\/O\/OBIT_MONTALBAN?SITE=AP&#038;SECTION=HOME&#038;TEMPLATE=DEFAULT\" target=\"_blank\">Ricardo Montelban<\/a>. 80\u2019s TV folk will instantly go \u201cDa Plane, Da Plane\u201d; SF folks will go \u201cKahhhhhn\u201d. But that\u2019s two. Who\u2019s next in our SF actor trifecta?<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Some accumulated news chum for the week: From the \u201cWhere Do We Go From Here?\u201d Department: This is mostly for bdot, who I seem to recall has a soft space for this place. The LA Times has a nice article today on where the Mt. Calvary Monastary will go next. The spiritual retreat was destroyed <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/?p=3222\">Read More &#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56,113,69,1],"tags":[83,315,140,125,73],"class_list":["post-3222","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-chum","category-obituaries","category-television","category-lj-xfer","tag-corporate-america","tag-economy","tag-los-angeles","tag-money","tag-restaurants"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3222","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3222"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3222\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}