Bobwa's New Toy and Other Stiletto Contemplations

Gwamma Bobwa got a new fire truck. Belly showed her how to play with it and press the buttons to make a voice go "Help! Fire!" Bobwa LOVED it!



Poor Belly. Every breath she takes, every move she makes, someone is taking her picture.



If she looks up, SNAP. If she plays with a new puzzle, SNAP. Bompa (previously Ampa) really can't help himself.



Belly and her family live in Old Stiletto City, which is not New Stiletto City. There's the new city, which stretches from the Ocean to Dodger Stadium, and there is the old one, which starts at Third Base in Elysian Park and heads East and South. New Stiletto is filled with Very Important People who live in houses with huge doors, who drive extremely fast and who are indignant about illegal immigration behind the backs of their Mexican and Salvadoran house helpers. Old Stiletto City is where the helpers live. Old Stiletto is filled with with taco stands and kim chee factories and tire recapping shops and check cashing huts and they also have the only Urban State Park in America.



People in New Stiletto eat Nouvelle Sell-ebrity Food, tiny portions on large plates, where every green bean has a name. But in a few places, there is still the memory of the real stuff.



The Old City, though, has sushi, bhan mi, kal-bi, entomatados, bbq from Mongolia and Bangkok and Alabama, laksa, amazing combinations like Ecuadorian-Italian and the most delectable shrimp tacos you ever tasted.




At Union Station, in Old Stiletto, you can catch a train or a bus or wait by beautifully crafted ironwork fences for a Flyaway Bus to LAX.





The Great Plotnik grew up in what he would now call New Stiletto, but lived as an adult in Old Stiletto. He now lives in Saint Plotniko, which is new and old at the same time. On the airplane on Friday, Plot sat next to a couple from London who had been on a round-the-world plane ticket and were finishing up their trip. They had gone London-Shanghai-Hong Kong-Tahiti-LA and were heading back to London.

But they had just bought a house in Saint Plotniko, in Clarendon Heights. They said S.P. is their favorite city in the world -- just the right size. Which is what Plotnik thinks. So there.