Afternoon snacks

• Tribune chief Dennis J. FitzSimons vows to stand up to the big bad Chandlers.
• A spill of cooking oil closed three lanes of the Long Beach Freeway this morning. Imagine the headlines and news teases if it was 100 degrees out there today.
• Harry Shearer jokes at Eat the Press that the L.A. Times may have a point in blocking staff access to potentially offensive websites: "The Times has been scooped on so many stories in its own backyard over the years that this may just be a way of bucking up staff morale."
• Gawker Jesse Oxfeld's Los Angeles adventure, as told by (or to) Nikki Finke.
• City animal services chief Ed Boks compares Los Angeles ($20.2 million budget for shelters and other services) to his last job in New York City ($7.2 million budget, with no shelters at all in Queens or the Bronx.)