'Oh, the horror'

The highlight of the L.A. Times op-ed page today isn't the paired recall pieces by Robert Scheer and Dan Schnur. It's Joseph Wambaugh's literary take on the news rocking the world of street cops everywhere, but especially in gritty L.A...

It started out like any other day. They pulled up to Dunkin' Donuts, and the other black-and-whites were there, and his little pard ran inside as usual to get his cuppa black. Suddenly the kid came flying back with a grin wider than Sunset Boulevard. "Guess what?" the young cop burbled. "Dunkin' Donuts is making a line of espresso! Cappuccino, latte, the works! And a venti is almost a buck cheaper than Starbucks'! And not only that "

He couldn't make out the rest of it. He felt a tightness in his chest and got a ringing in his ears and a kind of vertigo. He had to steady himself against the car and take deep breaths.

This was the apocalypse.

You go Joe.