A visit to a clothing-optional spring in Apple Valley:
"Do you have a problem with public nudity?"
That's what a buddy asked before giving me directions to Deep Creek
Hot Springs near Apple Valley, a clothing-optional oasis about a
two-hour drive from downtown Los Angeles.
Nudity? I was raised Catholic, I said. What do you think?
Natural hot springs are rare in Southern California, mainly because
of the lack of searing underground volcanic rock to heat subterranean
water. So, I was willing to overcome my hang-ups and insecurities to
soak in one of SoCal's few natural hot tubs.
Most natural hot springs in the state are tucked away in remote
canyons or deep forests and call for some serious backcountry orienting
and hiking to uncover. Deep Creek Hot Springs is no exception. It's
wedged in a canyon in the arid foothills of Round Mountain, about 10
miles south of Apple Valley.
More about this carefree (and clothes-free) getaway in the full story here.
George Calvarescu bought a kayak, saw the L.A. River, had an epiphany and, 52 miles later — dressed in his business suit — the San Fernando Valley resident had paddled the L.A. River downstream to work in Long Beach. Full story in the LaLa Times.
Two sides of the street, two sides of the issue. An ongoing difference of opinion over the Iraq war - and an American flag - in the small town of Montrose. Rather read? Story here.
Our own Dan Neil gets out of the car (no, really) and hits the desert backcountry in a bid to be alone. Well, except for the cellphone. And the GPS unit. And the locator beacon. We'll let Dan do some explaining:
The patron saint of doomed solitary rapture is Chris McCandless, the
subject of last year's film "Into the Wild," based on the Jon Krakauer
book. In 1992, the smart and charismatic McCandless marched into the
Alaskan bush desiring nothing more than to disconnect from civilization
utterly, a transcendentalist Garbo wanting to be alone. He never walked
out.
It's my life's ambition not to be the subject of a Krakauer book. I
have kids, a wife, a cat who'd miss me terribly. But sometimes, I want
to be alone too. Why? Because I have kids, a wife, a cat, etc. And so,
for my planned six-day solo hike across Joshua Tree National Park, I
have armed myself with the latest generation of backcountry
electronics, devices that split the difference between the pleasures of
being alone and the potential for dying alone -- call it "e-survival."
Are gizmos a good idea, or do you get a bit too cocky, maybe a little too confident? Check out the full story of Dan's solo Joshua Tree hike for answers.
It's the California myth: Play in the snow in the mountains in the morning, hang by the surf at the coast in the afternoon. Our reporter, Tami Abdollah, goes one better and adds some hiking in between. That's right: Ski, hike and surf, all in a single day. Tami shows you how...
He's the (Single) GeekHiker, he's an expert on the trails, but is apparently a little lost when it comes to searching for romance on the Internet. After posting his profile on a dating site, he got a rush when a woman e-mailed him a question. He replied. She responded. He replied again. She responded again. After his third e-mail, however, Geek Hiker waited. And continues to wait.
This would have been considered rude behavior in person, The Hiker say, but might be typical online. But then again, he wonders what the rule might be.
"Maybe there’s an unwritten rule out there that says 'thou shalt offer to meet for coffee upon dispatching thine third e-mail to the party interested in thee', or something like that.... It seems for all the unwritten "rules" out there that might apply, there are none regarding common courtesy ... ah, well, live & learn."
So, should Geek Hiker have sent a fourth e-mail or just taken a hike instead?
Eating tamales for peace -- that's the plan tonight when L.A. City Councilman Ed Reyes and L.A.'s top cop, Bill Bratton, meet at MacArthur Park (between Alvarado and Lake Streets) at 5 p.m. Co-sponsored by Mama's Hot Tamales, there'll be plenty of food and talk (about how to fix up the neighborhood) for all.
Then for dessert, you can hit Baskin-Robbins, where cones are going for 31 cents between 5 p.m. and 10 p.m. The ice cream giant has promised to donate $100,000 to the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation, specifically, the Everyone Goes Home program. More on the promotion at the LAFD's blog.
Dock workers opposed to Iraq war plan to walk off the job Thursday. Daily Breeze
L.A.'s top cop says he'll take a hard look at the LAPD's review practices, after none of the 320 complaints of racial profiling by officers were found to be credible. LADN
Did Oprah lie? Fabulist James Frey says yes. Vanity Fair via Huffington Post.
With Pink's, Cupid's, Jody Maroni's, Johnnie's Pastrami, the Stand, Carney's and Oki Dog, Dodger Dogs and more and even more, L.A.'s a hot town for hot dogs. LAT
Starbucks to test smoothies in SoCal stores. Fast Food Maven
Nothing less than an extravaganza, it's the L.A. Times Festival of Books on UCLA's green and tree-lined campus. There'll be authors, exhibits, music, interviews, outdoor stages, storytelling, kids activities -- we've been at it 13 years and we've pretty much got this thing figured out.
The shindig kicks off with an awards ceremony tonight. (Ticket info at UCLA’s Central Ticket Office: 310-825-2101.)
There's food and drink for sale, ATMs in case you run short of cash, plenty of places for home-style picnics, and Westwood Village nearby for those who don't mind a little stroll.
Events are free, but you do need a ticket to get in. Space in popular panels goes fast, so plan ahead. Ticket info here.
Natassja Alluin and Anastasia Sandrak, 9-year-old fourth-graders who come soooo close to sharing a first name, do share some gardening chores near the L.A. River in Studio City. Carpenter Elementary School paired kids with plants and dirt Monday, a sure-fire success, and a bunch of native plants and trees are now greening up the atmosphere.
Yes, some local honchos were there: county Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky and Dean Efstathiou, the county's acting director of the Department of Public Works. The point of the event: to get people more interested in protecting the river's watershed. Fingers crossed that everyone there got the message.
One of the more public ways to deal with divorce is to write about it in the Sunday New York Times. That's where Torie Osborn, a former advisor to Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, pops up this weekend, in the wildly popular column in the style section, Modern Love.
Osborn, a marriage skeptic, recounts her surprise at the giddy joy she felt at being among the 4,000 same sex couples who flocked to San Francisco to say "I do" in 2005 during Mayor Gavin Newsom's great gay marriage experiment. After their wedding, Osborn supported her wife, a surgical resident, and reveled in the life they were building. And then the pendulum swung.
Three years after the marriage, near our anniversary date last year, my partner announced over a fancy French dinner that she was leaving me. My world collapsed, I entered a dark tunnel, and it has taken me most of this past year to begin to emerge. It turned out to be an embarrassing cliché: I carried her through her residency and the establishment of her career, and now it was supposed to be my turn, but she was moving on. The psychiatrist we consulted called it a “change in structure of support needs.” I called it throwing me off a cliff. Of course, breakups are more complicated, but that’s how it felt to me.
Turns out that, gay or straight, divorce is about who gets the house, who gets the pets and, most of all, how to finally move on. You can read her full column here.
Snooping into medical files -- old news, to UCLA anyway. Officials there have known of the problem since at least 1995, says Charles Ornstein.
Have you heard the name Roger Snoble? He's head of the MTA (a.k.a. the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority) and Fabian Nuñez, speaker of the assembly, wants him gone. How, why, and what are the chances, from Patrick McGreevy.
Which is a perfect time to let you know what George Skelton is thinking these days: TIME FOR BIG CHANGES AT THE CAPITOL! (Well, he doesn't shout like that, but lawmakers might, if Skelton ever got his way.) The column is here.
Are local news anchors an endangered species? Greg Braxton thinks maybe so.
Tiny, yellow ducklings, stuck in a storm drain in Garden Grove. We've got video -- and a happy ending. (Might not be a bad idea to take a look, enjoy some good news, before moving onto the next item.)
What if the Chino slaughterhouse responsible for the largest beef recall in U.S. history can't come up with the $67 million the feds say it costs to handle the mess? Taxpayers (a.k.a. you and I) will get stuck with the bill. (And guess what -- it could climb as high as $117 million.) AP via LAT.
Beverly Hills says yes to a huge condo-and-retail project that has some residents saying, "Oh no..."
Want to know more about people so rich, a yacht is an "impulse buy"? Then Susannah Rosenblatt has a story for you.
They don't call it the Dinah Shore Golf Championship anymore (it's now the Kraft Nabisco Championship). But for many lesbians, the series of giant parties that coincide with the Palm Springs area tournament this past weekend is still known simply as "the Dinah."
The Cabana Girl party, one of the largest events of Dinah Shore Weekend, drew about 2,000 women on Saturday for a day of poolside dancing, wet T-shirt contests, oil wrestling and other activities, reports the Desert Sun. With Palm Spring still heavily populated year-round with retirees, the infusion of younger visitors is a welcome if relatively brief addition for many young lesbian residents.
"It helps balance the dating pool," said Alisha O. "It's really hard for the girls out here. We wait all year for the Dinah."
A visit to a clothing-optional spring in Apple Valley:
