Carolyn Kellogg

We aren't going to tell you where to go for the most over-hyped of holidays. Instead, we urge you to take the highly scientific personality quiz the LA Alternative Press has cooked up to help you pick among the zillions of faboo events happening around the southland this Saturday night. Of course you've heard about Giant Village, with its mad DJs and the Flaming Lips; Anon Salon's downtown Circ-O-Six with burlesque and circus performers...

First, if you haven't read downtown blogger Jeremy Hermanns' account of being on the Alaska Airlines flight that blew a hole in its side at 30,000 feet, read it now. The LA Times looks at Nissan's new concept car which, not surprisingly, drives fast and looks cool. When it's parked, a screen folds down so the driver can play the video game "Project Gotham Racing 3," using the actual car steering wheel and pedals...

We've heard vitamin B, bloody marys, mac-n-cheese, greasy burgers and ginger ale can help ease the pain of a morning after, say, an extremely generous bartender pours and pours. But just before Christmas British researchers found that "No compelling evidence exists to suggest that any complementary or conventional intervention is effective for treating or preventing alcohol hangover." Which we think is just a damn shame. Particularly this morning. What works for you? Tell us....

When we're not living on the internet LAist contributors love to read. We love fiction, we love comics, we love short stories, we even love books about the internet. Kevin, Carolyn and Adrienne want to share our favorites of '05. But first, two LAist contributors actually wrote books this year: Adrienne Crew co-authored Blogosphere: Best of the Blogs and Jen Sincero penned The Straight Girls' Guide to Sleeping With Chicks. Huzzah! Our book favorites...

Stuart Alexander, the Sausage King of San Leandro, died in his prison cell today. He was on suidice watch. He was also on Death Row. SFist has his bizarre story. Alexander was a handsome (looks a little like Howard Hughes, huh?) businessman and one-time mayoral candidate who went bezerk when he was visited by four state meat inspectors who had heard he wasn't cooking his sausage at a high enough temperature. Bezerk as in...

Today seemed perfect for a little dose of cute. That's a cute black kitten, huh? Cute cute cute. And remarkably like the historic Felix the Cat sign that adorns a car dealership at Figueroa and Jefferson, south of downtown LA. We did some digging, and here "historic" means "put up around 1958." But the Felix the Cat cartoon character is older, dating back to 1919 or earlier, depending on what you read. The guy...

A random sampling of some of our favorite uncategorizables of the year. Stay tuned for a restaurant roundup, our favorite news stories, and some books and bars we love. If we can remember the bars. Best people watching: Arclight lobby (Adrienne) or just plain Best movie theater: Arclight (Lindsay) Best pop culture mashup: Wonka Meets Spock (Carolyn) Best TV shows: Veronica Mars, Battlestar Galactica, My Name is Earl, The Office, Rome, Out of Practice...

Jen Sincero is a sexpert, musician, and the author of the bestselling book, The Straight Girl’s Guide To Sleeping With Chicks and the semi-autobiographical novel, Don’t Sleep With Your Drummer. She currently hosts the weekly sex talk radio show Dr. Happypants on killradio.org. Every week in Living in Sin, Jen provides advice for LA's sexually confused and curious. Got a question for Jen? Ask her. We promise to be discreet — all questions will...

We aren't churchgoers or religious, really, but we think if there is a hell, that's exactly where the man is going who shot several rounds into a Riverside home on Christmas, killing an 11-year old boy. In less serious news, no one was hurt when a big rig flipped over at the 5 freeway transition to the 10 east last night. In trying to get the truck off the road, though, 80,000 pounds of...

The Autry Center, taking advantage of the holidays, is featuring 5 midday movies just this week. Every day at 2pm, they're screening a western, free after you pay the museum's admission ($7.50). Funny thing is, these aren't your dust-blown classics; they're more of the offbeat-slash-forgotten type. Which is kind of cool: the John Ford/John Wayne pic Three Godfathers, the minimal-dailogue Jeremiah Johnson with Robert Redford, the are-they kidding? Silverado, and ending with the oh...