Christine Peters posted the following on the Echo Park Animal Alliance list today:

It is with a very heavy heart that I pass on to everyone that Mr Nash, the gentle old soul who lived in pioneer conditions on Valentine street passed away sometime this week. His dogs were agitated and skittish, so a neighbor entered his proerty and found him face up on his bed, with the dogs by his side. Mr. Nash loved animals and was an expert orchid cultivator. I was lucky to receive many orchids from him. And now, as I promised him I would do, I need to find homes for his animals. There are two easy-to-place nine-month-old chihuaha mixes, and two older lab mixes -- both male, neutered and current on all shots. At least 3 cats, not sure. We convinced the police not to involve animal control, as we vouched to care for and place the pets. Mr. Nash was a dedicated petowner and a long-suffering vet of WW2/Korea( stories differ here).

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Saturday, a friend told me that not only had he found all twenty-nine public-street staircases in Echo Park but he had walked them. I wish I had been there. Then, on Sunday, I was driving back from a birthday brunch -- eggs benedict settling happily into my arteries -- when I took an over-the-hill shortcut from Glendale Boulevard in Silver Lake to Echo Park. Just before I got onto the Oak Glen bridge over the Two Freeway I passed a passel of laughing, chatting firemen -- there were firetrucks, paramedic trucks, maps posted, hilarity in the air. I asked a man in uniform what was going on. He told me it was an annual exercise. They practice for emergencies on the stair streets in firehouse fifty-something. I hope they do that on our side of the freeway, too. Not if only for a laugh.

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I missed, until today, Eric Garcetti's March 6 post, which recounts a visit he received from some University Elementary School pupils. One of the children asked if it was okay to talk about chickens during city council meetings. Good question!