My office was the living room closet in a huge one-bedroom in a 1920s East Hollywood apartment court, across the street from the big blue Scientology headquarters in the old Cedars of Lebanon Hospital. There were built-in bookshelves and just enough space for a chair and a laptop and an ashtray. The neighbor lady's rescued pit bulls romped outside in the overgrown garden, and that electric L.A. sunlight came filtered through the grimy old French windows to the hardwood floors. It was a very pleasant place to work, my friends lived within walking distance in other cheap apartments in Los Feliz, and I had a bad case of being in [...]

It definitely now seems certain that the Egypt protest movement will not be petering out! It also sounds like tomorrow will be a huge, huge day. Yet still there are a couple of ways in which the protest movement there can be destroyed or damaged—and "total state crackdown" is an unlikely one. The state most likely does not have those kind of resources, and the movement has reached a state where state-sponsored violence will be met with resistance.

For just $2.99 a month, the Los Angeles Times will now deliver to your home a weekly 44-page tabloid-format TV news section, the TV Times. What's in it? TV listings, mostly! "24-hour daily grid listings spanning morning, afternoon, primetime and late-night programming, four pages of alphabetized TV/cable/satellite movie listings, a full-page cover story, a TV-related crossword puzzle, episode highlights and synopses, and a dedicated sports programming page." This is it! Someone has finally figured out the business model of the future! Okay, I'm being sarcastic, and that's rude. I hope the ad space makes them money! With the LA Times entertainment site's web traffic down from over 21 million [...]

Former "Night Court" producer viciously turns on Los Angeles Times! Not only does it have a picture of a scary woman on the front page, it makes him sneeze!

Who says there's no job security in media? Everyone says that, because it's true. But there are inspirational exceptions. Meet 94-year-old San Francisco Chronicle science reporter David Perlman, who cranked out 111 articles last year and continues to work full-time at the paper. He still loves his beat and his desk is in a sunny corner of the Chronicle newsroom, so there's no reason to quit working now.

After all, he said over a burger at a South of Market dive near Chronicle headquarters, "I'm doing exactly what I wanted to do all my life, be a reporter."

He "majored in the Spectator," the Columbia student paper, [...]

"Should California resume executions? Talk Back, LA! What you do think? Share your views below."

"It will sure save money! Posted by: Jim | September 21, 2010 at 08:45 AM"

The good news is that it only gets somewhat worse from there.

In which we revisit the front page ad that recently adorned the Los Angeles Times.