Smell

Don't venture under the bed lightly. More than wild things await you there. I looked under my bed not long ago and got more than I expected. Among the picture frames, lost socks and dust brontosaurs, I came across a collection of cassette tapes. Remember cassettes? Before CDs and after eight-track-tapes? Those things that, once warbled and snagged in the player, were tossed from car windows in streams of festive, brownish-gray ribbon to line the freeway in a symbol of urban angst?

Julie Shermer, who grew up in Northwest Glendale, has always lived in an area bounded by Grandview Avenue, Concord Street, Glenoaks Boulevard and Kenneth Road. "Everyone in our part of town could smell the dairy during hot weather." She used to take her four children down to Jessup's to play on the grassy lawn. "They loved to climb on the cow." She also drove students on field trips to Jessup's when her kids were at Mark Keppel Elementary or in Scouts or Brownies.

After 10 months on the force, Burbank Police Officer Matthew Pavelka responded to a call for backup at the Ramada Inn parking lot. It would be the rookie?s last ride. The routine stop in November 2003 escalated into a hail of gunfire that left Pavelka dead and a veteran officer severely injured. The events of that night stunned the community and a police department that had not lost one of its own in a shooting since 1920. The ensuing manhunt, which involved hundreds of local, state and federal agents, ended when the 19-year-old fugitive, David Garcia, was captured by Mexican authorities after spending two weeks in a small town south of Tijuana.

Myles Grene, 11, of Burbank is a sixth-grader at Luther Burbank Middle School. "Rugrats Go Wild" was a decent movie, definitely geared toward smaller elementary school, if not younger, kids. I didn't think it was very good. For a smaller kid, it would be very good and funny. Bruce Willis did a good job as the voice of Spike. Combining the characters of both shows was kind of abrupt, since on TV they never mention each other. For example, Nigel Thornberry is suddenly Tommy Pickles' idol.

Having already won the Palme d'Or at Cannes and several of the most important critics' awards, Michael Haneke's “Amour” has scored an unexpected five Oscar nominations. It's unusual for the usually ghettoized European art films to score anything beyond the Foreign Language category, plus maybe one or two nominations in the general categories. The Oscars belong to Hollywood; and (not surprisingly) Hollywood tends to like the same sorts of movies that Hollywood makes. You'd have to go back more than a decade, to “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,” to find a wholly non-English film to be nominated for Best Picture, and the number of such nominees before can be counted on two hands (with a few digits left over)

A couple was arrested Sunday after they allegedly lied about being carjacked to avoid being investigated for fleeing the scene of a hit-and-run collision, police said. Glendale police said Amarah Hernandez, 19, of San Clemente waited eight minutes before calling police at 10:30 p.m. about two gang members allegedly forcing her out of her car in front of her boyfriend's home on the 600 block of East Cypress Street. Hernandez was sobbing as she told her story, and then her 23-year-old boyfriend, Michael Sandman, also began to report his version of the incident to officers, police said.

Amber Willard First and second graders got an education Friday at the Los Angeles Zoo unlike most lessons they learn in school -- the children were inundated with scaly creatures like snakes and bugs. The class was part of a weeklong program called 'Sense-ational Safari' that taught them facts like how snakes smell with their tongues and which animal can see a mouse from 200 feet up in the sky. Zoo workers present a myriad of summertime classes - some of them weeklong, others one-day - during the summer that are geared for specific age groups.

This is in response to Ron Smith's thoughts in his Aug. 11 letter, “Fine irresponsible dog owners.” Ron, I agree. The people that walk their dogs need to be responsible for their own dog's waste, not the city of Glendale. Everyone has a plastic bag and a trash can at home, so let them take care of it. Who in this town wants a dog waste station by their home? Yuck! Yes, do cite the folks that leave their dog's presents for other homeowners to clean up. If there is money for such a thing, why not put it toward the Rose Parade float.

Marshall Allen LA CANADA FLINTRIDGE -- Author, gardener and lecturer Amy Stewart will teach classes on nature writing and worm composting at Descanso Gardens. Budding writers can learn to capture the beauty and drama of nature during the Garden and Nature writing class from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. April 6 at Descanso Gardens, 1418 Descanso Drive, La Canada Flintridge. From 2 to 4 p.m. the same day, Stewart will teach Worm Composting 101 at Descanso Gardens.

Gary Moskowitz It was beginning to feel a lot like Christmas when more than 100 local residents gathered on a cold and wet Saturday evening along Honolulu Avenue to ring in the holiday season. People arrived in jackets, knit hats and wool gloves, and stood below the 80-foot tree in the 2400 block of Honolulu that Montrose residents claim as their official Christmas tree for a special holiday season kickoff ceremony hosted by the Montrose Shopping Park Assn.