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D.J. Waldie

D. J. Waldie (2017)

D. J. Waldie is the author of "Holy Land: A Suburban Memoir" and "Where We Are Now: Notes from Los Angeles," among other books about the social history of Southern California. He is a contributing editor for the Los Angeles Times.

D. J. Waldie (2017)
Heart, Wood.
Heartwood: A Tree Is Felled Into Memories
I should be grateful, I suppose, that my neighbor felled the tree in his front lawn.
When Denny's Was Danny's and Lakewood Was New
As Denny's morphed from Danny's, the first Danny's on Bellflower Boulevard glazed its last doughnut and became an early franchise of Kentucky Fried Chicken. By then, the renamed Denny's had grown to a 20-restaurant chain.
I Fear More What Comes After Wildfires
Los Angeles is judged to be so dangerous by some observers that Mike Davis based an entire book on the region's lethal features. This week gave us reminders.
News
News Roundup: Political Scandal! Football! Disincorporation! And More!
It's time to round up some remainders from 2013 to see just how little has changed at the start of 2014.
Spinning Baca's Resignation: Is the Outrage Belated?
The bitterness in this week's reactions to Baca's resignation is hard to swallow. What didn't we know in 1998 or 2002? What did we chose to forget by 2010?
With Sheriff Baca's Resignation, Time for a New Kind of County Sheriff
It will be hard to transform the culture of the Sheriff's Department, but that's the necessary work of the next person to wear the badge.
The Sameness of SoCal Weather and More Observations From the Year's Beginning
The weather was a metaphor for the start of the year. Beginnings and endings were wrapped in equal obscurity.
Left: L.A. County seal between 1958 and 2004. Right: L.A. County seal after 2004.
Symbol Wars: The Cross Should Stay Off L.A. County's Seal
In 2004, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors decided, probably for the best, to erase the cross put on the county seal in 1957. Supervisors Antonovich and Knabe want to see the cross return.
Hot Town: Los Angeles in the 'Radium Age'
It's not possible to calculate the human cost of the "Radium Age" in Los Angeles. It lasted from at least 1908 until the mid-1930s, during an era when conventional medicine had little offer for chronic suffering and nothing beyond the scalpel for cancer.
Is Public Transit in L.A. a Humane Experience?
Carmen Mendoza and her two school-age children have a car, thanks to the generosity of Hector Delgadillo and his company's employees. She should have had an easier bus ride.
May Your Visit From Santa Be Without Incendiary Reindeer
Is it me, or does the 1951 version Santa seem leaner and more unkempt than the department store Santas of today? That beard wouldn't fool a baby.
In the Water Wars, A Small Victory for Consumers
Consumers should welcome the victory. Mismanagement of groundwater in the Central Basin would have frightening consequences for the county's water security.
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