Junot Diaz at the Hammer Museum/Osmany Rodriguez for LAist The thing about author Junot Diaz is, one minute he’s on the phone with you, rapping about meringue, Malcolm X, comic books, and how shit never gets done on time in the Dominican Republic – and the next minute, he’s winning the Pulitzer Prize for fiction for his novel The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. He describes himself as just another ordinary, poor immigrant......

- National Spelling Bee is down to just 15 adorable nerds - LA Times (spoilers if you are going to watch it tonight) - Headline of the day: Lady Who Fucked Up Iraq to Fix It - Wonkette - Gang crimes down 32%, slackers - LAT - Tommy Lasorda, representing the LA Dodgers, acquired a 40-foot bus from the MTA with help from Tom LaBonge and donated it to some underprivileged sports writers in......

With an off-day on Thursday, and a big series coming up this weekend against the Giants, it felt like the right time to begin introducing our readers to the new members of the 2007 Los Angeles Dodgers. So, with apologies to Stephen Colbert, below is Part One of our 436-Part Series, "Better Know a Dodger". And who better to start with than perhaps the most anonymous of Dodgers, shortstop Wilson Valdez. Not to be......

Every year a certain amount of celebs get popped for one thing or another. This year way more than usually got picked up for dabbling with dope. If it weren't for the THC Comedy Tour we would have totally forgotten about Rush getting busted for having a bottle of Viagra on his person as he was arriving back from his trip to the Dominican Republic (shiver). 2006 really was a bad year for the......

Mayor Tony plays softball in Dodger Stadium, poses with Playmates, meets the President of the Dominican Republic, and introduces Al Gore before a screening of the former VP's new film - all captured by LA Observed. It's good to be #1. It's also good to be 734. The Valley today gets a new Metro Rapid line. Luckies. The NY Times spends 36 hours in LA and go horseback riding in Griffith Park, eat at......