I have a shiba inu.  This usually isn’t a problem for people who don’t mind purebred dogs anymore than they mind eating breakfast for dinner, but every once in a while at certain parties, I run into someone who flippantly says things like, “Your dog sounds nice, but I like to save dogs from the shelter.”  Then I get schooled about the immorality of selective breeding and an angry litany of supposed diseases and defects my dog will have as result of generations of (in)breeding.  And, as much as I try to explain the virtues of responsible breeding and purebred dog ownership, I usually end up testing whether my dog understands my hand signal for “bare your teeth and growl.”

The American Kennel Club/Eukanuba 125th Annual National Championship dog show held just two weekends ago in Long Beach, then, would be a bad place for those adamantly against the purebred pup.  Too bad, as watching the (over)celebration of the best of each breed was highly, highly entertaining.  Self-riteous people looking for a bone to pick at every turn really do miss out on all the fun.

It was a soggy day – hard to remember when we’ve been getting spring-like weather, isn’t it? – but surprisingly, once you reached the floor of the show, it didn’t smell like wet dogs at all.  It smelled a bit like hair product mixed with human sweat.  The sweat of competition.

Some Best in Show moments from behind the blue carpet of the ring, after the jump.

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Raise your hand if you’re out of town this weekend, and ever since you heard the story of our latest adventures in international terrorism, you’re dreading the increased labyrinthine draconian-ness of the TSA’s vile ministrations, all in the name of Keeping Us Safe From Harm.

On the way out of LA, I remarked to the guy in back of me in the security line — as we were both struggling to stuff laptops back into bags and tie shoelaces at the same time — that “I feel safer already,” adding a quick smirk to let him know it was just a joke. The smirk didn’t do its job, apparently, because in return all I got was that wide-eyed look of terror that says “Shut up, you fool! Are you trying to get us all THROWN IN GITMO?” I thought we’d be a bit more lighthearted in Obama’s America, but I guess not.

I’ve always found LAX to be one of the more relatively sedate airports in terms of security, owing, I suppose, to the fact that the good folks at Homeland Security don’t seem to care too much about any state west of the Mississippi that doesn’t have the words “liberty,” “tyrrany,” or “muzzle velocity” in its state motto. LA and San Francisco don’t get much in the way of security dollars, but you can be sure that the God-fearing Palinites in Butt Nugget, Idaho will be able to afford whatever cutting-edge technology they need to defeat the Saracen hordes.

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With nothing to do and two small children, we decided to give them their first ride on the Metro today. It was also my husband’s first time, which made it even more special. We boarded the Gold Line in Chinatown and wound up at Hollywood & Highland to take pictures of the tourists.

Waiting for the Gold Line from Union Station, I heard sounds of shock through the crowd. It was Santa Claus!

Santa Claus with my kids

Needless to say, they were both thrilled beyond imagination. Santa asked them if they liked the gifts he got them. They both showed him their new watches. My daughter asked him why he didn’t eat the gingerbread house and he said it was because it was too pretty. Great response as earlier in the day she said it he didn’t eat it because it was ugly.

Thank you, Mr. Claus for capping a perfect day for my kids.

Though I’m presently up in Yosemite enjoying my first visit to that magnificent place as well as my first white Christmas since I was in single digits, thanks to the magic of blog post scheduling it’s like I’m still in L.A. bringing you, at last: the final installment of this series, in which I pedaled around town on my evening bike commutes home pixelizing houses of varying elaborations of festivation in order to present one for each day this December from the first of the month to Christmas. This time, instead of the usual one-per-day image I’ve filled out the gallery template with nine offerings including shots, as promised, of the infamous Youngwood Estate aka “Norrywood” aka the “House of Davids” at 3rd and Muirfield in Hancock Park, decked out in all its outrageous don’t-giva-fig-wuttha-neighbors-think glory. Joy to the world.  All the boys and girls.

Week One • Week Two • Week Three

Holiday Travel wake up call baby!!!!  My sweetie Dan and I rolled into LAX the other morning, yes, cutting it close with what I thought was at least 45 minutes to spare… and couldn’t get on board our flight to Maui.  I was one minute past the cut off and it was a big no go!  Luckily, there was another flight an hour later we hopped on… but beware!  They are playing by the rules big time!

Yes, it was totally my fault.  I was already on Maui time, lazing around with my coffee and croissant…. but they are really stern about the being there at least an hour before take-off, and the cut off time is 45 minutes hard!

But, ahhhhh, the water in Maui is definitely worth whatever travel travails you run into.  LA is the sweetest place to live… but the Pacific breezes sure do soothe the soul!  Merry Christmas everyone!!!

Saturday is the opening of race season at Santa Anita Race Track.  With it brings traffic problems since it is adjacent to the Santa Anita Mall.  In preparation Arcadia Police already has alerts in place to help people get around the anticipated jams.  They put up this short alert in Facebook this morning.

Arcadia Police Department (CA) Heavy traffic in Arcadia on Saturday, December 26th. Opening day at Santa Anita Race Track and shoppers at Westfield Shoppingtown will combine for lots of traffic congestion on the streets. See the Nixle alert or APOA Info Blog for alternate routes and information

Full details here.

I am writing to you today, not from Los Angeles, but from my ancestral home in the frozen north.  While it’s pretty easy to feel festively inclined with all of these piles of snow around, the cold is getting me down (apparently 2.5 years in Southern California has made me weak! ) and I’ve kinda been missing L.A.  Last year, I spent my first ever Christmas in Los Angeles, and, as I’m sure many a non-native has felt, found the combination of palm trees and Christmas lights to be a little surreal, but wonderful in its own weird way, and rather enjoyed my snowless holiday.

So, partly because I miss home and partly because I want to show my family what the holidays are like in L.A., today I went searching for Christmassy or generally holiday-themed movies set in L.A., figuring that there had to be at least something…and the only thing I could come up with was Die Hard. And, yes, it takes place in Los Angeles, at this time of year, but is not exactly the heartwarming holiday film I had in mind (although I think it does have, like, explosions and fire in it which are, well, warming, at least). So does anyone out there have a lead on any good L.A. holiday movies?

The nominees as chosen by Metblogs readers and reasons in their own words are…

• Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, for being “a worthless, do-nothing mayor who’s fast turning this city into a former shell of itself…” “for grandstanding something for political gain, when he’s travelling he’s grandstanding for political gain… (and) his dictatorial role on the metro transit board.”
• Russell Brown “who simultaneously claims to represent major property owners as paid rep for the Historic Downtown Business Improvement District (HDBID) and the wider community — including the transient and disenfranchised — as unpaid President of the Downtown LA Neighborhood Council (DLANC)” and for “halting progress with downtown’s artwalk.”
• Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, “for raising my taxes by 10% while simultaneously slashing state-funded programs and services, bankrupting our state, and standing by while our state unemployment has ballooned to 12.5% (the highest ever),” and for “planning/threatening to close our state parks.” While these issues affect the whole state, as one reader notes, he is still technically an Angeleno.
• Michele Mowry, LADOT’s Bicycle Coordinator, “for arguing in Bicycling Magazine that when it comes to cyclists on the streets of Los Angeles, ‘There’s no more room!’ She later pointed out, in LA’s Transportation Committee, that it’s a little easier to do effective work in Portland (because) ‘They’re White!’”

Vote Here

“Winner” will be announced next Wednesday, December 30th.

Next generation space shuttle trailer?

With our country’s huge budget deficits, I’m surprised that few people have suggested that the federal government sell some product or service to raise cash.  It could be some no-brainer business that’s guaranteed to make money, such as running an Apple store or a food truck on Abbott Kinney or … a trash hauling company?

Perhaps the feds are doing just that, as the photo at left indicates.  Outside my home, not far from Abbott Kinney, sits the latest model dumpster from NASA.

shuttle to a close-up, after the jump

LAPD Classic Cruiser picture taken by 888bailbonds

As Tara mentions below, the police in Venice and throughout LA are over-extended, and even if they weren’t it behooves us to reach out within our communities more and find ways to be supportive and help each other. In that spirit, I thought I’d share the LAPD’s Crisis Response Team recruitment announcement I got recently. It’s not close to the neighborhood watch idea that Tara is talking about, but it is one way to possibly make a difference and to help your neighbors cope with traumatic events like homicides, suicides, and serious accidents. The CRT “provides immediate on-scene crisis intervention, attends to survival and comfort needs, and acts as a liaison between the victim and emergency personnel,” among other duties. The trainings run from 6:30 to 9:30 Tuesday and Thursday nights February 2 through March 25 and cover topics such as crisis intervention, suicide aftermath support, and working with diverse populations. More information and an application are available on the LAPD website.

I love this house.  Purple pickets, play yard stuff in the front yard and Jolly Roger flying just in time for Christmas.  I knocked on the door to see if there was a reason for the Jolly Roger, like say maybe an association to the FSM, but there was no answer.

I love these homes that express themselves so boldly they could never fit into an HOA’s cookie cutter rules.

Pic by me and does get bigger with a click.

In answer to Travis’s query below about Jewish recreation on this most Gentile-ish of holidays, Heeb Magazine’s “Heebonism” Dec. 24th event in Palm Springs’ Ace Hotel sounds like an epic party.

It’s spendy if you rent a room, but if you decide to fly low & crash in the car or some cheap motel, which isn’t so bad in that post-party-Palm-Springs haze (um, not like I’m speaking from experience or anything) , the charge for the party is only $18, $36 if you want dinner along with partying. There’s strip dreidel hosted by porn stars and DJs from local “Afro-Hebrew” band Fool’s Gold.

Just don’t blame me if you wake up in the back of an El Camino on blocks in suburban Indian Wells with your yarmulke stuffed in your shoe and the lingering flavor of Hannukah gelt and Manischewitz cocktails in your mouth…and you’re not even Jewish.

Now that the elections are out of the way, it seems that L.A.’s elected officials now have no problem associating publicly with bad bananas and greasy black peels.

Of course, I’m referring specifically to the mean one, aka Mr. Grinch.

LA County Sherriff Lee Baca within arm's reach of The Grinch.

Last week at Universal Studios Hollywood, Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca posed for a photo op with the Grinch himself as 100 Los Angeles elementary school students from the Inner City Educational Foundation charter school looked on.

Then, in an undated photo posted at the Griffith Park Wayist’s blog, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa can be seen being chummy with The Grinch.

Finally, in what I suspect to be a thinly veiled viral ad for Goldstar Events, City Council President Eric Garcetti has issued a public statement calling for the apprehension of the Grinch (video at Mayor Sam’s Sister City blog).

Los Angeles residents can’t shake a ten foot poll without hitting the Grinch – our own Mayor and Sherriff have his number on speed dial, and Eric Garcetti, a Naval intelligence officer to boot, needs our help catching him? Yeah, right.

Here’s where you can find the Grinch and make a citizen’s arrest:

• Every day from now through December 31st at Universal Studios Hollywood. Celebrity readings of “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” will be held each afternoon, which may attract the mean one. (on a side note, they also have real snow there to arm yourself with snowballs).
• At numerous performances of “How the Grinch Stole Christmas! The Musical” at the Pantages through December 27th.

I’ll be cutting off the nomination process tonight at midnight, and voting will begin tomorrow.

Click here for details and to see existing nominations… and while you don’t need to register to post comments and nominate, you’ll need to register with Metblogs to vote, so register now!