I recently finished watching Season 3 of Mad Men (I know, I know, I’m was behind the times, but I’ve been watching DVD and am now all caught up).

As everyone who follows the show knows, the next to last episode of of that season deals with the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Having not been alive during that time, I was struck by the depiction of everyone’s response–glued to the TV, crying, a personal sense of devastation–and how the only event in my lifetime that ever generated a similar response was the 9/11 attacks (with Hurricane Katrina the only other event even in the ballpark).

Last summer, when Los Angeles water mains were “mysteriously” bursting almost every other day, my wife and I discussed the news and came to the conclusion that the water conservancy programs had to be at least somewhat, if not largely, to blame. It was immediately obvious to us that the extreme variations in pressure and temperature resulting from alternating restricted and intensified use were intense stresses that old pipes simply couldn’t handle.

Flash forward nearly one year and the Los Angeles Department of Water & Power has solved the riddle of the bursting water mains. Their answer?

Hi Everybody,

I recently launched a new website, Food Trucks dot info (http://www.FoodTrucks.info).

Food Trucks dot info is your resource for Los Angeles food trucks:

Just got an iPhone & had to try posting from its Wordpress app. It truly is an amazing device.

The Hollywood Reporter ran an article last Friday describing the rapidly growing and thriving entertainment scene in Dubai.  The closing paragraph delivered what has to be the quote of the year so far, from Abdullatif al-Sayegh, CEO of Arab Media Group: ”[it's] good that Dubai is on the radar screen of the world’s major reporters… [it's] not so good that we are paying twice or three times as much for concerts as do promoters in the U.S. and Europe.” Hmmm, kind of what everyone in the U.S. feels about the price of gas? Sorry, al-Sayegh, no sympathy here.