substitute

But the seismo people don't think it's a quake. What the hey?

http://bit.ly/ocquake

Note for non-locals: Tony's Place is a dive bar of a particular sort: a haunt of semi-retired felons. Most of them are over-the-hill cirrhotic carnie mumblers. This guy was apparently still sparky at the advanced age of 42. The last sentence is the best.


Man's skull fractured by pool cue in bar fight
Fight in Costa Mesa ends with man hospitalized with bleeding in his brain

COSTA MESA – A 42-year-old Costa Mesa man was arrested on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon, after a game of pool ended with a man going to the hospital with a skull fracture and bleeding in his brain.

William Marsh was arrested at Tony's Place at 2054 Newport Blvd. in Costa Mesa after a disagreement over a game of pool around 10:15 p.m., said Costa Mesa police Sgt. Bryan Wadkins.

Marsh is suspected of hitting Christopher Colbert, 49, of Costa Mesa, in the head with a pool cue.

Marsh was arrested at the scene, Wadkins said.

Other patrons overheard the fight but did not see it, Wadkins said.

OWNERS OF SWINGERS CLUB SELL FURNISHINGS

Nalder and Wood advertised sale items on craigslist this past week, including a 600-pound ice maker, 26 double, queen and king-sized five-inch thick foam pads and a steel-framed bed with headboard lights.

The posting stated the club was moving to a new location and down-sizing.

Outside the building, several wooden boards covered with black and purple felt lay against a retaining wall. Six automobiles and a motorcycle were in the parking lot, including a truck pulling a storage unit.

Hmm, five inches. Would that be thick enough to AUGH WHAT AM I THINKING

Yesterday I found myself on Main Street in Huntington Beach at early dinner time, so I put all my change in a meter and went for a walk, followed by Guinness and fish 'n' chips.

For those who don't know the area, Main Street is the tourist trap and party zone of Huntington. Like Newport and Laguna, it has surf shops and souvenir crap and some theme restaurants. Unlike the others, it has tough guys, mean cops, real bars, and some genuine menace at night. Also, non chain restaurants!

At six on a weekday there wasn't much going on, but the people watching was good on my longish walk.

I walked by a guy who was parking a new Porsche. He was small and strong, with a skintight shirt and a little gold chain, and hair cut close. Not someone you'd want to mess with. As he was getting out of the car, a friend greeted him, obviously someone he hadn't seen in a while. Porsche was in a hurry, but stopped to talk. The Friend was generic overweight white guy with goatee, t-shirt over belly, shorts and flip flops. Porsche was dark, probably Mexican.

FRIEND: Hey! I heard you were into some stuff but I didn't know you were, well, um, [gesture at Porsche] into some stuff like THIS.

PORSCHE: Huh, what'ya mean? [starting to look annoyed]

FRIEND: Well I, uh. I heard you.. um.. had been on "vacation."

PORSCHE: Aah yeah... [nervous, more annoyed] That was a ways back. ANYWAY. [picks up phone]

The next chapter was at the Irish bar, where I had my meal. It was almost deserted, so I got a good outdoor seat for people watching.

The inside seat on the sidewalk was occupied by two very young teenaged girls, who were completely hyperactive. They kept asking random passers-by for a dollar. They said "hi" to almost everyone, and some people stopped to talk, including a middle-aged motorcyclist with salt and pepper hair, a couple of skater boys, a couple with a cute dog, etc. They asked me how old I thought they were. "Fourteen," I said. "Thirteen!" they declared, triumphantly.

Next to me on the patio was a party of thugs. There are a lot of tatted up guys with hats pointing the wrong away in this part of the world, but these were the real thing. One guy had the Suicidal style bandanna half over the eyes, and all of them had obvious gang tats, just not from gangs I knew of. The teenaged girls asked the thugs: "Would you date us if we were 18?" and they blanched.

They were very friendly thugs. They were discussing what assholes people were around here, and asked me if I was local. I agreed with them about the local "quality" being stuck up and tiresome, especially the ones who think they're tough. I urged them to consider this to be Disneyland and relax and enjoy it, and they thought that was a fine idea. They were from Chino Hills. When they left we all slapped each others' hands and exchanged names and good will. I told them to watch out for the cops.

Meanwhile, the cops were about 50 feet away giving the skater boys a massive overkill search and detainment.

Next door at Sharkeez (VERY BAD STUPID BAR) there was a party of New York Baller Types, puerto ricans and black people, having a great time being incredibly drunk and loud. They were almost out of control, but very cheerful. One of them was the Designated Funny Guy in the group and had a ghastly screeching laugh.

The teenaged girls, of course, went over and introduced themselves, making an Enrique and a Shawn very nervous. More handshakes and amusing fear on the part of the New York Ballers, who did not want anything at all to do with suburban jailbait.

As I left, the cops were finally releasing the skater boys. It was classic HBPD: they'd ignored two unattended children, a party of hardore gangster criminals, an obvious dope dealer, and an out of control loud yelling party of out-of-state brown people just to fuck with some local kids on skateboards.

Anyway, that's Main Street at six pm. At around 11 pm on a weekend night it's what you'd expect.

25 After you have had children and grandchildren and have lived in the land a long time—if you then become corrupt and make any kind of idol, doing evil in the eyes of the LORD your God and provoking him to anger, 26 I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you this day that you will quickly perish from the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess. You will not live there long but will certainly be destroyed. -- Deuteronomy 4:25-26

Did God give O.C. woman backstage pass to 'American Idol'?

Leesa Bellesi threw her hands up in the air and prayed: "Here I am Lord, send me to the backstage of 'American Idol.' "

She was watching Season 5 of the ultra-popular television show in her Laguna Beach home at the time.

It was her calling, she thought, "to minister to the needs of the people on that show."

Several weeks later, out of the blue, a pretty girl named Katharine McPhee walked into Lake Avenue Church in Pasadena where Leesa's husband, Denny, founder of Coast Hills Community Church in Aliso Viejo, was serving as the interim teaching pastor. Katharine asked Leesa and Denny to pray for her – as she was about to go into seclusion for "American Idol."

( Read more... )

Just when I thought Orange County Religion couldn't get any worse, they ratchet up into another level of awful!

http://blog.ocsd.org/post/A-message-from-Sheriff-Michael-Carona.aspx

Bye, Mike. Please DO let the door hit you on the ass.

http://substitute.livejournal.com/1694577.html?view=8941681#t8941681

They open Dec 15.

http://www.ocregister.com/news/newport-beach-laguna-1781409-mtv-new

Sadly they are not going to film at my alma mater, although the show is going to be called "Newport Harbor." There goes my chance to point out earthquake damage and places where people peed on things or did drugs.

The new cast of "Newport Harbor" will feature Chrissy, a smart, pretty high school senior with three top colleges to pick from; Allie, the girl whom all the boys want and all the girls want to be; Clay, a shy, good-looking junior who turns to his gregarious best friend Grant for confidence; Grant, a bad-boy junior who's the life of the party; Chase, a senior who has a way with the girls; and Taylor, a sophomore who's the youngest of the group and who is dating Chase.

I'm not sure where the geekulous nerds in the "inner quad" fit in, here. Oh wait, we didn't.

The official site is at http://www.newportharbor.mtv.com/

What's even "better" is that MTV's Second Life clone, http://www.vmtv.com/ is going to have a "virtual Newport Harbor" which I hope includes a first-person shooter segment.

Okay, now I'm *REALLY* going back to bed.

PS: The actual reality show about this town is called "Arrested Development."

PPS: The actual REAL real Orange County has a lot more tweakers, corrupt cops, toxic dumps, lower middle class suburban despair, brush fires, exhausted Mexican laborers, and skin problems.

'Prophet' is back on street

Popular transient who was in confrontation with police is back in Lake Forest, on probation.

By SALVADOR HERNANDEZ
The Orange County Register

LAKE FOREST – Weeks after he was involved in a violent confrontation with police, a well-known transient known as "The Prophet" has been seen in the same area where deputies used Tasers, batons and beanbag shots to restrain the 265-pound man. Charles Barnes, 49, was released two weeks after police said the 6-foot, 6-inch-tall man took several items from a CVS Pharmacy near the intersection of El Toro Road and Rockfield Boulevard.

When Orange County sheriff's deputies arrived to the area June 20, Barnes was wearing what appeared to be body armor constructed from pieces of traffic cones, magazines, plastics, and a hubcap strapped to his chest.

Barnes threw a bottle at officers as they arrived, said Lt. Don Barnes, chief of police services for Lake Forest. Officers used Tasers and beanbag shots to subdue "The Prophet," but they had little effect because of the layers of clothing and material strapped to his body, Lt. Barnes said.

Officers said Barnes grabbed one deputy's Taser and officers used batons to subdue him and force him to let go of it. When the popular transient was taken into custody, he was taken to a local hospital with cuts, bruises and what may have been a broken hand, Lt. Barnes said.

"The Prophet" was booked for robbery, but not for resisting arrest, Lt. Barnes said. "That was probably a decision that was made on the field by the deputies," he said. Charges were not filed by the District Attorney's Office regarding that incident.

Barnes remains on three years' probation from an earlier charge of obstructing and intimidating a business and customers, which occurred June 4. Court records show that Barnes was arrested May 7 as well, and charged with resisting a police officer and obstructing and intimidating a business and customers. He was sentenced to 15 days in jail and three years' probation in that case.

"Our goal is to make sure the community is safe," said Lt. Barnes. "We just don't want to have another confrontation like we had last time."

Oh, Orange County Register... ...I can't stay mad at you.



Repeat after me: typos always happen in headlines and captions.