by the rivers of babylon

Have any of y'all been to Babylon Restaurant and Hookah Lounge yet? It's a new place on Second Street, but I haven't heard anything about it. Metro Pomona had a post on it for about 10 seconds, but the post has disappeared. Is it a Jason Abboud venture, perhaps?

Gilgamesh knows, we could use another restaurant downtown, and I look forward to trying it out. Not on a weekend, though -- both K. and I have a severe bellydancer allergy. The threat of valet parking (in our downtown!) is a bit scary too; are you only allowed in wearing 5" heels? If so, it's takeout for me.

For all you young'uns, the picture is of Boney M, who had a hit with "By the Rivers of Babylon" in 1978.

dollars for doughnuts

For lunch today, I went to a quiet cafe with a bunch of paperwork and ate while I worked. At some point, I decided I needed a cup of coffee, so I went up to the counter to request it. An elderly lady was there staring at the pastry case, so when the counter guy asked me what I wanted, I said, "Oh, she was here first. But when you're done serving her, I'd like a cup of coffee." He said he'd bring it back to my table.

When he did, he said, "And the lady at the counter bought your coffee, because you told me to serve her first. She wanted to thank you for your kindness."

I'm still gobsmacked. That wasn't kindness; it was basic manners, not even special bend-over-backwards manners. It was simple ethics. I would have chased after her to thank her, but she had already driven off. Thank you, elderly lady in turquoise, wherever you are!

And now I have proof that contrary to what K. loves telling my mother at every opportunity, I was brought up right!

from pillar to post

To Anon and John and others that are continuing discussions that have been up for a while, it's worth knowing that I have to approve any comment posted to a thread that is more than two weeks old. It's one of the main ways of controlling spam; I'd guess that 90% of the posts that fit this description are spam.

That is not meant to warn you away from discussing street cleaning or anything else you care about! It's just an explanation of why your comments don't appear right away. I approve them as soon as I see them (and I am notified immediately), but sometimes I'm away from the computer (hard to imagine, I know). Sorry for the frustration.

In other news, I intend to do more blogging, esp. after a drink last night with Pride in Garfield Park and Ms. Lois, who formulated for me a whole list of topics. But the one nearest to my heart and head will take a little pondering.

See everybody at the opera!

Opera opens Feb 5 in Pomona

In fair Pomona where we lay our scene...

whoom, whoooom, whoooooom

I have a new plan for the blog: I will no longer wait until I have time and energy to write substantial blog posts. Instead, I'm going to be micro-blogging, as if this were Facebook. Surely I have time for that?

It's saturday morning, 7am, and what else but the dulcet tones of unpermitted tree removal. Part of me wants to call the po-po and have the miscreants hauled away in chains; the other part of me thinks that's a mighty unfriendly thing to do. And who needs all those green and brown things anyway? They just make a mess, right?