Here's some of what the LA Observed contributors have been posting while I've been away from the desk:

• Mark Lacter was on the Dodgers drama this afternoon at LA Biz Observed, and Phil Wallace posts in his round-up of the sports scene at SoCal Sports Observed that he learned earlier in the season that Grady Little (who resigned today) was contemplating retirement.
• David Rensin offers his appreciation of Robert Goulet and re-prints the singer's contribution to Rensin's The Bob Book: A Celebration of the Ultimate Okay Guy. Native Intelligence
• An island of toxic plastic - three million tons of it - floats about a thousand miles off the California coast. More than 1,500 miles wide, it far outweighs the plankton in the sea. Here in Malibu
• David Davis talks with the Times' Eric Sondheimer, L.A.'s dean of high-school sports journalists. SoCal Sports Observed
• Jenny Burman has an encounter with the LAPD's bike patrol — at Pinkberry. Chicken Corner

Also recently: Veronique de Turenne on Red Hen Press, Deanne Stillman on SoCal wildlife and the fires, Jenny Burman on carp per diem, and the return of video by Jacob Soboroff.