Recently in In our neighborhood Category

I shot the two images above with my cell-phone camera (which I've been enjoying using very much, thank you) at the MoveOn.org-organized demonstration in favor of health-care reform at the corner of Van Nuys and Burbank boulevards in Sherman Oaks on Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2009.

Last night I happened by a sizable group of people at the corner of Burbank and Van Nuys boulevards holding candles and "honk if you support health care reform"-type of signs — and there was quite a bit of honking going on.

I'd say between 20 and 30 people who support the Democrats' health-care legislation were on the corner in advance of President Obama's speech next week to a joint session of Congress in an attempt to gin up support for the measure, which is opposed by most all Republicans (those elected to the Senate, anyway) and a few Democrats as well.

Our dog Poppy wasn't too crazy about all that horn-honking, but she wasn't about to bite off anybody's finger either, as one human did to another at a similar demonstration in Thousand Oaks.

Since last night I've learned that the demonstrations were organized by MoveON.org, which has a Flickr page with images from 350 such demonstrations across the country.

Argue all you want, ladies and gents, but let's leave the biting out of it, OK?

Bargain Babe Julia Scott is giving away the store (actually it looks like more than a few stores' worth) at her Frugal Festival from 1 to 4 p.m. Sunday at Woodley Park in Van Nuys.

The first 50 people to arrive will get one of these very T-shirts (seen at left) free.

And there'll be more swag, plus (and more importantly) the opportunity to hear from and interact with what will hopefully be many, many like-minded people.

For those of us who aspire to some kind of "frugal," "simple" or "sustainable" living, we're all on a different part of the path and have different goals. But in this day and age, even with the economy in the tank, and in this city, which is no salt-of-the-earth hunk of ground, it's not so easy to find someone who doesn't think you're an alien for bucking the consumption trend even a little.

All I'm saying is that if you can stand the heat (and I know you can), get yourself to Woodley Park on Sunday for a heaping helping of frugality.

Click the picture above for my photo gallery of July 8, 2009's night of cruising on Van Nuys Boulevard.

It's official — that square of Van Nuys targeted by the Part of Sherman Oaks (big P, big S, big 0) movement for inclusion within the community boundaries of Sherman Oaks is now just that: part of Sherman Oaks (small p, big S, big O).

Read about it at Dailynews.com, and don't miss the report by Zach Behrens of LAist (and not-un-conflictedly of the Sherman Oaks Neighborhood Council) for the play-by-play.

Most importantly, do I rename this blog? Do I archive it and start anew?

I welcome your suggestions.

I was just talking with Daily News education reporter Connie Llanos about how we fell in with the parents of a few of our daughter's LAUSD kindergarten classmates.

We met due to walking the same way to school and by virtue of our kids being in the same grade. It's unusual, for me and Ilene anyway, because prior to this, we didn't really have any like-minded parents with whom we formed any kind of connection.

It's pretty casual. We talk on the way to and from school. We did Halloween together, and we wait in line with the kids before class to make sure the little angels don't murder each other. We listen to droning assemblies (Mondays only, thankfully), ferry class projects, bags of recyclables (fund-raiser), bags of spent paper-towel rolls (learning about "silly cylinders") and snack- and homework-filled backpacks.

Yep, there's homework in kindergarten.

I have a way of creeping up on the point, so I'll just get to it. One of these parents, Richard Horvitz, we both discovered a couple of weeks or so into this school year, actually went to Grant High School with me in the '80s. (Cut me in half and count the rings, people; I'm old.) He was an actor then — and still is today. Back in high school, he was always in the annual shows. I generally played the guitar in the pit orchestra.

Now that we've got all that track laid, Richard has a lot of interesting gigs, which encompass everything from voices for animation to stage work and movie roles. He also manages to get booked on the late-night talk shows occasionally.

This long introduction is just here to provide a little context for the clip above from "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno." It's a very funny skit with Jim Carrey. That's Richard, second from right, in the choir.