Los Angeles is Burning

Not just the title of ESPN's newest miniseries or a song by Bad Religion. Los Angeles (along with San Diego) is burning, right now.

As Pat alluded two posts down, these are strange times in southern California, what with 500,000 acres going up in smoke, half-a-million people fleeing the flames, and the impending strike by the Writer's Guild of America. How does that last one impact you? Think about it - no writers, no content. No content, networks have to go deep into the reserve of newsmagazines and reality shows to fill the dead air (which is convenient, because a major sticking point in these negotiations is the WGA's stance that reality programming should fall under union jurisdiction). So instead of a full season of Lost, you might only get the first seven or eight episodes produced before the strike, then it'll just be weeks upon weeks of Dancing with the Stars.

Personally I'm fine, nestled in just north of downtown but geographically centered pretty far away from the fire zones, which have strayed more towards Santa Clarita (far north) and Malibu Canyon Country. To give you all a point of reference, I don't think the Malibu house is any imminent peril, however some of the true hot-spots (no pun intended) are just south of it along the Pacific Coast Highway. Many residents of that area were evacuated to Zuma Beach, which is just a stone's throw down the beach from where we had our touch football games last Thanksgiving. And I could totally drop in a few wise-cracks about how appropriate my view of this city as Hell on Earth is, given all the fire and brimstone raining down from the sky. However, even I know it's bad form to kick somebody when they're down.

That's the view from over here, what's the view from over there beachside, Paulie?