First trip to, like, you know, L.A.

Giving the Hollywood sign a good squeeze.

Las Vegas and Los Angeles are places you have to visit at least once in you life. Here are a few of the 103 pictures I took along with my brother, his wife and her sister, on my second trip out west. We covered a lot of ground. First was Vegas- my second trip there- where we saw Penn & Teller (aMAzing), Neonopolis, The Bellagio, Red Rock, and of course, various other points on the strip. On to Cali: The Mojave Desert, The Pacific Coast, Venice Beach, Sunset Blvd, Hollywood Blvd, Carney's Hot Dogs, Pink's Hot Dogs, The Standard Hotel, The Crab Shack, Beverly Hills, Rodeo Drive. We had a pretty great time. Took the red-eye back. For the record, there are no cabs at JFK airport at 2:45am.





The Mojave desert: toasty.










With the Boy, his wife, and her sister, on the edge of the Pacific Coast, after some killer seafood.












A man and his dog.





On the way to California. Next thing you know, Arnold Schwarzenegger will be elected governor. D'oh!



L.A.... where more than 600 feature films are produced every year. Including crappy ones like this.

Superman = Super movie.

Go see it. More on Las Vegas and Los Angeles when I get back.

YREVILED AZZIP

The Extra Large, delivered right to your tank.


I never do this.

I deplore getting people involved in things that aren't their problem.

Whoops, almost forgot. Terrorism has become everyone's problem. We got a sizeable helping of it here on September 11th.

The Middle East is where nearly all terrorism stems from. Much of that is directed at Israel, although Muslims are famous for killing each other too. (Iran/Iraq war, Iraq/Kuwait invasion, Shia/Sunni civil war, Lebanon civil war, and on and on and on.) The latest round of fighting was provoked by friends of Iran, in a likely effort to distract the G8 from the real issue at hand: Iran's nuclear program. Israel is paying the price, at least until they put Hamas and Hezbollah out of their misery. But this is not a political web site, and I have no intention of turning it into one.

Of course, while I have followed the current Palestinian intefada closely since 2000, I am, for the first time in recent memory, genuinely concerned about the seriousness of what is happening to Israel now, superpower though they may be.

If you do in fact care about the only fledgling democracy in a sea of 22 brutal, dehumanizing dictatorships, what can you do from thousands of miles away other than read the news and root for the IDF like a favorite sports team?

Signatures and petitions never feel like they accomplish anything tangible, and I always wonder where my name is going and who is seeing it, and how much spam I'll end up getting.

So what I've done a number of times in the past is send Israeli soldiers pizza.

Yeah, I know it sounds stupid. But hey, they need to eat. After all, an army moves on its stomach, right?

And more importantly, assisting them in stuffing their faces shows that we're thinking about them. About what they're up against. And that they're not alone. And besides, Jews are all about food anyway.

It really does make a difference. You even get to write a little note if you want- which they DO read. Enough pizzas and sodas to feed five of them only costs around 16 bucks. They actually have local shops deliver these things in an armored vehicle. Gotta protect those pizzas.

If you can help, I really would consider it a personal favor.

The world needs Israel. Trust me on this.

You wouldn't believe how many medical and technological advancements come from there. An Israeli recently invented a tiny, battery-operated underwater breathing apparatus, for example. You think the world gets this kind of progress out of Iran or Yemen? Okay, Egypt invented beer. I'll give 'em that.

Anyway, the website is pizzaidf.org

Thank you, and whatever religion you are, let's all pray for some peace.