Everybody Deserves a Roof - EDAR

An EDAR is such a cool invention. It's a miniature tent on wheel for the homeless. It folds up to the size of a shopping cart and has as much, if not more, storage space and can be pushed from here to there like a shopping cart. The real beauty of it is that it folds out into a water and wind proof tent with a bed that is OFF the ground. The wheels are sturdy and can be locked in place.

Anyway, when saw this story about the EDAR on CNN I thought about Jimmy, the homeless man at Crown Drugs. I thought he would be perfect and if I can get him one I would get to see it first hand on a regular basis because that's where he stays, everyday, all day. Except when it rains he told me he goes to some "window" business and sleeps.

I introduced myself to him and asked his name. He told me his name was Jimmy. I saw a plastic band on his wrist and asked him if he just got out of the hospital and he said "I just got out JAIL!" I thought of Richard Pryor and the wino. But Jimmy was not intoxicated nor did he ask me for money. Actually I've never seen Jimmy begging around the shopping center which is probably why they let him stay there. I told him I'd like to get him a portable tent he could sleep in, then fold it up and take it with him like his shopping cart.

It took a little while but once he understood he was all for it. As I soon found out, everybody, the merchants, clerks, security all love Jimmy. His bed and shopping cart are always neat and like I said, he doesn't beg. I found out later that Jimmy gets a GR check and probably has an EBT card. He just doesn't want to live in a shelter - period.

Phantom of the Opera

Michael thought like no one else known to the public. All his decisions made his life an operatic tragedy. His worst decision was to have so much surgery on his face and then turn his entire complexion white, whiter than even white people. In the end he looked like a ghoul and lived like a vampire. Only Michael Jackson would think of having an anesthesiologist on 24-hr call to have someone put him under for night. Then like a daytime vampire MJ would be brought back to consciousness the next day.

Back in medieval times Michael would have been kept in a back room, doing menial tasks until he died. Unless he had been rich and his appearance didn't start off that way then he would have been an eccentric recluse, living deep in the bowels of a hugh gothic castle.

Other People Who Died This Year That Meant Something to Me

Patrick Swayze, died on Dad's home-going anniversary

Henry Gibson, "Laugh In" "I know naaaa-ting."

Michael's Style, Part 2 - The Mature Years

Michael wears a suit! Kinda. This is about as conservative and "normal" as he got. But it's a cool look. He dressed like a rock star or some wealthy, eccentric European. Whichever he looks rich and odd.

Michael's Style,

Michael Jackson had great style. Especially when he was accepting awards. His costumes usually had a military or royal theme befitting a King of Pop. This is how the generals would look if there was an all-gay military.

The armband is one of Michael's signature looks. He must have seen it somewhere like maybe a police officer's funeral and all the police officers were wearing armbands. It's like that sequined glove, the ONE sequined glove. I think he saw a golf match or something. The tape on the tip of his fingers? A volleyball match. But the armband was phasing out, along with the seguined look. My next post about Michael will be his "businessman" look.

Michael Jackson, Super Nova

Michael Jackson, a man with a simple name, lived an operatic life. He will be thought about, sung about and listened to by many, many generations to come. In a thousand years Michael Jackson's life, not just his music, will continue to make people marvel. His life was that of a super nova, a star so hot and bright, so infinitely larger than all the other stars put together that it is considered strange and awesome all at once.

You Could Be Stitting Next to a Murderer

Here, in L.A. crime has decreased drastically. So much so that the police can now work on cold cases (I love "Cold Case" on A&E)AND use DNA tests that weren't around twenty years ago. They've solved two cases, cases I remember reading about and the person arrested in each case was a HUGE surprise, shocking even. But it all goes to my theory that we all know someone who has killed, got away with it and keeps it as a deep dark secret that only they know about.

Take for instance John Floyd Thomas.

He's 72 years old and had been working for the state of California as a claims adjuster since 1989. He's worked in the same office all those years. His co-workers said he was pleasant, quiet, and religious. Well, it turns out that John was also a convicted felon and registered sex offender who was required to submit his DNA in October 2008 to LAPD for its DNA registry. Remember, the police now has a lot of time on their hands so they are contacting every registered sex-offender for a cheek swab and processing the results in the database.

Well, well, if it didn't come back five months later that Thomas' DNA matched the DNA left and stored for thirty years in the bodies of at least six elderly white women in the 1970s and 1980s who were raped and strangled. They called this guy the "Southland Strangler" and could never catch him. All they knew was that he was black and that they kept the semen from the bodies of the victims.

His co-workers at the state office were in a state of shock. They had been working with a serial-killer who thought he had gotten away with it and turned over a new leaf. I do wonder how he was able to get such a good job with his record of 12 years in prison.

Then there's Stephanie Lazarus who was just arrested yesterday for the murder of her ex-boyfriend's wife twenty-three years ago. Not only did she hold the same job with her co-workers for the last 26 years but she was a LAPD cop. Now she had to know she wasn't going to get away with it for very much longer. She had to know that there was a shift in the department to DNA testing to solve old crimes. Maybe she thought she didn't leave any DNA behind, but she did. And it was tested. It turned out to belong to a woman. Det. Lazarus' name was in the file from 1983 (she was a rookie cop then), as the ex-girlfriend.

Funny they don't already have law-enforcement personnel provide DNA since they ask for finger prints but anyway, they didn't have Stephanie's DNA on file so she was followed and something was found with DNA and, of course, it matched.

LAPD is stunned. But it proves my theory mentioned-above.