By Jason Toney
From: misterjt.com

I CAN’T TELL YOU HOW MUCH I LOVE LOS ANGELES.
— JONATHAN GOLD

 

We were standing in the non-fiction, cultural studies aisle of Book Star on Ventura Boulevard when a woman came around the corner and sternly said, “No laughing!” We blushed and then, she smiled.

“Sometimes when I do that, it’s to teenage couples that are smooching in the stacks,” she explained. I revealed that just before we had been looking at “adult books” like 101 Sex Positions and, yes, laughing like school children that were getting away with something.

“Oh, I work in the children’s section so I can’t help you if you want more of those kinds of books but remember, ‘No Laughing!”

It was the first of a few random conversations with Angelenos on our Saturday roaming the Valley. We chatted with an older real estate agent who took advantage of us slowly perusing the listings on her agency window to give us a card and inform us of the merits of buying in Burbank.

A homeless man interrupted our conversation on his way to Starbucks—probably for some complimentary AC, water, and electricity—to tell her that her expressive hands meant she was probably brilliant, just like him. It wasn’t lost on me the irony of us discussing nearly million dollar listings while so many of our fellow citizens are living on the streets. Read Rest of Article Here