{"id":4117,"date":"2010-09-18T20:01:00","date_gmt":"2010-09-19T03:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/?p=4117"},"modified":"2010-09-18T20:01:00","modified_gmt":"2010-09-19T03:01:00","slug":"what-is-the-theme","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/?p=4117","title":{"rendered":"What is the Theme?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I have a strong belief that there is a thematic connection between these three news items. Can you tease it out?<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.laobserved.com\/archive\/2010\/09\/cliftons_sold_will_go_mor.php\" target=\"_blank\"><b>The last remaining Clifton\u2019s Cafeteria has been sold<\/b><\/a>. Yes, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cliftonscafeteria.com\/home.html\" target=\"_blank\">Clifton\u2019s Brookdale<\/a>, which I wrote about in <a href=\"http:\/\/cahwyguy.livejournal.com\/843122.html\" target=\"_blank\">this post<\/a> and which has been open since 1935, <a href=\"http:\/\/blogdowntown.com\/2010\/09\/5674-cliftons-cafeteria-being-taken-over-by-the\" target=\"_blank\">has been purchased by the owner of \u201cThe Edison\u201d<\/a> (\u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/www.edisondowntown.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">The Edison<\/a>\u201d is a lounge that is housed in an Industrial Cathedral (their word) crafted from LA\u2019s first private power plant, and is an attempt to create living history). The owner is, according to LA Observed, expected to add a speakeasy and tiki bar on the upper levels and add to the menu, reportedly while keeping the low-cost items that draw people into the cafeteria. The current Clifton\u2019s Brookdale is decorated like an old Yosemite lodge, with an old dining room upstairs with the history of the original Clifton\u2019s.\n<li>Many people have heard of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.magiccastle.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">the Magic Castle<\/a>, the private club that is the home for magicians in Los Angeles. The Castle was founded by <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Milt_Larsen\" target=\"_blank\">Milt Larsen<\/a>, who also operated the <a href=\"http:\/\/articles.latimes.com\/2008\/oct\/04\/business\/fi-variety4\" target=\"_blank\">Variety Arts<\/a> (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.varietyartscenter.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">link<\/a>) in downtown. Well, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.latimes.com\/entertainment\/news\/la-et-brookledge-20100918,0,3608114,full.story\" target=\"_blank\">Milt\u2019s brother and sister-in-law, Bill and Irene, have <b>another home for traditional magic, the Brookledge Follies, in Hancock Park<\/b><\/a>. This is billed as the last stand for traditional close-up magic, against the spectacle that seems to characterize magic today.  Brookledge is now the home of a regular magic show, free to invitees but strictly invitation only: you must be invited by a performer or by a guest who has been invited by someone on the inside.\n<li>The San Diego area is well known for its animal preserves, what with <a href=\"http:\/\/www.seaworld.com\/sandiego\/default.aspx\" target=\"_blank\">Seaworld<\/a>, the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sandiegozoo.org\/\" target=\"_blank\">San Diego Zoo<\/a>, and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sandiegozoo.org\/park\/\" target=\"_blank\">the <del>Wild Animal<\/del> <u>Safari<\/u> Park<\/a>. Well, it seems that the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sandiegozoo.org\/\" target=\"_blank\">San Diego Zoo<\/a> has a new marine mammal: specifically, a new dead whale. Long dead, in fact, for while excavating for a storm-water runoff tank, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.latimes.com\/news\/local\/la-me-0918-whale-20100918,0,1163283.story\" target=\"_blank\"><b>construction workers found a 3-million year old whale skeleton<\/b><\/a> (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.signonsandiego.com\/news\/2010\/sep\/17\/whale-fossil-found-at-san-diego-zoo-construction-s\/\" target=\"_blank\">more detail from the San Diego paper<\/a>). It is rare because it is an intact skeleton; it is a baleen whale, and it\u2019s probably hadn\u2019t reached full adulthood when it died. Evidently, whales have been in the Balboa Park area for a long long time. So far, there is no indication if that whale answered to the name \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Shamu\" target=\"_blank\">Shamu<\/a>\u201d.<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I have a strong belief that there is a thematic connection between these three news items. Can you tease it out? The last remaining Clifton\u2019s Cafeteria has been sold. Yes, Clifton\u2019s Brookdale, which I wrote about in this post and which has been open since 1935, has been purchased by the owner of \u201cThe Edison\u201d <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/?p=4117\">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":[117,56,1],"tags":[140],"class_list":["post-4117","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-history","category-news-chum","category-lj-xfer","tag-los-angeles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4117","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=4117"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4117\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}