Rabe, baby; LAPD HQ; Populist Critique; Metergate; The View of Us Guys; Wither Jane?; ViewMaster; Paine in the Neck; To Protect and Surf; Strange New World; Poor Howard's Almanac
This is my dad, the late WT "Bill" Rabe, and me forty years ago. My dad was a friend of the late lamented satirist Art Buchwald. The link takes you to an old Buchwald column about Silent Records, one of his many schemes. An old-time PR man, Dad also invented Unicorn Hunting, World Sauntering Day, Stone Skipping, and Word Banishment. Angelenos might remember Dad's frequent appearances on Charlie Tuna's morning shows on KIIS-AM and FM, 10Q, KHTZ-FM, and KRLA.
John attends the groundbreaking for the $400 million dollar LA police headquarters, which politicians and police promise will be open and inviting.
Architecture critic and newest Off-Ramp contributor Sam Hall Kaplan gives us the low down on the new LAPD HQ.
Along with traffic jams, dealing with broken parking meters is a universal experience in Los Angeles. LA Times reporter Steve Hyman looks for broken meters with Queena Kim. Hyman broke "Metergate" or the story of how the city is dealing - or not dealing - with broken meters.
The parking meter flashes, "FAILED" and you think: Free Parking! Steve Hymon sets Queena straight on that misguided notion.
Steve Hymon on what happens when you try to fight a parking ticket?
On the off-chance that Barbara Walter's The View tanks, John and Marketplace's Rico Gagliano and Stephen Hoffman are ready to take up the slack. Their first guest: The Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Charlie LeDuff whose newest book Us Guys will be in stores next week. LeDuff will read from Us Guys at Hollywood's Book Soup on February, 15, 2007
John talks with actress Jane Withers about her long and varied career... as a child radio host, to acting opposite Shirley Temple, to playing "Josephine the Plumber" on TV for 21 years.
Ron Schafer of the State Park Service and the Baldwin Hills Conservancy talks to John on top of a new 60-acre park that's under construction in Baldwin Hills.
John talks with actor Ralph Lister about why America needs to know about Thomas Paine.
Commentator and Marine Biologist Milton Love on natural bodyguards.
Tijuana is mostly known now for corruption, drugs, and murder. For a different take on Tijuana, Adolfo Guzman Lopez headed to the Santa Monica Museum of Art for an exhibit of contemporary art.
The Call Sheet gang explores the fall of Howard Stern, once the King of All Media.