"A Fight L.A. Has Picked and Won for 150 Years"

"Climate was what L.A. sold, and really, for years, that's all it had to sell. Far into the 19th century, L.A. was a scruffy village of dust and mayhem—but just look up, the new Angelenos insisted. Look at our fine mountains, breathe our air, fragrant (eventually) with citrus blossoms. Look at us—in shirtsleeves, in the winter!"

In the Los Angeles Times, Patt Morrison writes that Los Angeles "made its first fortune by selling winter."

"The Best Part of Man's Life Is His Childhood"

"From Main Street, U.S.A. and Frontierland 'as [the Western City] would have looked years ago,' with its 'colorful tramways, pulled by horses [that] traverse the main streets; outmoded taxis; affable, smiling policemen turn around, seemingly having just jumped out of a very old film; and just over there is a store where they sell everything from "revolvers" to bags of gold, gifts, and cowboy hats.' He then boards the train 'through a desert where skeletons and Indians look at you with their dead stares' before disembarking to get his ticket for the Mark Twain Riverboat and travel down the giant Mississippi River, remarking 'the ship is terrific, the river formidable.'"

Menachem Butler in Tablet discusses Elie Wiesel, who died today, on a 1957 trip to Disneyland.

"Noam Chomsky Announces Las Vegas Residency"

"'I'm so excited—I've been into Chomsky since college,' said 49-year-old Boise, ID social worker Karen Wenning, who is planning a trip to Las Vegas next month to see the social critic's lavish new production. 'It'll be incredible to hear him denounce transnational corporate power live and in person. I just really hope he does some of his early stuff from American Power And The New Mandarins and Counter-Revolutionary Violence: Bloodbaths In Fact And Propaganda. That stuff is classic.'"

From The Onion.

"Disney World Opens New Ordeal Kingdom For Family Meltdowns"

"'We've considered every detail to ensure parents and their kids have the heated argument of a lifetime,' said Bartlett, explaining that the park was split into five themed 'lands,' including Fatigue Island and Hunger Lagoon, each of which can be reached by Mickey's Congestion Junction Railway. 'Whether it's the sheer distance between rides or the unspecified bathroom locations, every aspect of the experience is guaranteed to ratchet up the tension until you and your family are screaming at each other and saying you should never have come in the first place.'
"'No trip to Disney is complete without everyone in your party losing all emotional self-control,' Bartlett continued. 'And at Ordeal Kingdom, we promise that all your wildest family blowups will come to life!'"

From The Onion.

"All One Thing or All the Other"

"I'm a fifth-generation Southerner, though long expatriated, and I know the wounded indignation with which the folks back home react to any suggestion that the South is no longer—or maybe never was—an entirely separate region. What about our hound dogs, our verandas, our charm, our football worship, our slow-moving 'way of life'? Outsiders who have visited the South, going back to Alexis de Tocqueville and Frederick Law Olmsted or even further, have usually agreed with the natives about the South's distinctiveness, though they have often seen it as something to condemn, not admire. How can the South be so American if it feels (and smells, and sounds, and looks) so Southern?"

Nicholas Lemann in The New Yorker reviews recent books about the South.

To All Who Come to This Happy Place

The Los Angeles Times marks the sixtieth birthday of Disneyland.

"Guidebook Writer Stumbles Upon New England Town Too Quaint For Human Eyes"

"At press time, Wellington was terrified to realize that the only way out of town was through a most exquisite covered bridge dating back to 1831."


From The Onion.

We Can Live Beside the Ocean

In The New York Times, Fred A. Bernstein spends "36 Hours in Santa Monica, Calif."

How I Wish That There Were More Than the Twenty-Four Hours in the Day

"Rolling Stone's senior editor Jonathan Ringen, in for the weekend, made what even a few years ago would have been a stunning observation from a rock magazine about Vegas in 2010. 'Las Vegas is easily one of the best live music towns in America, and this weekend was perfect evidence of that. In just one weekend, you could check out Weezer at a tiny venue, the Matador blowout, Van Morrison and the Dukes of September [both at Hard Rock Casino]. Outside of New York and Los Angeles, there's nowhere in America with that much variety.'"

In the Los Angeles Times, Richard Abowitz observes the embrace of Las Vegas and alternative music.

"Think or Swim?"

"One of these cities gives you reliable sun, a world-class zoo and kid-friendliness, accompanied by the occasional reminder that the 1982 film 'Fast Times at Ridgemont High' was based on a true story.
"The other city doesn't seem to care as much about your kids, but it will feed, entertain and edify you with such verve and sophistication that you'll barely notice the arctic breezes."

In the Los Angeles Times, Chris Reynolds asks whether Sans Francisco or Diego makes for a better weekend destination.

It's 1959, Ok?

"Picture a whole ultramod 'hood of soaring roofs, clerestory windows, carports instead of garages, peek-a-boo screens made of stacked concrete blocks, pebbles and palms in the yard, and living rooms just begging for somebody to slip a little Dean Martin on the hi-fi. New, these houses sold for $19,000. Now, with classic features bathed in avocado green, bold orange and powder blue, vacation rentals usually run $200 to $300 a night."

In the Los Angeles Times, Christopher Reynolds searches in Palm Springs for traces of the late 1950s.

"Did You Have to Make the Chair so Large?"

"Ten presidents have signed the guest book, including Theodore Roosevelt, whose bodyguards were still nervous after the assassination of his predecessor, William McKinley. During Roosevelt's visit, the lights in the hotel suddenly went out, and when Miller came running to see what was wrong, he found Roosevelt lying on the ground for his own protection, ringed by guards, docent Mel Gutierrez said."

In the Los Angeles Times, Steve Harvey visits Riverside's Mission Inn, which dates back to 1876.

Shop til You Drop

"We hear a lot about recession-proof occupations--nursing, for example. These jobs are recession-proof because we can't realistically manage without them. America needs more recession-proof products, and Americans need to refocus their spending habits around those products. In contemplating a purchase, we might ask ourselves: Does it actually do something? Does it do it better than the previous version? Or does it just make me feel good to own? And: How much am I paying for amenities that aren't a part of the product's basic job description?"

In the Los Angeles Times, Steve Salerno argues in favor of a "vanity tax."

And Meghan Daum contemplates the wonders of the SkyMall catalog.

Mary Elizabeth Williams in Salon interviews Joel Waldfogel, author of Scroogenomics: Why You Shouldn't Buy Presents for the Holidays.

Young Man Eloquent

"Today, he writes a concise 109-character entry on the weather and his current location: 'Thick fog. Scanty Wind. On George’s Bank. Lat: 42-34. Read Massillon’s Careme Sermons 2 & 3. Ladies are Sick.'"

Amy Farnsworth of The Christian Science Monitor reports that the Massachusetts Historical Society has started a Twitter feed reprinting John Quincy Adams's diary of an 1809 trip to Russia.

Fiat Lux

"But the spirit of 1969 hasn’t completely gone away. Walk down Telegraph Avenue and along one block you’ll find activists for Free Tibet, patchouli-scented advocates of homeopathic medicine, and crusty purple-haired free-love followers, still eager to convert you to their cause."

Joshua Kurlantzick of The New York Times spends a weekend in Berkeley.

Rose-y Weekend

Jennifer Steinhauer of The New York Times spends thirty-six hours in Pasadena.

A Vision Softly Creeping

"Completed in 1961, the mosaics were designed to make the approximately 300-foot tunnels seem shorter, said Ethel Pattison, the airport's historian.
"'He was a grand artist, way ahead of his time,' Pattison said. 'His approach to the walls was novel and gave passengers something of interest to look at.'"

Valerie J. Nelson in the Los Angeles Times writes an obit for Charles D. Kratka, the designer of the mosaic on the tunnel walls at the Los Angeles International Airport.

We'll Keep the Light on for You

"The democratic sociability of American hotels was distinctive, and very much at odds with travel accommodations across the Atlantic. European hostelries were typically designed to keep their guests separated in their own suites of rooms, a custom originally devised to allow noblemen to keep aloof from the hoi polloi. When they visited the United States, Europeans reacted indignantly to the social promiscuity of hotels, often citing crowded dining halls like this one at New York City's Fifth Avenue Hotel. A 19th-century visitor from France groused that many American hotels 'offer hardly more privacy than bee-hives.'"

A.K. Sandoval-Strausz in Slate narrates a slide-show on the early history of the American hotel.

Venice of America

The New York Times spends a weekend in Venice, California. (Be careful not to trip over the ducks or Julia Roberts.)