I decide to walk some 38 blocks today down to Columbus Circle and by the 2nd block I have to remove my scarf and cardigan. It’s a warm, cloudy Spring day and as there’s no such thing as walking in pedestrian-unfriendly LA, I try to go everywhere on foot while in NYC, no matter how far. Much to …
Esta Es Mi Ciudad
 Para celebrar el Cinco de Mayo, visitemos El Pueblo donde comenzó Los Angeles…   The city of Los Angeles was born out of a settlement forged near the Los Angeles River in 1781. It was there that some 11 families built a community now known as El Pueblo de Los Angeles (http://www.elpueblo.lacity.org/elpueb_gi2.htm), a historical landmark in downtown LA directly across the …
A Century in LA Is Like an Eon Anywhere Else
 We’re used to the commuter life here in LA and it’s hard to imagine a life without cars. But believe it or not, we do have a public transportation system. When gasoline hit over $4 a gallon, some of us learned to carpool and even take the bus or metro rail (http://www.metro.net/riding_metro/maps/default.htm). In tiny Pasadena, we have the Gold …
Secret Garden
 There are many charming small cities within Los Angeles County. And by small I mean it still takes half an hour to three times that long to get from point A to point B, depending on how lucky you are once you are on the freeway.  Past the 110 tunnels where the freeway dead ends to Arroyo Parkway, …
2
Ngay 30 Thang 4
 For the longest time I would commemorate my birthday by counting not my own chronological age but the number of  years we’ve been in America and, by the same token, the number of years we’ve been away from Vietnam. It’s one of many quirky symptoms of being an immigrant; a by-product of the refugee mentality you might say. So this would mark …