“Nature Boy” Lived in Big Tujunga Canyon “There was a boy, a very strange enchanted boy…” These were the opening lines of Nat King Cole’s hit song, “Nature Boy.” The song was a semi-autobiographical piece written by the famous Los Angeles pre-hippie icon Eden Ahbez, whose main home (campsite really) was in Big Tujunga Canyon. […]
Preserving Open Space in the Rim of the Valley Los Angeles is one of the rarest of the big cities in America, with millions of people living in close proximity to nature. We have mountain lions like P-22, who visit Griffith Park (and an occasional crawl space under our homes), and bears that eat the […]
Hi, CV! It’s Memorial Day as I write this column and I am struck by all the posts my friends put on Facebook to honor the fallen. My experience in the military was through free ROTC classes offered at college designed to get people interested in signing up for the military. In Wilderness Survival, I […]
The Origins of the Name Sunland-Tujunga For most of us heading west along Foothill Boulevard into Sunland-Tujunga, there’s not much thought to where Tujunga is and where Sunland is. There seems to be no distinct border. The origins of the name Sunland and the name Tujunga are well documented, and quite interesting. But as to […]
Hi, CV! Michael Rooni, JD, spoke about communication at a CV Chamber event. He suggested taking the other person’s side so conflict resolution reflects mutual fairness. This flies in the face of our understanding of power, or making sure someone gets or gives only what you want them to give or get. Rooni says communication […]
Memorial Day Celebration 2015 I rarely speak publicly about my military experience in Vietnam because I feel lucky to be one of the soldiers who returned home in one piece and in sound mind. I was in my early 20s, naïve and fresh out of college, when I volunteered for the army. The politicians called […]
Cutting Government Red Tape at a Difficult Time To pass the contents of just about any asset – a bank account, a multi-million-dollar stock account, a car of any value – upon death, all an individual needs to do is fill out a simple “Payable On Death” form. These streamlined transfers help families avoid the […]
Glendale Water & Power and the Drought The State of California is in the fourth year of one of the most severe droughts ever recorded. In the last few months, records have been set for the highest temperatures and driest conditions for this time of year. This has prompted Gov. Brown to issue several executive […]
Star Trek’s Wil Wheaton Spent His Teen Years in CV Actor Wil Wheaton is probably best known for his role as boy-genius Ensign Wesley Crusher on the iconic series “Star Trek: The Next Generation.” He was a regular on the popular series from 1987 through 1990, the very years he spent as a teenager living […]
History Repeats Itself In a coincidence that our small town within the metropolis allows, Stuart Byles and I were recently extolling the pleasures and benefits of people of different beliefs being able to work toward shared goals. He and I both volunteer in historic preservation efforts though in other areas we diverge. He […]