Lambiedog

I look into wrongdoing

 When I got to the bluffs the other morning, I could tell immediately that something was not right.

 The day had begun like any other.   I had crossed the wide expanse of Asilomar Boulevard towards the bluff, prepared to take on whatever the day might throw at me.

(Because, let's be honest, you never know what you're going to encounter. Admirers, construction trucks, dead squirrels, little children, dogs wearing muzzles who attack you and knock you over so that you're humiliatingly rolling through the dirt to get away from their cruel jaws and unkempt visages while visions of your demise roll past your eyes and you think, I may never get to lick my family again, and you think, oh god another bath looms because I've gotten dirty through no fault of my own, and you think, maybe I should reinvent myself as an attack dog....)  But I digress.

   In this case, it was something about the air, or maybe something in the stillness of the bluff, that put me on the alert and told me, "Lambie, be careful!" 

    So I investigated.

           

I stopped in my tracks when I realized that the Anna Walker Steere bench had been defaced.

 Nosing around, I noticed a clue.

 
      It was a cigarette butt. 

Only a few days earlier, I had noticed this very brand of cigarette thrown behind some bushes.

     Were the smoker and the defacer one and the same?

 Was I assertive enough to do the right thing and ask the hard, probing questions?

Sometimes it feels like I'm carrying the weight of the world on my shoulders.

 

I'm just one poodle mix trying to stand up to evil.  

Surprising revelation from Bruno

Bruno and I were having a nice time playing.

 Noticing that he is rather more sleek than me, I sought to normalize the situation by casually alluding to my epilepsy, and to the pheno barbitol that has caused me to gain weight.

   

I should have pulled out another excuse.

It turned out that Bruno too has epilepsy, and that he is also on pheno barbitol.  

Obviously he has an exceptional metabolism.

The plot thickens

 

There is method behind the madness of the L.A. Parks Foundation replacing those old benches at the bluffs with new ones. New dedication placards are being fixed to the new benches -- and they do not match the dedication plaques that remain in the original concrete foundations.   

 So the bench site previously dedicated to the memory of Henry Adam Samulon now serves double duty as a memorial to Andrea Loeb Smith.  The bench site previously dedicated to the memory of David Robbins now is also a memorial for Ed and Donna Betts.

According to the Parks Foundation's Donate-A-Bench web page, 

Donations start at $2,500 for a new bench to be placed in a city park or recreation center of your choice. A personalized plaque can be purchased for placement on an existing city park bench for $1,000.

I wonder whether the loved ones of Ms. Smith and Mr. and Mrs. Betts understood, when they donated money for the 'personalized plaque' 'on an existing city park bench', that that existing bench would also have an existing dedication to someone else's memory.   And I wonder whether the Samulons and the Robbinses were informed that the bench sites they endowed many years ago will now be shared.   

Only one of the new benches -- that sitting on the foundation with the Fino Calamaro plaque -- does not (yet) have a bench plaque honoring a different person.  Maybe the Calamaro family coughed up extra money to keep the Parks Foundation from re-dedicating their bench in someone else's memory.

If the Parks Foundation wants to take multiple bites at the apple going forward, fine. But to me it seems wrong to water down a memorial that was established under a different understanding.

Bench modernization

 

 Last week the character-laden Samulon, Calamaro and Robbins benches mysteriously disappeared from their bases.   

   

  Today they are being replaced with standard pseudo old-fashioned benches.  That's progress for you.

 The Stirling Family bench now takes on an extra layer of significance as the only remaining link to the past.

 

Confronted again by ignorers

 

 I went out to the bluff to try to make some new conquests, but no one seemed to notice me.  

Their attention was directed elsewhere.

Finally they looked up from their selfish pursuits.

 

 Mission accomplished.
 

Counting

Five people, five dogs, three cars:

 

Three people, four dogs, one car:

 

 
Four people, six dogs, four cars:

  

Savoir-faire at the precipice

 Nene and I met up at the Samulon bench.  

 Nene wanted to move on to the Anna Walker Steere bench, but I remonstrated with him.  It's common knowledge that that bench is located at the edge of a precipice.  Danger is its middle name.

But Nene went down there anyway.

 He parked himself at the bluff edge and dared his owner to do something about it.      

The owner turned to a seasoned diplomat to try to reason with Nene.

     

 Finally I talked him back from the precipice.

Oftentimes diplomacy really amounts to just so much sheep-herding.

A friend to all

 

Out at the bluffs you can meet all sorts of individuals.  People who sit on the bluff benches tend to be very welcoming to me, which is a good thing since I tend to join them without waiting to be invited. 

    

 

Lambie doin work

          A sports figure whom I admire starred last year in a Spike Lee documentary about his work ethic.  Entitled "Kobe Doin Work," the documentary followed Kobe Bryant through a day in the life.

I've been inspired by that film to present this homage, which I call, "Lambie Doin Work."

 
           
         
         
         
         
         
           
         
 
         
 

We bristle as one

 

A recent arrival was instantly unpopular.  No one liked him.

 He brazenly peed on our bench, then turned and walked away.

  
 

  The experience gave me insight into how onlookers sensing a threat to their community can be drawn into spontaneous group violence.