♦ The Times' Patrick Goldstein is a fan of blogs, but he shows no love for his own paper's (and others') awards obsession: "the sausage factory of Oscar blogs and websites...have transformed the Academy Awards from a celebration of movies into a silly exercise in Ouija board-style predictions and lamebrained analysis." He means you David Poland, Jeffrey Wells, Nikki Finke (OK, he likes her) and the LAT's own The Envelope. Poland is first to respond with an Oy, Patrick missive.

♦ Shana Ting Lipton, who blogs from a local canyon, reports on al-Jazeera for RadarOnline.

♦ Times columnist Al Martinez is profiled by Yvette Doss in the December/January issue of Tu Ciudad: "'He's a rare man in a dwindling population of columnists whose favorite subject is not themselves, but the whole carnival world around them, and all the characters who people it,' says Times columnist Patt Morrison."

♦ The Best of Dodger Thoughts is a 325-page compilation of the, well, best from four seasons of Jon Weisman's highly recommended blog. It's for sale at Lulu.com. On that note, newly linked on the local blogroll: Baseball Savvy.

♦ Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky has been busy rehearsing a new role: he will narrate a performance of Aaron Copland's "Lincoln Portrait" at Cal State Northridge.

♦ And on Day 151 he rested: Mayor Villaraigosa has no public appearances scheduled for today.

♦ Here's a reality I'll bet you didn't expect: sixty people were killed in California traffic crashes over the Thanksgiving holiday. Six-oh.

♦ Brad Friedman at the BradBlog is at war with Ann Coulter, who published the personal email address and phone number of his guest blogger.

♦ Lincoln Place tenants who pitched a tent on Rocky Delgadillo's lawn over the weekend plan to set up outside City Hall on Wednesday, the day of a meeting on the issue.

♦ I'll be schmoozing and signing Wilshire Boulevard on Thursday at 7:30 pm at the Barnes and Noble in Santa Monica. The store has made it the recommended book for December, so come on by for some refreshments, a few photos and a little authorial mumbling. It's at the Wilshire end of the 3rd Street Promenade.

♦ Time Warner CEO Richard Parsons will speak at Town Hall Los Angeles Dec. 6.

♦ Dec. 8 at the Getty: A panel on photojournalism moderated by USC Annenberg's Michael Parks, with Philip Gefter, Culture picture editor for the New York Times; David Lubin, professor, Wake Forest University; and journalist/photographer Molly Bingham.