LAistas, I'm sure you've heard, but just in case...do not, under any cicumstaces, go on the 405N near the 101 this afternoon or evening. Apparently a construction crane tipped across the freeway this morning from a nearby work site, and it's been closed since 11.

Luckily I got this news before I left work (since that is precisely my normal route home), and I was able to go around the other way...which brings me to my second announcement: the 110N and the 10E have also both had nasty accidents and are moving approximately as fast as a three-toed sloth.

Ah, LA traffic. Sometimes it manages to still make me say WTF?!? Today was one of those days.

For anyone who's interested, I've put up photos of my trip to America last year here: [link]

For those wondering why they're all of animals rather than people, I will point out that this should surprise no one. For those who note that the Lilybean is an exception to this, I will note that this too should surprise no one.

More photos, these ones of my trip to the Red Centre with Wallybee: [link]

If you happen to live in one of these states-

The Whole Foods Market stores in Louisiana, Texas, Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina will donate $1 for every king cake sold to the White Boot Brigade, a project of Loyola University's Market Umbrella.

The White Boot Brigade represents a small band of Louisiana shrimpers who are rescuing traditional wild shrimp harvesting with smaller, smarter, boutique production and marketing. Hurricane Katrina has left the state of commercial fishing families in perpetual crisis, with the loss of any shrimper impacting the regional economy, restaurant culture, and the state's reputation as Sportsman's Paradise. The brigade cultivates new markets that reward their triple bottom line of economic innovation, ecological sustainability, and cultural preservation.

My review of Monbiot's Heat: How to Stop the Planet from Burning is now up in electronic form in Gristmill. (It was originally published in the February issue of Z Magazine.)

George Monbiot's "Heat: How to Stop the Planet from Burning" is a brilliant, flawed, and deeply important look at what it will take to slow global warming below a catastrophic level.

[link]

I'm totally available for preorder at Amazon!

Will the Vampire People Please leave the Lobby?

If you want to preorder from Amazon, please use the Buffista link so the board gets a wee royalty as well.

[link]

High Hat #8 is up. There's a lot of love in this issue, as the Potlatch section is all about first loves. I especially invite you to check out Erika Jahneke on Hill Street Blues. There's a lovely and heartbreaking remembrance of the filmmaker Helen Hill and New Orleans in general by Phil Nugent, and reading it may have broken me for good. There's plenty of other brilliant articles, so please drop by and read what pleases you.

Tomorrow (Thursday's) episode of The Office was penned by Joss Whedon.

t edit My bad. He directed the episode, but did not write it.

A new lesson is up at Gothic Charm School! On Goths Dating Non-Goths; Or Dating Outside One’s Subcultural Boundries and Why It’s Okay..