No Morning Buzz today, but here are some offerings from LA Observed contributors.

How not to blog: When his piece flinging around 23 n-words riled a friend, Bob Baker faced up to the downside of easy access to the Internet.

I'd been seduced by the ethos of blogging without thinking--of speed over substance. And here's the worst part of it, which I confessed to my reporter/friend: I didn't want to devote very much introspection to this stunt because I was desperate to find something to blog on after four weeks without a posting.

Whole thing

Street music: Thinking while driving in L.A. sends David Rensin to the keyboard.

I’m in the left turn lane at Balboa Blvd and Chatsworth Street in Granada Hills, facing north, turning west. I grew up here, went to high school just down the road, but it doesn’t look like home anymore....A quaintness remains, but a melancholia as well.

Whole thing

An impossible mission: Bill Boyarsky knows public financing of campaigns probably won't pass, but the plan he's pushing forces the electeds to talk about ethics.

Aren't ethics commissioners supposed to try to get along with the city council? We are. But being nice at city hall doesn't do a lot of good. City hall has a "have a nice day" culture. Everyone is nice to your face. But you'd better watch your back.

Whole thing

Potluck crusader: In an excerpt from her forthcoming book You're Not the Boss of Me, Erika Schickel confronts the reality of multi-cultural potluck dinner at her daughter's school.

My mother's people were Methodists who pioneered the Pacific Northwest. My father's family can be traced directly to the Mayflower, a fact that my grandmother reveled in....We are the very whitest of the White People.

In LAT's West magazine

Plus: Lookie at how Paradise Cove beckoned yesterday. Chilly air or not, that's purty nice.

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