Replaced by freeways, Los Angeles commuters of the 1950s and earlier fondly referred to their unique narrow-gauge streetcars as “yellow cars.” By the mid-fifties, there were six of these yellow car lines being operated by the Los Angeles Transit Lines, now faded from all but memory.

What’s wrong with this picture?  Sun Chips brought out a biodegradable bag which was deemed “too noisy” for American consumers. Yet Canadians have accepted the high-decibel bags without a problem. Don’t people realize there are Texas-size floats of plastic refuse in both the Atlantic and Pacific that will take 500-years to degrade?

I’m fascinated, but often disturbed by true eccentrics. But in most cases give me Technicolor & widescreen, meat dresses & Philip Treacy hats! Kooky heiresses of decades past, the Peggy Guggenheims & Nancy Cunards & Doris Dukes, & our wildly nutty Hollywood gangster, bloody Mickey Cohen, provoked and titillated. I was shocked by artist Chris Burden, now a staid professional making prominent installations from vintage street lights, when he was shot in the name of art years ago. Beastly momma grizzly, Sarah Palin, is an arch provocateur who constantly shocks and frightens me.

I love the new TCM documentary, Moguls & Movie Stars. The first installment of seven, Peepshow Pioneers, illuminated that the forerunners to motion pictures, called magic-lantern shows, dated back to the late 1600s and detailed the earliest days of “modern” film making.

I have just read an excellent and compelling book, The Deeds of My Fathers. A family memoir written by a grandson, the first part is about a poor and ruthless immigrant boy, Generoso Pope, who became a business titan and major political power in the 1920s until his death in 1950 — while befriended by mob boss Frank Costello and supporting Mussolini. The second part focuses on his son, Gene Pope, Jr. Originally financed by Costello, he created the National Enquirer. As Frank Costello was also a mentor of Hollywood gangster Mickey Cohen, about whom I have just completed a forthcoming book, MICKEY COHEN:The Life and Crimes of L.A.s Notorious Mobster, the story I tell and this are broadly interlinked.