L.A. County unemployment climbs to 9.9 percent

WARNING: If you were looking for Los Angeles County's unemployment picture to pick up in December,  you should probably stop reading now.

Well, actually it's probably too late because you've already read the headline. But in case you haven't - and DON'T PEEK - abort now and go watch a rerun of "Three's Company" or some other 70s show that will lull you into a false sense of security. That's right, kick back, rip open that bag of Cheetos and take a deep breath. Suzanne Summers will soon be running around in a sheer tube top (a requirement of every episode) and Jack will be trying to confuse everyone with double entendres.

But who are we kidding? That won't work. We all know deep down that we're going to have to face these employment numbers, don't we? Sure we do. So to make things easy, I'll just say that the county's jobless rate was rather high last month. High enough to make grown men wince and look nervously askance as they sidle off into the dark.

Well, that's enough of that.