This year the holidays are blowing in fast and lean like the weather coming in from unexpected directions. I could be wrong but it seems to me that -- peering over the city from Chicken Corner's odd little roost -- advertising for Christmas is way down. Or maybe I have become inured to it. A bit less Christmas music in the air, too. With the exception of KUSC, which I generally consider a sort of sanctuary (especially Opera Saturday Morning, as we call it hereabouts). But, no, they're hamming it up over there, with tedious/corny choral XMAS blah blah (call me the Grinch), and the day before yesterday Jim Svejda played the dog-bark version of "Jingle Bells" (a classic, I admit) and told everyone Mozart wrote it; then he went on to tell his audience that he can't stand the song "Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer." Next he'll declare that Sibelius is Santa Claus.

It's not all ho ho ho, though. The weather turned bad this week in Echo Park as FOUR dogs were found, apparently abandoned, in Elysian Park over the course of, I think, two days. Then the winds turned around and two were reclaimed at the pound. One of them had bolted from home near USC and was lost for a week, losing nearly 17 pounds during his ordeal. The Animal Alliance list has been jammed with opinions and news about these dogs, the consensus being that it may be difficult to take a found dog to the pound but it's the best chance an owner may have to recover their lost pet. After a few days the rescuer can always come back and claim the pet if no original guardian shows up.

Meanwhile, Washington DC is in the process of receiving an expected 20 inches of snow. I spend my entire childhood praying for a snowstorm like that. Never got it. Then I moved to SoCal, where I am yawning on sunshine this fine morning -- and enjoying it too, don't get me wrong.

There's one way the weather has turned absolutely beautiful -- and I have Christmas to thank for it. My friend Priscilla Archibald from college is coming to Echo Park to visit this afternoon. She lives in Chicago but has flown to Cali to celebrate the holiday with her family in San Diego. I haven't seen her in years, and I spent part of this morning whirling around the house, trying to pick up. Of course my lovely, spirited daughter, Madeleine, started whirling around with the opposite intention in mind. Two storm systems colliding. But that's a different story altogether.