Spring is in the air, at least on this coast. I finally have a new camera and got to test it out this weekend.

Those are the faces of past Laker glory: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Kurt Rambis and James Worthy. These buildings are at the intersection of Olympic Boulevard and Figueroa Street, across the street from the Staples Center. A few years back, the images were of Shaquille O’Neal, Kobe Bryant and Derek Fisher (IIRC for the last one). Also gracing these buildings in the past were the images of the great Laker centers: Wilt Chamberlain, Abdul-Jabbar and O’Neal. With last year’s departure of O’Neal and this dismal non-playoff year, I figure it will be a while before any current Lakers are immortalized here.

This is the sea of
moonbattery humanity at the annual Los Angeles Times Festival of Books located at UCLA. I’ve been going there every year for the last four years, mainly as an excuse to check out UCLA’s book store and to climb the steps of
Mount Sileah the main drag without dropping dead. In 2003, however, I happened to run into a college friend whom I hadn’t seen since 1980. He was hawking his novel. (Seeing him do that was part of what spurred me to blog.)

The guy holding this sign was only too happy for me to take a photo of it. Nothing like free advertising. Hopefully, the author will write a follow-up about what to do when called in to court for back child-support payments. "Don't do the crime...."

This line-up sat at the Libreria Martinez Books And Arts booth. I simply took their photo because they Looked Like Authors more than anyone else I saw there.

This year, I had great reason to attend the festival. One of the highlights of the weekend was saying hello to and shaking hands with the fedora-less
Roger L. Simon. Go check out his series on the UN Oil-For-Food Scandal.
UPDATE: Little Miss Attila attended the LAT Festival of Books panel discussions; one including Roger, the other including Hugh Hewitt. Both gentlemen came out of the closet, so to speak.
UPDATE: Better?