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♦ Adelphia blames equipment failure related to the Topanga fire for depriving thousands of their "Desperate Housewives" fix.
♦ Mayor Villaraigosa's plan for improving schools falls into the hands of the Times' Richard Fausset, who reports that despite the campaign rhetoric they'll take it slow.
♦ Not that the deal was greased or anything, but the Board of Airport Commissioners interviewed Lydia Kennard by phone before hiring her to run the show as the mayor wished.
♦ When Sean Bonner got wind of a new cityblog that seemed to be a ripoff of his, he began investigating. What he found, among other things, is a link to the poker spam we all get.
♦ Kausfiles makes the leap from the mysterious L.A. stench to "does it sometimes feel as if someone (perhaps our own government) is testing something in our big cities?" Meanwhile, I got email Monday from Montreal complaining about a bad smell there.
♦ Book City Collectibles is leaving Hollywood Boulevard soon, the Times says.
♦ New SAG president Alan Rosenberg chats with Patrick Goldstein of the Times then goes to lunch with his new counterpart at the Writers Guild.
♦ Blogger Hexod.us is happy the LA Weekly printed some of his photos, but unhappy they didn't ask first.
♦ Novelist Marcos Villatoro and his fictional private investigator Romilia Chacon—"imagine a cross between Sam Spade and Jennifer Lopez or Humphrey Bogart and Selma Hayek"—are featured on tonight's Life and Times on KCET. Also, Patt Morrison talks to Alan Alda about his memoir, Never Get Your Dog Stuffed.
♦ The death of M. Scott Peck, author of The Road Less Traveled, was announced in Los Angeles by publicist Michael Levine.
And also...
Joan Didion talks to Anne-Marie O'Connor in today's LAT Calendar section about the recent death of her daughter Quintana, just as her book centered around the death of husband John Gregory Dunne was being printed: "Distinguished American writer Joan Didion has always seemed delicate, but now she looks frail. Her shoulders are thin and stooped as she speaks haltingly about the loss of her daughter a few weeks ago, as she was still grappling with the sudden death of her husband on Dec. 30, 2003. Her weight has dropped below 80 pounds, and her pants and pullover hang loosely from a 5-foot-1 frame that now seems perilously thin. She seems dwarfed by a living room filled with art and mementos."