NYer

This doesn't really have California angle, other than I think I read once that the New Yorker has more California subscribers than New York subscribers.

Dan Baum used to be a staff writer for the New Yorker and he's currently tweeting the story of how he got fired in 2007. Among the interesting tidbits: he had to write 30,000 words per year for which he received $90,000.

Grunions

Last night I went on a grunion run by the Santa Monica pier. Grunions are little silver fish found only in southern California and Baja California.

They have a unique way of mating -- they spawn completely out of water, laying their eggs in the sand during high tide. The females come first and lay the egg then the males fertilize them. You are allowed to catch them only with your bare hands, but not during the closed season of April and May.

I knew nothing about grunions before tonight, but a friend who is a certified grunion greeter organized an outing so I decided to join. The peak time for observation was between 10:15pm-12:15am, perfect for my night owl schedule. Unfortunately, the grunions weren't active on our strip of sand. I didn't see it but there was apparently one grunion that came out to scout; alas, a seagull snapped it up. We asked Gwen if it would help if we scared the birds away, and when she said it might, my friend Mary took it upon herself to run over to the birds to shoo them away. (I should note that I would have done likewise had I not been so lazy.) Unfortunately at one point, there was a huge flock of birds on land, and a number of them took flight. But since there weren't any grunions anyway, a grunion massacre was averted.

Even though I didn't see any grunions, there are worse things than a night time stroll on the beach. And I'll get another chance May 26.

Google's goats

I admit I just read this on TechCrunch but it was too hilarious not to share. In lieu of a lawnmower, Google has rented goats to mow the weeds and clear the brush.

"A herder brings about 200 goats and they spend roughly a week with us at Google, eating the grass and fertilizing at the same time. The goats are herded with the help of Jen, a border collie. It costs us about the same as mowing, and goats are a lot cuter to watch than lawn mowers," Google says on its official blog. TechCrunch has comment from PETA.

Post-it car

Just a couple days after my Seinfeld sighting I saw an even more unique car covered in hundreds of Post-its. It was parked on Inglewood Blvd near Navy Street in West L.A. There was no writing on the Post-its so I don't know why it was decorated as such. Perhaps someone's temporary art car? Or an ode to someone obsessed with organization and to do lists?

Seinfeld

I was driving to Santa Monica from my house yesterday on Bundy and was waiting to turn left onto Pearl when I saw a small pink Porsche in the opposite lane, stopped even though the light was green. Eventually it started moving again (I think the driver was talking to someone in the lane next to him) and as it passed me I saw it was Jerry Seinfeld.

I knew from the LA Auto Show that Seinfeld collected Porsche. And it turns out that at one point in the 1990s he rented a hangar at the Santa Monica Airport to store his cars -- he has over 40. (We were a couple blocks away from the airport when I saw him so it's possible he still does.)

The car he was driving yesterday, which was a convertible, is not the car you want to be driving if you're trying to be low key. Then again, I can't recall the last time I saw him in the pages of People or US Weekly ("They drive million dollar cars, just like us!" wouldn't go very well in their celebrities are just like us section, I guess) so he must be doing a decent job of keeping the paparazzi at bay.

Arlen Specter

Just read that GOP Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania is switching to to the Democratic party, putting the Democrats one seat closer to 60. (If Al Franken is ever seated they'll be at 60.)

There's some self-interest at play here. As Cillizza lays out here, Specter is up for reelection in 2010 and he was facing a very difficult primary challenge from former Pennsylvania Rep. Pat Toomey (who headed the uber-conservative Club for Growth from 2005 till recently).

Specter has long been one of the more moderate Republicans in Congress (he's pro-choice and as ranking Republican of the Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations Subcommittee he tends to support more funding for those programs rather than less, especially when it comes to health programs).

On a personality note, Specter can be a cranky guy, at least when dealing with reporters. (Not that his constituents necessarily care about his demeanor with reporters; presumably, they elect him based on his stance on the issues). But he has also survived numerous health challenges. He was diagnosed with advanced Hodgkin’s disease in 2005 but still retained his chairmanship of the Judiciary Committee as it held hearings on Roberts' and Alito's confirmations to the Supreme Court. He was diagnosed with a recurrence last year. Part of his secret is that he plays squash almost every day.

The Santa Monica Library and Gay Marriage

The Santa Monica Library held an interesting event, called the Living Library Project, a couple weekends ago that let you check out people and talk to them for half an hour. They had a Mormon, fat activist, little person, homeless person, teenager and others. I ended up talking to the Mormon and a lesbian Jewish married mother about Prop 8 (barring gay marriage). I wrote about it in my inaugural column for CQ Politics.