I like that street: 98th. There's a wellworn liquor store at the top of that stretch, on the north side of the street, near Airport: Purdy's. It's in an old warehouse. It's been there since--well, I would guess about 1975 at least.

Not many Angelenos have much of an opportunity to stay in those Century Boulevard hotels, for which 98th serves as a glorified alley. But there are a lot of local chess tournaments held in them, and I played in a few in the '90's. If you don't stay in one for a tournament, you typically must take a chance parking on 98th.

There is really nothing to do around there, on 98th Street. It's like a negative-culture zone. Purdy's is the only actual "amenity." Yet lots of people are on that street, all the time. People getting to airport parking, people walking to the hotels from street parking, people stopping at for an ATM, indigent people, people going to work at LAX, people doing who knows what. It's such an unusual kind of zone compared to the zones around other airports around the continent, which are typically surrounded by open space on every front. That space, all but forgotten, is ripe for a good public art project or a kitschy-but-beloved development of some kind, like a Philippe's.

In other scary LA news, Tuesday night, my boyfriend's plane from Memphis was about to touch down on the runway when it abruptly lifted off again. (They had passed In & Out -- that's how close they were.) Apparently, there was another plane either sitting there in the runway, or too close, and the pilot spotted it and aborted the landing, taking off for a little ride around downtown and back.

"Security experts cautioned that would-be saboteurs could take note of repeated power outages at LAX and exploit possible weaknesses in the electrical system that supplies the airport."

Wow! Obviously someone deserves a raise for thinking of that. I know I never would have considered that after the first, second, or even third time something like this happened.