Warning: Cat Content

Yes, by all means, go ahead and buy that ridiculously expensive cat bed you saw at the store the other day. After all, you like it and the charming lady there insists that this cat bed is “purrfect” (insert sound of teeth grinding) for your feline friends.

But here’s the thing: No matter how hard you try, no matter how much money you spend – as soon as something is labeled “for the cat” the cat won’t use it. The exception to the rule are feeding bowls. With some nice rigorous training sessions involving a water pistol, and a few weeks time, any cat can learn that feeding from the bowl on the floor is much easier than from the plate on the table. Also the fur stays dry. Cats prefer it that way.

Coming back to that cat bed. There it sits, cute, pretty, soft, warm and inviting. Expensive, too. “Purrfection” (teeth grinding). But then only the best is good enough for a pampered cat. And the cat? Is upstairs in the office, sprawling in her new favorite place. Approach to remedy the situation and you get the “stank eye”.

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Lessons learned:

  1. Never leave a bag of shredded paper unattended for more than 30 seconds if cats are around.
  2. A cat grows an extra set of legs complete with claws when one tries to remove it from a bag of shredded paper.
  3. A cat resting on a bag of shredded paper purrs.
  4. A cat will never rest on a bag of shredded paper you put into the new cat bed. It’s just no fun.
  5. Learn to live with a bag of shredded paper on your office floor. After all, is there anything more comforting than a perfectly happy and contented cat?
  6. You will be the envy of all your acquaintances re. your interesting decorating ideas. “A cat bed for storing magazines? How unusual. What gave you that idea?”

Fallout

By 3 PM today 27 fires were raging in SoCal. They form a blazing triangle from Ventura County inland to San Bernardino and down again to the coast in San Diego. In San Diego alone over half a million people were evacuated and thousands of those will have no home to return to – their houses have burned down.

The city of Los Angeles is safe. We know how lucky we are and blessed.

With all those fires burning the fallout is the smoke. The sky today was grayish-yellow. A rather distinct smell of burnt wood reminds us all that others are less lucky than we are. Sunrise this morning was already quite a sight; come sunset, one could look right into the sun without danger of hurting ones eyes.

Though a phenomenon like this is spectacular, I would have preferred not to have been able to take this photo.

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Cold Snap

So we had the first cold spell of autumn, weather-wise. Which brought on the first cold, sniffles-wise. Because I was not dressed properly, temperature-wise. That’s not the end of the world, there are worse things which can befall mankind.

The slight irony lies in the fact that temperatures in the upper ‘60s are seen as summer in some parts of the world. Those near and dear to me often jokingly say: “But you must be used to the cold, you’re from Germany.” Used to it I was. Like it I did not.

But temperatures are on the rise again. What joy and bliss. Nevertheless it can not be wrong to bring the winter duvet and the warm sweaters out of storage. And for the cold and the sniffles there is a patent remedy at hand:

“If life hands you a cold, drink hot lemon juice with honey.”

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Holy WHAM! POW! Batman

It is always fun to go and see film locations everybody knows. This time the trip was up to the “Bat Cave,” just around the corner. Literally around the corner, as the most famous cave of all caves sits right there in Griffith Park.

Here it is:

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Not too exciting? Well, then take a look  here – with Batman and Robin in action. The clip is short, only 3:31 minutes and quite entertaining, because one sees a few examples of other films, where the Bronson Caves figure too.

To name only a few, scenes in these films and tv series were shot there:

Flash Gordon

Star Trek

MacGyver

I Am A Fugitive On A Chain Gang (1932)

Sagebrush Trail (1933)

Julius Caesar (1953)

The Searchers (1956)

Invasion Of The Body Snatchers (1956)

Have Rocket, Will Travel (1959)

Ride The High Country (1962)

Lost Horizon (1973)

The Scorpion King (2002)

As an aside – whenever one sees snow in these movies, it is artificial. Griffith Park might sport famous scenery, but when it comes to snow, the props people have to get to work.

Strange And Tasty

Kids can be bribed. Offer them some chocolate or candies and they become quiet or go away or stop torturing the cat/siblings/piano, depending on what you want them to do or let be. At least this works with most kids. It never worked with me. It became a family joke: “Offer her a bar of chocolate or a sandwich and bet on what she will choose.” It was never the chocolate.

Fast forward. I learned to appreciate a piece of chocolate now and then – dark, rich, bitter. Or mole negro, this Oaxacan delicacy which takes two days to prepare if done properly and where some real chocolate is involved, not this sickly sweet stuff. I also became very adventurous when it comes to food. Some of the things I ate might frighten the poor reader; not every time the experience was quite what I had had in mind, but then – life is an adventure.

And then I came across this:

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My first reaction was – eek, chocolate. My second – it does sound strange enough to give it a try. And try it I did. Résumé: In an odd way this chocolate is very lovely. Yes, there is a quite distinct bacon flavor (good). It is also salty (good). There is the barest hint of a dark chocolate taste, blending in with the bacon and the salt, but more like an afterthought. So that can be filed under good too.

It is definitely not a chocolate for the chocoholic. It is something one has one square of now and then. But that’s okay with me, because I really do not go for chocolate in a big way. To bribe me one has to give me “real” food. Then, I will stop torturing the piano.

Pastrami Sandwich

Years before I actually ever set foot on American soil I knew about pastrami sandwiches – from reading about them.

“Night had fallen over New York. Rain was pouring down, lashing at the windows. Nick Sharp, private eye, with his feet on his desk, took a bite from his pastrami sandwich and recapitulated what he knew about the case of the Blonde murdered the night before. Life is a bitch, he thought, and took another bite.”

You get the idea.

So I arrived in New York for my first visit (many, may years ago) with my little laundry list of things to do and places to see, with “have pastrami sandwich” quite high up on the list. On the second day I set off to go to the Carnegie Deli, like any good tourist. For some reason I arrived just at the time when the breakfast rush was over and the lunch crowd had not yet arrived and the place was quite empty. I placed my order for a pastrami sandwich and some pickles and mentioned en passant that this was not only my first time in New York but also the very first pastrami sandwich in my life. To this day I think that with the place being slow at the moment the waiter went the extra mile and thought: “We’ll show that tourist what we can do.” And show me they did. The sandwich was delicious, the pickles were to die for and the service was impeccable and extremely friendly.

Since then I am a fan of the pastrami sandwich. In Los Angeles that means – Canter’s. I’ve tried other places, but Canter’s always won hands down. Actually, any place does where I can stumble in at 2 o’clock in the morning, jet lagged from here to there and order a pickle and a coffee without the waitress batting an eyelid. Until now. Last weekend I found a new deli up to the standards I expect – Roll ‘n Rye in Culver City.

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One could not even say that the sandwiches are better than at Canter’s – they are different. Somewhat spicier, with more “oomph.” Plus one has the choice between five different types of mustard. Although the pickles at Canter’s win – they have the New York taste. At least, if memory serves me.

“The sun was shining in Los Angeles. I took a bite from my pastrami sandwich and recapitulated that life can be good outside of New York too.”

You get the idea.

Rain

The first rain since April. Big, fat, beautiful dark clouds moved in, bringing rain to the region. Call me crazy, but I took photos of the clouds.

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It was a day to be celebrated by sitting outside with a glass of wine, listing to the gentle dripping of raindrops in the trees, knowing that soon the hills will wear their green coats again.

The weather report had announced “rain storm to hit West Coast.” Now I, coming from a country which moved Heinrich Heine to exclaim “summer in Germany is but winter painted green” know all about storms. And rain. And winter. As long as no tiles are flying off roofs, it is not a storm. As long as the rain does not continue on for weeks and weeks, there is nothing to worry about. As long as there is no snow and ice, it is not winter.

So, please, weather people, stop exaggerating. Rejoice with everybody else in the fact that the rain season has started and spare us the storm warnings.