It's raining here on the East Coast, middle Atlantic. Cold rain. After Thanksgiving, some of my relatives and I stopped by Monticello, Thomas Jefferson's weird, lovely estate near Charlottesville, Virginia. The place looks fabulous. It's being well looked after by the Jefferson Foundation, which still won't fully accept the DNA news that Sally Hemings' children were Thomas Jefferson's children. The Jefferson descendants on the Hemings side of the family do surely disapprove. The tour guide said with an ambiguous smile that it was most likely that Heming's children were Jefferson's, but that results were not conclusive, we will never know for sure. Honestly, I couldn't tell whether her skilled smile was apologetic or defensive. But it's always great to see TJ's special inventions like the dumbwaiter and the days-of-the-week clock (which was mismeasured) and the polygraph machine that made copies of his writings, and the double doors that close in unison. I liked seeing his books and dishes and the super narrow teeny tiny staircase in the 21-room house. I'm still confused about why he only freed two slaves out of hundreds, but his better achievements, well...yeah, we're reaping the fruits in more ways than we can count.

I may be no Jefferson, but when we got back to the house, I sat down to think Chicken Corner. What kind of news. I checked into my email, which had not been read for days. And I found mixed good and bad news of our neighborhood on the West Coast.

I learned that downtown's Fred jordan Mission ran out of food on Thanksgiving Day. I didn't learn the details; they're certain to be awful.

I learned that on Nov. 22 there was a stabbing at the taco truck on Logan Street near Sunset. The victim was a patron who did not know his attackers.

There was a lot of concern expressed for Larry, the homeless guy who spends time on Glendale Boulevard. His dog, Bailey, a shepherd mix, turned up at the animal shelter the day before Thanksgiving. Larry and Bailey have been together for many years, never separated. Larry hasn't been seen since then.

The good-news side of the news: Ramon Maestas, a former EXP gang member who was well-known as Little Ray, is earning respect, and keeping us safe, as a firefighter. Maybe you saw it, LA Times has the story.

Chicken Corner is thanking her lucky feathers for the rain (over Los Angeles).