A Downtown Lifestyle

Spent pretty much all of Saturday in downtown Los Angeles.

First I had lunch at the Original Pantry Cafe with GeezBob, my sister Andrea, her friend Kerri Lamb and Josh Pelzer (who I worked with on the No on 68 campaign.)

While we were waiting in line to get in, the guy behind us pointed out that the Pantry had "never closed and that it didn't have any locks on its doors." I enjoyed pointing out to him that that was true up until about five years ago when the restaurant was closed by the County Health Department for a couple of days. (I guess the County Health Department brought their own locks.)

Kerri was a little saddened to learn the Pantry serves the equivalent of 2,300 lambs a year. I guess its a good thing her last name isn't "Cattle," because that would be really depressing.

Then it was off to Dodger Stadium for an afternoon game against the Diamondbacks. The people in front of us brought the largest bag of peanuts I've ever seen (photo above.) Grandmother Green would be impressed by their thriftiness. I took her to a Dodger game in the early '90s and she was SHOCKED to learn peanuts cost $3 at the stadium. "People should bring their own," she said.

The Dodgers lost 7 to 5 and dropped back to third place in the NL West.

GeezBob and I had an excellent dinner at the new Daily Grill downtown at Sixth and Flower. It's on the Ground Floor of the Pegasus Building, which was recently converted to an apartment building. Nice to see more and more life at night downtown.

Finally, saw the excellent new play "Stuff Happens" by British playwright David Hare. It examines the United States' path to war in Iraq. One might expect an anti-Bush diatribe -- but that's not what this is. Many different points of view are represented.

The performers in the show do an amazing job of bringing to life President Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Colin Powell, Condolezza Rice and Prime Minister Tony Blair along with many, many others.

Bumped into Paula Willins in the theater audience. She and I worked together on the No on 167 campaign in 1992. She's happily married and it was nice to meet her husband.

Politics, theater and downtown -- three of my favorite things.