Over at LA Biz Observed, Mark Lacter serves up a full plate of morning-after-Labor Day headlines including the abrupt departure of Tom Freston from the big office at Viacom.

Don't miss David Rensin's post at Native Intelligence about reconnecting with the grandfather who never made it out of the Holocaust, called by Tim McGarry at his Fourth and Olive blog "a well told and very moving tale." Also, Denise Hamilton asks for help finding the quintessential epigraph for Los Angeles Noir, the short story anthology she is editing.

At Chicken Corner, Jenny Burman has been sussing out the mysteries of Fellowship Park Way in Echo Park. Her richly detailed, sensitive writing on the community has been noticed by L.A. City Nerd, who blogs "I'm hooked now. After reading this post, I am eager to see what's next from this blogger."

Out by the beach in Malibu, Veronique de Turenne celebrates the first day of summer for locals with a gorgeous photo of a beach where "a high tide swept in last night and smoothed away all signs of the summer vacation. It spackled the shore with fine sand, broken only by strands of sea grass and the footprints of a snowy egret."

And don't forget the email blog where LA Observed readers have been commenting on topics from Allison Margolin and gentrification to Wet magazine. Today, Peter Sierra thinks the Times terrorism exercise was lame, Marc Weingarten is amazed that Robert Christgau's website compiles 13, 236 rock and roll reviews — and the discussion of Westside traffic rolls on.

August Report: Thanks to everyone for the biggest traffic month ever for LA Observed. New highs for visits, unique visitors and pages served — accompanied by a shocking jump in bandwidth use, so if you were thinking of supporting LAO with a voluntary subscription now would be a good time. (More another day on the benefits of supporting LA Observed.) The end of country music at KZLA, our ahead-of-the-pack coverage of the West magazine story on Girls Gone Wild mogul Joe Francis and the Native Intelligence guide to Malibu's hidden beaches were the month's most clicked-on posts. LAO's scoop on the Sunset Junction celebrity lair also capped a good month of exclusive reports and the usual daily takes on the news and Los Angeles culture. For those who were wondering, the About LA Observed page has been freshened up.