R.I.P. Sunday Book Review

In his July 27th letter to readers of the Los Angeles Times, boss man Russ Stanton promised more book reviews will be published in the daily arts and entertainment "Calendar" section. That's cool, but the sad part, which Stanton left to Times' Book Reviews editor David Ulin to address in his note to the reader, is that the Times' Sunday Book Review is shutting down.

Gone with it, one of my favorite weekly rituals: slacking on the couch, finishing off cup of dangerous coffee and absorbing deep thought, don't laugh, that somehow survive drift outside of the 24/7 blah blah blah.

Books, good ones anyway, carry with them a sense of history and context, known during Luddite 20th century days of yore as the Big Picture. Taking a step back from the whirligig of pop culture, books, and book reviews, need to be contemplated in God damned tranquility and that's pretty much impossible to achieve on, you know, a Tuesday afternoon with deadlines looming.

So, thanks for not killing book reviews altogether, but no thanks for despoiling my source of weekend brain fodder.

More at L.A. Observed.

Fried egg on the sidewalk, and complete Griffin Interview.

Wish i had my camera couple weeks ago. Morning dog walk, heat wave, on the sidewalk: someone wrote with chalk: 'Caution ahead, frying egg.'

Sure enough, a few feet later, there's an egg and it was so hot - about 108 in the Valley - - the yolk had literally cooked on the cement.

Attention comedy fans: I've posted the entire Kathy Griffin interview transcript online, no expletives deleted. There there are lots of 'em, recorded for my New York Times "Life on the D-List" piece that ran last month.