Harold at the Château de Vincennes on the east side of Paris.

Over the holidays I left the warmth of sunny LA to visit mon homme, Harold in Paris and decided to reveal my comparative observations between these two great cities. Also, I can’t think of anything else to blog about this week.

Weather – I don’t even know why I am bothering to comment on this, as LA is the obvious winner. Visiting France in the winter didn’t help Paris here, but come on, no matter what the season, not many cities are going to beat LA when it comes to our average weather year round, which is quite spectacular.

Public Transportation – As a frequent rider of LA’s Metro system, I feel qualified to declare Paris the winner here. The City of Lights boasts many more trains per hour (like one train every 5 minutes) and is much more accessible than LA’s Metro system. You can get within a few blocks of just about anywhere you need to go. The one drawback is that it can be quite crowded, even during off peak hours.

Cost of Living – LA may not be the cheapest big city, but it sure beats Paris when it comes to housing and food values. Harold’s apartment is a good example. His place is smaller than mine, in a more suburban Read the rest of this entry →

Yesterday, a water main broke and flooded a parking lot + shut down restrooms at some LAX terminals.

They’re still repairing because I just saw @alixito tweet this:

That’s pretty much gotta suck for travelers all around because I’d much rather use the facilities at LAX than on a plane…

Hopefully, @matt_brewer is not in one of those terminals with no restrooms, as he just tweeted this:

D’oh.

This story caught my eye first because I was impressed by Ryan’s indisputable bad-assedness, but then I noticed something else on the “About” page of his website. First, the gist: 22-year-old Oxy grad & HIghland Park resident Ryan Bowen left LA on Dec. 2 with the goal of touching down in DC by January 20. It’s ambitious, crazy, cool and not without its dangers, but a recent LA Times story catches up with him at the Continental Divide on Dec 18, where he was in good spirits, carb-loading at a roadside cafe.

Here‘s the story.

So why, then, would anyone launch “brazen personal attacks aimed at denouncing Ryan’s character and integrity”…? That quote is from the About page on Ryan’s website (read it in full here), written by the webmaster in defense of Ryan and his ride. Can anyone tell me why someone would have a problem with what Ryan is doing? Am I missing something?