Another bike commute to jury duty today. An unexpectedly long lunch meant I got to really enjoy the awful Euro dance music coming from the Dance Zone kiosk on the Third Street Promenade today, where I chose to park my bike, eat my lunch, and read today’s adventure, The Shooting Star. I think the strongest […]

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After having pumped my tires on Thursday, cleaned the bike on Friday, and purchased a new lock cable on Saturday, I rode to jury duty for the first time – rode my bike, period, for the first time in a long time. The commute was not bad at all, just 20 minutes, much of it […]

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Another picturesque spot to do some reading: in Morro Bay, looking out at The Rock. King Ottokar’s Sceptre, which introduces us to the Balkan nations of Syldavia and Borduria, sets the scene for some of Hergé’s richest inventions, from the two nations’ cross-border rivalry to the maddening diva Bianca Castafiore. The travel brochure which Tintin […]

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I think you’d really have to stay at the Madonna Inn for a week or so to get the full effect, switching rooms every night to get a better sense of the variety of decor. Our “Bit of Solvang,” or a “Study in Blue,” as it could be called, was fine, but fairly unremarkable. The […]

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After attempting both new Santa Monica beer places for a special “end of a long week of jury duty” lunch — both the Fifth Amendment and West 4th/Jane were closed, despite advertising that they’d be open — I ended up at Le Pain Quotidien for lunch, where I enjoyed a tasty prosciutto sandwich and mint […]

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In my quest to find a different place to eat lunch each day that meets my requirements of shade and breeze, I headed to the spot where the pier begins, amidst the crush of equal parts tourist and homeless folks out on a slightly muggy day. Cigars of the Pharaoh, which includes Tintin’s first brush […]

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I ventured a little further afield today, as the temperature had dropped a bit today, down to a more comfortable Santa Monica cool. I walked five or ten minutes to the beach during lunch and found a breezy, shaded area to read my book and eat my lunch, marveling at the relative emptiness of the […]

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I moved a short distance from the County Building today to a shady tree in front of the Santa Monica Civic Center to spend my lunch break. Next up in the Tintin Canon is Tintin in the Congo the most controversial Tintin book – for good reason – and another one that I only have […]

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