Because I'm at the desk and there are things to note:

• SoCal home sales tumbled in June, but prices still edged up to an all-time high.
• About 500 people attended a rally against the Santa Barbara News-Press in support of the nine journalists who resigned from the troubled paper.
• Brian Cook of the Lakers had "urgent surgery" to repair his right thumb after ripping it severely in a pickup game at Sports Club L.A. Technically it was an "open dislocation of the interphalangeal joint" and it had to hurt.
• David Markland at Blogging.la found another way to beat the heat when it's 250 degrees in the Valley: bumper cars at Iceland in Van Nuys.
• The Wall Street Journal announced today that it will begin running ads on the front page, probably in September.
• Beatles tribute bands The Fab Four and Fab Forever are waging war over Ringo. Tabloid Baby has the blow-by-blow, as told by "Brian Epstein."
• The connection between LAT opinion side editor Andrés Martinez and recent hire Matt Welch is explained: a mutual friend in Pittsburgh set them up.
• L.A. City Nerd explains to newbies why Silver Lake is two words.
• Flip-flop mania continues, also at Blogging.la.