... but most of us really don't care all that much who you pick. The mainstream media is dying to know, but the rest of us are like ... yeah, whatever. And so when you say stuff like this, you sound like a pompous ass. Or a five year old with a secret. ("I know something you don't know. Nah nah nah nah nah!")

Not terribly presidential, dude.

iTunes is currently playing: Secret Secrets from the album Secret Secrets by Joan Armatrading.

Oh, my, the hours I spent there! Happy trails, Jackie and Phil.





[L.A.Times] After 74 years in business, the independent bookstore giant with an inventory that topped 1 million volumes is closing down to make way for a redevelopment project. The two-story brick building will be transformed into a mix of housing and art galleries as part of the city's plan to connect downtown with its East Village Arts District.

Acres of Books opened on Pacific Street in 1934 and moved into the current building in the 1940s, taking over from a country-western bar and dance hall. Back then, Long Beach Boulevard was a hot spot for the Navy, packed with bars, tattoo parlors and mom-and-pop shops.

Founder Bertrand Smith and his son, E.P. Smith, worked more than a year to move into the site, shuttling hundreds of thousands of books in the back of a pickup. Over time, the downtown strip, starting from the shoreline, has given way to an arts renaissance and a 21st century economy of condos and Starbucks shops.

"We knew eventually it would catch up with us," said Jackie Smith, 68. She and her husband, Phil, plan to retire and travel. They've had time to say goodbye to the store, after selling their building to the city for $2.8 million three months ago.

Smith said she and her husband searched for months for a new location but didn't find one that met their needs for a large space on a modest budget. Once they sell their inventory, which in less than two weeks has gone from 700,000 to 500,000, they will join the list of independent L.A. area bookstores that have been ousted by sluggish sales or redevelopment.

"I hate to see it go," said Smith, whose husband inherited the store from his grandfather. "If we would have been able to hold on, we would have probably been here until we turned to dirt. But that's not possible."

iTunes is currently playing: The Book I Read from the [bootleg] album Live at the Sun Palace (Tokyo) by Talking Heads.

Watch this video and then visit PickensPlan.com.

... is currently playing: Drivin' from the album Simple Things by Richie Havens.

The L.A.Times ran a story the other day about a 77 year old woman named Doris Payne who spent 50+ years stealing jewelry from retail stores.

Her formula was simple: Pick a nice store and look like you belong there. Make sure your well-cut outfit has deep pockets.

She was good, but not good enough to never get caught. In fact, she has been convicted of grand theft several times and has spent most of the last decade in prison. She should be free by the time she is 81, if she lives that long.

Her story is interesting and would probably make a good movie. But the most interesting paragraph in the lengthy article (IMO) is this:

"It took me a while to become proud of her," said Ronald, of Louisiana. Now 61, he was born when his mother was a teenager. He was raised partly by his grandparents. "I realized she was very good at what she does and had fun doing it."

So Ronald is proud of his convicted felon mother who was so busy stealing what probably amounts to hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of stuff that she couldn't be bothered to raise him because, after all, SHE WAS A GOOD THIEF and she ENJOYED HERSELF while she was stealing.

Loving her in spite of her flaws would be one thing. But being proud of her?

What a world.



... is currently playing: Steal Me Blind from the album Alf by Alison Moyet.

... I really do ... but I must admit that they is something really creepy/scary about a six foot tall person in a Hello Kitty costume.

#1 - There are no words to describe the thing sitting on SJP's head.

#2 - Kim Cattrall's hairdo makes her face look big and round.

#3 - Cynthia Nixon looks like a mannequin.

#4 - Kristin Davis needs a new stylist. What an awful dress.

I didn't watch the show. Did they dress like this on tv, too?

Well, not ALL of my sisters ... but I'm working on the ones who haven't said "yes" yet.

... that you do not get to pick your family, but you DO GET TO PICK YOUR FRIENDS (and your PASTOR/MENTOR).

And nothing like tossing your grandmother under the bus if you think it will help you become leader of the free world.

"I can no more disown him [referring to the "Reverend" Wright] than I can disown my white grandmother -- a woman who helped raise me . . . but a woman who once confessed her fear of black men who passed by her on the street, and who on more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe."

And then there is this, from the same L.A.Times piece published Wed. March 19th:

Writing on the Huffington Post website last week and in interviews with Chicago newspapers, Obama had said that when he sat in the pews at Trinity United Church of Christ, he had not heard Wright make some of his more controversial statements.

On Tuesday, saying "nagging questions" remain for some voters, Obama offered a different account.

"Did I know him to be an occasionally fierce critic of American domestic and foreign policy? Of course. Did I ever hear him make remarks that could be considered controversial while I sat in church? Yes," Obama said.

Maybe he thinks that the Huffington statement was not dishonest because he qualified it by saying he had not heard Wright's "more controversial statements". And maybe he thinks he comes across as an honest guy when he admits, in the latest speech, that he had, in fact, sat in that church and heard "remarks that could be considered controversial."

If so, he is wrong on both counts.

No, make that three things. Sorry, Senator, but there really are no "nagging questions" about this issue.

... is currently playing: The End Of A Love Affair from the album Lady in Satin by Billie Holiday.

... is that catchy new tune "Housing Bubble, What's The Trouble" by the group PERSONAL ATM.



... is currently playing: House Of Cards from the album Stones in the Road by Mary Chapin Carpenter.