In November, I mentioned my favorite fence in Echo Park. It's on Lemoyne, south of Baxter. One of those streets where folks walk up the hill to reach the front door one one side of the hill and, on the other, you either enter at ground level or walk down some steps. The green plywood fence is painted green, on the upside of the hill, with a platform built for maintenance, I suppose. Various shapes are sawed out of the plywood, and those were filled with stained glass. There were also metal butterflies and ships, all kinds of weird, sweet decoration. I say "were" because someone has stolen the glass. After I heard from the new owner, Jonathan Williams, who told me about the theft, I drove up to the house and saw the holes where the glass used to be. Triangles, circles and other shapes. A few pieces of glass had been left intact. But mostly it was just holes, and the green plywood, which is leaning and seems somehow to have lost its dignity. I walked around to the driveway of the property and peeked behind the fence. A new house is being built there. It's a shell right now, a new shell inside of an old one.

Around the same time the green fence probably was being created by the property's former owners, Room 8 the cat was roaming Valentine, Ewing, Baxter Streets and, perhaps, beyond. A couple of days ago I received an email from John Hernandez, a former Echo Park resident who knew the famous feline. He wrote:

Ran across your blog while googling for "Room 8". I too have fond memories of that big grey Tabby. He was slow moving, probably weighed in at about 20-22 lbs, and was as friendly as they come. As a child growing up in Echo Park, I attended Elysian Heights Grammer school from 1962-63. We lived on Ewing St with our backyard fence butting up to the school grounds.

During the Summer months, Room 8 would show up at our backyard door looking for food or the fact our family had two female cars. I remember a newspaper fellow (not sure if it was Herald-Examiner, Los Angeles Times, or the Journal) coming by the house to ask about Room 8. An elderly gentleman who lived on Valentine St and always entertained the school children with his guitar playing, directed the reporter to our home. Room 8 happened to be in our house at the time and the newspaper photographer/writer wanted some pictures for a story. We ended up taking several photos of the elder gentlemen, playing his guitar and serenading Room 8 and myself. ... He was an amazing Cat.

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It slipped past me three days before Christmas, but 1947 Project's Larry Harnisch (in his "Mystery Solved" entry) puts a stop to all of this nonsense over the spelling of McCollum Street as regards the asteroid.