a writer's perspective So now that the writers have voted overwhelmingly to end the strike, what next? Well, now we’re in the midst of the contract ratification process. Last week, interested writers were asked to provide the WGA with “camera ready” statements for or against the new contract. Over the next few days, guild members will be receiving ballots along with the pro and con statements, and will have the opportunity to vote as to......

I have no balls. After talking about the New England Patriot’s upset win against the St. Louis Rams six years ago, I said in this webspace, “Somehow I get a similar feeling with this Sunday’s game.” But I quickly dismissed it. In the end I picked the Patriots to win the game 34-27, and I was flat wrong and Bill Plaschke was right. And you don’t know how hard it is for me to admit......

Think your Super Bowl Sunday went sour? Try being a resident of Coachella Valley at kickoff time. According to The Desert Sun, Time Warner Cable is reporting a sustained outage in the cities of Twentynine Palms , Yucca Valley, and Barstow. Officials have not said what caused the outages, but according to a recorded message at Time Warner offices, engineers are "aware of the problem" and there is "no estimated time of repair." Super......

Vague language is the name of the (big) game. There's a sports game on right now. The Big Game. You know, the championship game between two conferences of a league that specializes in playing the sport with a football. But hey since I'm not an advertiser, I can call a spade a spade: It's the Super Bowl. Super Bowl Super Bowl. Super Bowl. Between the New England Patriots and New York Giants. See, I......

LAist reader Hope Egan has sent us this pic from inside the University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona where Super Bowl XLII is going to get going in just about two hours. In case you're totally oblivious (like I was until I did some internet-scouring) this is the 42nd annual playing of the major NFL match up, and this year's game is between the National Football Conference (NFC) champion New York Giants and......

As you prepare to watch some new Super Bowl ads (we hear there's a game, too -- but only if New England decides not to use the forward pass), can you remember the classics from 2000? Probably not. Several of the dot-coms that advertised (a/k/a blew their wad on the $2.1 million average cost of 30 seconds) were lampooned in a 2001 E*Trade commercial (above). According to SuperBowl-Ads.com, 17 coughed up "their seed money......

In a post I wrote earlier this week, I talked about the New England Patriots back in 2002. The Patriots squeaked their way into Super Bowl XXXVI with the infamous “tuck rule” game against the Oakland Traitors in the snow of Foxborough and barely surviving the Steelers in the AFC Championship game. First-year starting quarterback Tom Brady was hurt in the game against the Steelers forcing veteran Drew Bledsoe off the bench to lead......

NFL Playoffs - It was almost the perfect Super Bowl match up. Instead of Brady-Favre, we get Brady-Manning -- but it's the wrong Manning, if you're going to have one. New England held off San Diego and New York stole it in OT from Green Bay to face off in the big game. Green Bay would have presented the better threat to the Pat's attempt at a perfect season (their secondary is better than the......

With the regular season of the NFL coming to an end, what have we truly learned? 1. Perfection is Possible! The New England Patriots join the ranks of the 1972 Miami Dolphins and the 1942 and 1934 Chicago Bears teams. However they are the first to do this with a 16 game schedule (the other teams did it on a 14, 11 and 13 game schedules respectively). It may be tempting to call this......

The symbol of the new year is a baby, and what better baby to ask for predictions than LAist's own sports editor? Baby Adam is much more clear-headed and clairvoyant than the adult version. We're turning to the guru of Gerber, the sultan of spittle, to see what's in store for 2008 and beyond. Q: Thanks for chatting with us, but what makes you qualified? A: I may only be 9 months old, but I've......

In a press release yesterday, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell announced that Saturday night's potentially historic game featuring the New England Patriots visiting the New York Football Giants will be simulcast on the NFL Network, CBS and NBC. Yes, everyone will be able to watch this game now. This is the first time an NFL game will be simulcast since Super Bowl I. Now isn't that magnanimous of good ole Roger? Seriously if it wasn't......

I know I’m about as consistent as the Lakers in doing these things. So here are my quick takes of all of the Sunday games. There’s a quarterback who breaks records, a team that finally does something with a kick off, a team that will not live in infamy and a bunch of ugly games that made me really happy to be huddled in my bed with the heater on. Cleveland Browns over Buffalo......

Monday Keith Gessen & Chad Harbach discuss the latest issue of n+1 7pm @ Book Soup Jay Inslee & Bracken Hendricks presents Apollo's Fire 7pm @ Vroman's Jenna Bush signs Ana's Story: A Journey of Hope 7pm @ Barnes & Noble, The Grove Robert Hass presents Time & Materials 7pm @ Central Library Tuesday John Leake presents Entering Hades 7pm @ Book Soup Seth Rogen & Evan Goldberg present Superbad: Seth's Drawings 7pm @......

Did you know there's a medical/psychological condition called trichophagia -- where someone is compelled to eat his or her own hair. Could this the next big celeb dysfunction? Move over meth and anorexia. Here comes hair eating to help with your weight gain... An 18-year-old Chicago girl found out the hard way why eating your hair is bad for you. She was suffering from stomach pain, vomiting and losing 40 lbs. over a five-month......

Fires raged across Southern California for the second day in a row. Helicopters joined the effort as did a Boeing 747, according to NBC TV. Also, 250,000 San Diegans were told to evacuate their homes. LAist is on top of recent developments. Fires in the region always make me think of when NBC newscaster Chuck Henry reported on the forest fires in 2003. His news van caught on fire and he and his crew had......

The big story this past week was New England Patriot’s head coach Bill Belichick. After having one of his coaches illegally videotape the New York Jets’ defensive coaches giving signals, he tried his best to sidestep the issue. We all know that as great of a coach as he is, Belichick is an asshole. In a written statement apologizing for the incident on Wednesday, he said the he misinterpreted the rule. The rule clearly......

That opening game of the NFL was a kick in the nuts, wasn’t it? The Indianapolis Colts proved their defense wasn’t a mere fluke in last season’s playoff by only allowing the New Orleans Saints offense to only score a field goal in their 41-10 blowout. At least I was right about the Saints having a pretty porous defense. With the exception of the Reggie Wayne fumble that was taken for a touchdown, no......

The Dodgers are winning. They’ve won nine of their last 13 games crawling back to 4 ½ games within the NL West lead. It looks like a rosy picture, but I’m still not buying into it. The problem is the Dodgers are merely a singles-hitting team that can only run station-to-station. Of their 1,232 hits 225 are doubles (ranked 13th in the NL), 27 are triples (tied for 8th) and 96 are home runs......

Cardinals 12, Dodgers 2 - At least the Dodgers took the first game from St. Louis. They were hammered in the rubber game, as Mark Hendrickson allowed eight runs on 11 hits in just 2 and 2/3 innings. Andre Ethier was the only Dodger holding up the offense, with a double, triple, and RBI. Angels 6, Twins 2 - The Angels shut down Minnesota in three straight games this weekend. Jared Weaver lasted 7.1 innings......

Monday If you haven't managed to rest-up after your July 4th blow-out, you get one more day. But that's it! Tuesday Emily White presents You Will Make Money in Your Sleep 7pm @ Book Soup Patricia Schultz signs 1000 Places to See in the USA and Canada Before You Die 7pm @ Dutton's Stephen L. Carter presents New England White 7pm @ EsoWon Books John Amaechi signs Man in the Middle 7:30pm @ Barnes......

- 3.0 quake in The Valley this afternoon - Major League Soccer: New England 3, Los Angeles 2. - Environmentally friendly and affordable bras and panties guides by GreenLAGirl. - 2 die at Mother's Day Flower Stand when car plows through. - Why do the La Brea Tar Pits bubble? - California man on FBI's Top Ten List arrested in Canada - 60 to 80 acres burned in Pacoima off Osborne Street. - American......

A cluttered stretch of Sunset Boulevard, crowded with stores and neon, billboards and cars, the sidewalks studded with gum, marked with the spray-painted symbols of different bands who’ve played Amoeba, seems a place ill suited to the food of a blue New England day, a little warm with a nice breeze, the air has that sweet salt tang to it. But to find the best seafood in town, Los Angelenos know better than to......

A Word or 48: House was pretty good last night and the timing was great what with the blizzard hitting New England today. With the semifinalists declared on Idol and Paula Abdul declaring that she's never been drunk in her life, I get the feeling that show is really coming along now. Today - Wednesday - February 14th, 2007 Breakfast at Tiffany's (TCM, 4:05 p.m.) Holly Golightly, not the band Beauty and the Geek......

A Word or 12: Dirt - I forgot to mention Dirt yesterday, someone just kill me please. Tonight - Wednesday - January 31st, 2007 The Spiral Staircase (TCM, 5:00 p.m.) This nifty thriller from the '40s features a strangler that follows a mute maid through a dark New England mansion during a storm. Lakers @ Celtics (KCAL, 5:30 p.m.) Monster (IFC, 6:00 p.m.) Charlize Theron transorms herself in an Oscar winning performance. Worth watching just......

A Word or 44: The first 1/2 of the "24" season premiere was quite good even though I don't understand how Jack found the terrorist dude before his house got blown up. Also, was there some anal play going on between Jack and the first terrorist guy? Kinky. Tonight - Monday - January 15th, 2007 "Lawrence of Arabia" (TCM, 5:00 p.m.) Quite possibly the best movie ever made. "Hamlet" (IFC, 6:00 p.m.) Classic Shakespeare......

It was a tough afternoon in San Diego as the Chargers watched their lead dissipate late in the fourth quarter to a relentless Patriot offense. The Chargers opened up the fourth quarter with a second touchdown from LaDainian Tomlinson, putting them up 21-13. It looked bleak for New England as they trailed by 8 points with 5 minutes to go. With 41 yards to go, Brady threw a short pass that was intercepted by McRee.......

- Our good friends at Gawker seem to have some unwelcome guests - Wired - Jillian Barberie is expecting - Celebrity Baby Blog - Macaca wins Most Politically Incorrect Word - Reuters - Know some University of Michigan fans coming to town for the Rose Bowl? Wolverine Day will go down 12/20 at Universal Studios (where we like to keep our tourists), and if they act now they can get $15 off a ticket......

“Monday Night Football” (ESPN, 5:30 p.m.) New England Patriots at Minnesota Vikings “NHL Hockey” (FSN, 7:30 p.m.) New York Rangers at Los Angeles Kings “Everybody Hates Chris” (the CW, 8:00 p.m.) Chris gets robbed while guarding the cash register for Doc “House of 1000 Corpses” (IFC, 8:15 p.m.) Get in the Halloween mood with Rob Zombie’s neo-classic. “The Bachelor: Rome” (ABC, 9:00 p.m.) Lorenzo (I can’t believe I’m writing that name) knocks it down......

LAist is on a road trip around the country, so you dont have to. There's a reason Plymouth Rock is hard to find. There's a reason why most of the signs off the highway lead you to the Plimouth Plantation, a living museum where "real native Americans" and white folk recreate what life was like when the pilgrims arrived (for the low price of $24 for adults, $21 for seniors, and $14 for kids......

The holiday times really are a-changing. Thanks to our need for instant gratification, we can shop for everyone this Christmas/Chanukah/Kwanzaa season without leaving the comfort of our cubicle. (’Fess, up -- we know you’re not really working that hard.) And we totally approve. Who wants to fight traffic at the Glendale Galleria or in Century City, anyway? But we have to draw the laziness line somewhere, and for LAist, it’s drawn at holiday decorations.......