We have had a good time talking about flags with our son, watching the Olympics. He now knows the flags of many different countries. I like flags.

So but then this is the flag of the City of Los Angeles:



According to something I read somewhere, "The flag of the City of Los Angeles was designed in 1931 for Los Angeles' 150th anniversary. The red represents the vineyards shouldn't that have been purple?, the golden-yellow depicts the orange groves, and the green symbolizes the olive trees WHAT olive trees? Nobody EVER grew olive trees here!. The center of the flag features the City Seal, which dates from 1905. The center features the four flags that have flown over Los Angeles: Spain, Mexico, the California Republic, and the United States. The olives, grapes, and oranges represent Los Angeles' agricultural roots. The rosary around the seal symbolizes the role played by the Mission padres in the city's early history. Looks like a bunch of yellow circles to me, not a rosary, but whatevs, it's the city seal, I'm going to leave it alone for the moment."

For those of you who were LA residents, could you have picked this flag out of a lineup?

As a comparison, the flag of the city of Chicago:



Now that is pretty. The two blue stripes represent the two branches of the Chicago river, and the four stars represent some historical events - Two Columbian Expositions, the Chicago Fire, and some other damn thing that happened some time, but point being: Good flag. So much so that you see it flying all over Chicago, you see it on patches of the cops. Who wants to wear an LA flag? Who the hell even knows what the flag of LA even looks like?

So LA needs a new flag. A good, simple, and strong flag. We live in an international city, let's have a really bitchin' city-state flag.

So what elements do we represent in an LA flag? The vineyards and orange groves are pretty much out, these days. My wife had a good suggestion with a star for the entertainment industry, I personally might add that it should be a gold star. Perhaps there could be other stars to represent other aspects of our troubled, yet fair, city? We do have some form of river, and we totally snagged us a harbor, a valley, and even some mountains (in the form of Sunland-Tujunga.) And we are certainly a gateway city - the international jumping-off point, and landing point, for so many.

What elements should the new LA flag represent, and how should they do so? If you can provide me with a picture, that would be aces.

Also please spare me the nyuk nyuk, okay? "How about a crashed Mercedes for Paris Hilton, hardy har har" and the like. I can't really stop you from doing it, but I ask you all, especially you non-LA residents, to rise above.

For those who provide pics, I will hold a contest with voting and all, and hey, maybe I'll even take a day off and present our proposals to the city council, just for shits and giggles. (Not that they'll listen - the LA City Council is pretty notorious for not paying a damned bit of attention to public comment. Thanks, elected officials! I'd suggest incorporating that into the flag but perhaps it's not quite what we're looking for, also, hard to really suggest in a bold and thematic format.)

_{I'm working on an entry myself, but it's getting way too late, so I'll post mine later.}

I recently received my official election packet for the upcoming election, which consists of no actual "elections," but instead only two referendums, Propositions 98 and 99.

I checked out the websites of both of them, which, you know, basically said the same things the "pro" and "con" arguments did. The Prop 99 website did have links to a couple of purported news stories, though, one of which contained the following quote:

Arnie Bernstein said his landlord has been trying to drive him and his wife out for years to jack up rents. Without rent control, they'd be forced to leave the state.

"All these landlords think they are getting shortchanged because they can't get market value," said Bernstein, 64, who lives on Social Security. "But many of them aren't worth market value.

"Where I live, you can hear people fornicating next door. The plumbing is bad. If I first came to L.A. and they offered me this place for $1,300, I would about-face and walk away."

Um, Mr. Bernstein.

First of all, as I'm reading Prop 98, you wouldn't be affected. Rent control would remain in effect until you vacated the place, so you're fine.

Second, well, every apartment (in fact every thing you can buy) is worth market value. All "market value" means is "what someone is willing to pay you." It doesn't mean "a lot more than I personally feel like paying." If you left your apartment, your landlord could put the place on the eeevil market for $8,000 a month. It's unlikely your landlord would get any takers. He or she would have to drop the price until they found someone willing to pay the price offered. That's what "market price" means.

Anyway, if your plumbing is bad, there are 8 zillion renter-protection statues in place in this city and state, maybe you should try forcing your landlord to do something. Also, the next-door fornication is a *feature*. C'mon, you're totally enjoying it.

Ganked from fullerton, this fascinating picture of Signal Hill, CA, in 1923. I don't want to break everybody's page so it's under ( a cut. )

Signal Hill is a suburban residential section of Long Beach these days. I guess it was residential back then, too, but that's probably not the first thing that will catch your eye.