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If You Are Counting Errors, Please Don’t — Unless It’s Obama’s Latest Whopper

Ari L. Noonan — 4:00 PM July 23, 2008

If mistakes were wallpaper, we could cover Culver City this afternoon, something we endeavor to do 5 days week anyway. Ring up one more gaffe.

When Joey and I Were in Middle School

Karlo Silbiger — 11:00 AM July 23, 2008

Before hearing last weekend that Joey Lutz had drowned in Panama, I had not seen or talked to him in over 8 years.

However, there are some people who are so electric, that specific things that they do and say stay with you for years, regardless of the level of continuing contact.

Sweet Memories of Joey Lutz

My Opinion — 10:00 AM July 23, 2008

[Editor’s Note: The widely admired teacher Joey Lutz, 25 years old, who graduated in 2000 from Culver City High School, drowned last weekend while on holiday in Panama. Mr. Lutz’s parents, Stuart and Freda Lutz, reside in Culver City. Funeral services are yet to be finalized at Hillside Memorial Park. In this essay, a former student recalls their golden days at summer camp.]

Will Cars Be Brought Under the No-Smoking Umbrella?

Letters to the Editor — 8:00 AM July 23, 2008

em>�Re ‘No–Smoking Ban Far from a Cinch — Mayor Finds It Unnecessary,’ July 21.

Something to make you say hmmm... �

Struggling to Identify the True Victims of the Massacre of Armenians

Dr. Rosemary Cohen — 7:00 AM July 23, 2008

Conclusion

[Previously: ‘Leila’s Unique Loveliness Spanned the Years of Their Happy Marriage,’ July 21. Keywords: Dr. Ali, Leila.]

Dr. Ali’s two sons followed their father’s profession and became physicians.

Silbiger Makes the Chatter Lively at the End of Every Meeting

Ari L. Noonan — 5:00 PM July 22, 2008

During the 3 months that the majority new City Council has been in office, one of the holdovers, Vice Mayor Gary Silbiger, consistently has turned the closing minutes into the most entertaining portion of the meeting.

First-year Councilman Mehaul O’Leary probably has been the most outspoken voice on the dais. He criticized Mr. Silbiger for his so-called harangues at the end of meetings and that he belabors certain subjects. Make your points and move on, was Mr. O’Leary’s attitude.

Camarella and Karlo Carry Stains No Dry Cleaner Can Remove

Ari L. Noonan — 3:00 PM July 22, 2008

The City Council did not make bad choices last night — just wrong ones, quite wrong ones — for appointments to 2 city commissions, Civil Service, and Parks and Recreation.

The reason for their very personal gaffe is not a mystery, just an exasperation. The result of their tilted voting — the overt snubbing of the candidates Tom Camarella and Karlo Silbiger — was as predictable as the Gregorian calendar or, in my case, ex-wives.

Council Makes Ochoa, Kim Surprise Choices for Commission Seats

Ari L. Noonan — 1:00 PM July 22, 2008

The City Council fooled every speculator in town last night with single-seat appointments to three city commissions.

They blew up formfulness, which has been the Council’s trademark, whereby friendships with private persons who carry high or rising profiles around City Hall are rewarded.

Culver High Grad’s Body Is Found

Ari L. Noonan — 7:00 PM July 21, 2008

On Sunday, two days after a businessman pleaded with readers to contact the son of a Culver City family if they knew of his whereabouts in Panama, where he had been traveling on vacation for 3 weeks, a Panamanian fisherman discovered the dead body of Joey Lutz when it washed ashore about 2 miles from where he had drowned

What Times Is It? Who Knows? But It Ain’t McCain’s, for Sure

Ari L. Noonan — 4:00 PM July 21, 2008

With 98 percent of American media openly rooting for Barack Obama to win the White House, and 92 percent of them volunteering to drive him there, Mr. Obama’s campaign has just scored another unique victory.

No-Smoking Ban Far from a Cinch — Mayor Finds It Unnecessary

Ari L. Noonan — 1:00 PM July 21, 2008

The City Council is scheduled to consider a resolution next Monday night that would outlaw smoking in the outdoor dining areas of restaurants.

Numerous questions remain unresolved.

Would the ordinance apply to every business that serves food?

Would bars be excluded?

McCain and the Dreaded ‘S’ Word

Frederik Sisa — 11:00 AM July 21, 2008

Don’t do it. Seriously. Don’t do it. Just. Don’t. Do. It. Don’t even think about doing it. It’s all in your head, don’t you know. So don’t. Okay? Just don’t. Don’t whine. Don’t complain. It’s a mental recession, see? Get it? You’re mind is receding. So stop whining and go spend the money you don’t have on things that are too expensive – like food or gas. And if you can’t, well, stop whining anyway. You’re liable to upset McCain’s top economic policy advisor, Phil Gramm. He thinks the U.S. is already too much of a whining nation. http://www.washtimes.com/news

To Drill or Not: Differences Between the Board of Sups and the Feds

Tom Supple — 10:00 AM July 21, 2008

It is interesting to note the different positions taken by our various governmental bodies.

The Federal government will not permit drilling in the vast unpopulated area of Anwar because it may upset some caribou.

Kudos for Yvonne, and Forget What PXP Is Doing

Letters to the Editor — 8:00 AM July 21, 2008

Regarding the recent discussions about the Community Standards District being promulgated by Los Angeles County for the Baldwin Hills oil drilling area:

I give a lot of credit to our County Supervisor, Yvonne Brathwaite Burke, for coming up with the idea of a CSD.

Leila’s Unique Loveliness Spanned the Years of Their Happy Marriage

Dr. Rosemary Cohen — 7:00 AM July 21, 2008

� [Part II of three installments. Previously: Part I, “Inspecting the Massacre from a New Direction,” July 21. Keywords: Dr. Ali, Leila, Rosemary.]

When Dr. Ali asked Leila to marry him, she happily accepted.

Of course, first she was converted officially to Islam, and then the ceremony of wedding was officiated.

Willy Wonka Comes to the Vets Auditorium

My Opinion — 6:00 AM July 21, 2008

Roald Dahl’s timeless story of the candy man, Willy Wonka, and his quest to find an heir will come to life this week at the Vets Auditorium as Culver City’s Musical Theatre Summer Day Camp (ages 7-16) presents a dee-Lightful stage adaptation of “Charlie and The Chocolate Factory,” with songs from the classic family film “Willy Wonka And The Chocolate Factory.”

Hellboy 2: The Golden Army

Frederik Sisa — 2:00 PM July 18, 2008

I’ve always been puzzled by descriptions of Guillermo Del Toro’s breakout hit, “Pan’s Labyrinth,” as a fantasy movie. Despite questionable metaphysics and short-lived glimpses into a world of fauns, fairies, and “Silent Hill”-type monsters, the film is, at heart, a fairly straightforward wartime drama. But there’s no questioning the fantasy pedigree of “Hellboy II.” Epic machinery and a formidable menagerie of imaginary creatures – from humanoids with architecture growing from their heads to stone giants that double as the secret entrance to long-lost cities – makes “Hellboy II” the dizzying phantasmagoria people believed “Pan’s Labyrinth” to be. Think of the cantina scene from Star Wars, filtered and magnified through Del Toro’s own unique imagination.

‘Cubes’ — Go Ahead, Think Inside the Box

Frederik Sisa — 1:00 PM July 18, 2008

The field’s already a tad crowded with commentaries on the peculiar nature of office life and its inhabitants, homo cubicularis. We’ve seen the absurd, the soul-crushing, the banal, the political, the bureaucratic, the conformist, the rebellious – all expertly skewered by the likes of the venerable “Office Space” and “The Office.” Enter “Cubes,” a film that starts out hinting at a limp retread of familiar terrain only to deliver a surprisingly attentive character piece. Structured as a series of interlocking, vignetted conversations between character pairs, this isn’t a film about the office drone’s relationship to the corporate environment, but about the relationship between workers in the context of corporate culture. “Cubes” looks beyond cubicle partitions to the barriers created by assumptions and expectations – and what happens when these break down.

A Public Service Bulletin

Jay Handal — 12:00 PM July 18, 2008

Stuart Lutz, a friend who lives in Culver City, reported today that his son, who was in Panama, has disappeared.

It is believed he drowned.

The parents have been trying to get help from the U.S. State Dept. and the American Embassy in Panama with no luck.

Never Too OldNever Too Old

Garth Sanders — 11:00 AM July 18, 2008

Every Sunday afternoon, the intrepid World War II veteran Col. Michael Schirm (U.S. Army, ret.), 85 years old, drives from his Burbank home across the hill to Brentwood to stand with his fellow veterans when they rally, from 1 to 4 every Sunday, in front of the National Veterans Home, to save it from outside interests. Col. Schirm is Commander of the Military Order of Foreign Wars of California.

Running for a Commission Seat on Monday Night, Corlin Changes Directions

Ari L. Noonan — 10:00 AM July 18, 2008

On Monday night in Council Chambers, it may look like the regular rituals in which appointments to city commissions are cloaked, but it really will be an extraordinary occasion because of the candidacy of one of the most visible political figures in Culver City, Alan Corlin.

A Dilemma to Ponder — What Would You Do?

Shachar — 9:00 AM July 18, 2008

Dateline Jerusalem — What would you do?

I ask that question of all of you, as well as of myself.

As a former peace officer and then defense attorney, I have seen and heard horrible things, murder, mayhem, child abuse. Sometimes they were beyond imagination.

Inspecting the Massacre from a New Direction

Dr. Rosemary Cohen — 8:00 AM July 18, 2008

Some months ago, I was visiting an Iranian friend in Los Angeles.

While we were talking about different subjects, she told me an interesting and true story about one of their close relatives.

Bulldog Zeidman Will Get His Question Answered — to His Satisfaction

Ari L. Noonan — 6:00 PM July 17, 2008

Check yesterday’s edition for the Bernard Parks’ photo downtown at the Los Angeles City Council, and you will spot the permanently peripatetic School Board member Scott Zeidman over Mr. Parks’ shoulder. He was not there for a photo-op pass. He earned his ticket to stand behind the Councilman when Mr. Parks prodded his colleagues into taking a stand for Culver Crest neighbors, among others, in their ongoing campaign to have somebody, anybody, stand watchdog over an oil drilling company.

Parks’ Ill-Advised Letter Calls Into Question the State of His Judgment

Ari L. Noonan — 2:00 PM July 17, 2008

If Bernard Parks either composed or approved of the whining letter (see below) about The New Yorker that appeared over his name this morning in the Los Angeles Times, he should lower his head to half-mast, wheel on his well-shined right shoe and depart, wordlessly, from the room.

A Person Who Knows St. Patrick’s Stabbing Suspect Says the Story Has Another Side

Ari L. Noonan — 8:00 AM July 17, 2008

Culver City resident Justin Finizza,who allegedly went on a bizarre spree in and around two bars on South Sepulveda Boulevard late on the night of St. Patrick’s Day, March 17, is due back in court for a preliminary hearing on Tuesday, July 29.

Rush to Rush Street — You Can’t Go Wrong After a Smashing Opening

Bree Crocetti — 6:00 AM July 17, 2008

As soon as the staff meeting broke, my friends and I were the first to take seats at the bar at the brand-spanking-new Rush Street in Downtown Culver City (along with faithful http://triplecreme.blogspot.com/ readers Jessica and Andrew).

L.A. Council Today Approves Parks’ Efforts to Take Closer Look at PXP, Moratorium May Be Explored

My Opinion — 5:00 PM July 16, 2008

The Los Angeles City Council this morning approved Councilmember Bernard C. Parks’ motion asking the Environmental Affairs Dept., Bureau of Engineering, Planning Dept. and Chief Legislative Analyst to review the Baldwin Hills Community Standards District Draft Environmental Impact Report.

When It Comes to Confidence About Oil Drilling, County’s Efforts Off to a Slow Start

Ari L. Noonan — 4:00 PM July 16, 2008

With the next community meeting on oil drilling in Baldwin Hills coming up on Thursday night, at 7, at the Vets Auditorium, Mike Bauer hopes it will be more illuminating than the first meeting in the series, last Thursday night at a home in Culver Crest.

In New York and L.A., the Times Does a 3-Step on McCain: Ready, Aim, Fire

Ari L. Noonan — 6:00 AM July 16, 2008

Until Monday, this was threatening to become the first Presidential campaign in modern times in which the Democratic Presidential candidate was granted exclusively favorable coverage, by what is called the Mainstream Media, and the Republican drew only critical attention.