OH HAI!!!!
I'm Carrie.
I am the one and only.
I blog for LAist.
I live in Los Angeles.
I like eating, filmmaking, writing, and people.
cmeathrell at gmail if you want to play some online Scrabble or nerd out in some other way.
An interview with Mike O’Toole, founder of Gondola Getaway in the Naples section of Long Beach, from “Westways” magazine (yes they send it to you with your AAA membership and I will punch you if you judge it because it is such anearnest publication and reminds me of my grandparents)
Q: How did you start your business?
Mike O’Toole: In 1981, I bought an old Pakistani fishing boat that was a rose garden in a guy’s front yard here. I put an electric motor on the back and I got a big oar, the straw hat, and the striped shirt. I didn’t think I’d be doing it for the next 25 years.
Q: What kinds of people apply to be gondoliers?
O’Toole: At one point, almost all the gondoliers were Long Beach Wilson High School water polo players. And another time, almost all of them were from the football team. Guys on staff understand who’d be the right person for the job and refer them. One of our ex-gondoliers runs the music program up at Long Beach State and sees singers with the right personality. So he sends them down.
P.S. Wintertime in Los Angeles is a wonderful time to go gondoling through the Naples canals. You can go for fish tacos afterwards and drive through the Palos Verdes Peninsula (“Green Sticks”!) on your way home.
But there is another less obvious bug in capitalism that I don’t believe regulation can quite handle. It is the fundamental flaw that our celebrated system rewards speculators much more than creators. A relatively junior hedge-fund manager or a bond trader on Wall Street makes a great deal more money in his career than Charles Kao, who invented the basic physics making optical communication a reality. Dr. Kao, now 73, won the Nobel Prize this year, but his net worth would not compare favorably with that of George Soros.
Yet, who added the real value? Soros or Kao?
In 2009, 30 million people sit unemployed in America. Yet, the speculators have managed to lift the stock market up, and the media pretends that we’re having a recovery.
We’re not having any recovery. We need the innovators, the entrepreneurs, the creators, the scientists, the technologists—those who build value, those who create jobs—to lead us out of this nightmare. Not a bunch of speculators who make money regardless of whether value gets created or destroyed. In fact, many of them are incentivized to destroy value by spreading fake rumors about companies and stocks, and they do so often. Some get caught, most don’t.
And our talented youth gets seduced by this profession of speculation known for its easy and abundantly flowing financial rewards, avoiding those that require much greater intellectual capacity. Most importantly, very early in their lives, our talented youth come to realize that fields that may earn them a Nobel Prize—cancer research or multi-core computing—may not make them rich. But moving money from here to there will.
And thus, we lose Berkeley Ph.Ds in nuclear physics to hedge funds and MIT computer scientists capable of delivering computing to 6 billion people to derivative manipulation on Wall Street.
Spot on. And I’m pleased to see this comes from Forbes and not some fringe blogger.
I kind of love this. I don’t usually talk politics/economics/religion on this here bloggy cause I know most people just want to see foodie stuff! and cute blondeness! But I do talk about it an awful lot in real life
Anyway, to wit: it never fails to amuse (infuriate?) me that Certain Peoples in My Household Who Shall Remain (coughcoughKevin) Nameless STILL argue for the necessity of paying bankers exorbitant salaries while the aforementioned physicists get a comparative pittance. The irony of all of this, of course, is that Certain Peoples are also passionate and brilliant teachers of amazingly bright students who are the very ones ending up at M.I.T. and Berkeley. (Kev’s now received two letters of commendation from M.I.T.* — I guess they send them out to high school teachers if an incoming freshman nominates them as an influential teacher.)
Furthermore, Certain Peoples are also the chair of their school’s STEM committee!!! An organization whose sole purpose is to remind America’s Youth that a career in the pure sciences is not only necessary, but AWESOME and fun and challenging and important.
Sigh. There’s still no arguing with the man. He just rolls his eyes and says something impenetrable about the uselessness of isolationist policies and necessity of a true global economy (wherein an American manufacturer is perfectly free to hire whatever Chinese, Indians, Mexicans, Canadians, Finns, Germans, or Paraguayans he desires, and the flow of goods and services between humans is unhindered by any political barrier).Then we get all distracted and start shouting at each other about Protestant doctrine and, you know, shit like Joss Whedon’s feminism.
People do not visit our house very often.
*My own personal irony in a situation like this, of course, is that Kevin and I actually met through an ex-boyfriend of mine who was an M.I.T. math major and who has always been a very sore spot in our relationship. It’s one of those stories that I find totally hilarious to tell at parties but he gets all embarrassed about it (I was raised in a family that was totally shameless and matter-of-fact about broken romances, contentious divorces, shot-gun weddings, and the like.) Anyway, so we both just roll our eyes and get on with it.
How much do I love this betch? It’s almost impossible to say:
“here is what i have learned this week. shockingly, so many women, married, with kids, without, men too, boyfriends, girlfriends, so many of you feel trapped in relationships you’re unhappy in. unions you’ve stuck it out years for. YEARS. aside from the piles of comments (which are splendid thank you very much) coming in i have been receiving a gauntlet of emails, truly personal painful emails. long ones that take me ages to get through, like entire afternoons. not all sad, though the ones that stand out most are the sad of course.
but i don’t know what the answer is. for you. i just know that being unhappy for the sake of someone else is probably the stupidest life choice ever. i am not saying that is what i did but from my pedestal it’s easy to be like oh no, that’s what other people do. fall into.
look, i am likely the most annoying insufferable partner you can take on. i will smother the shit out of you. that’s my game plan, basically, and i have to KNOW EVERYTHING. i am super jealous and possessive. lazy. irritating. opinionated. but that’s not the point. the point is i am also fucking wonderful. i am a treasure. endearing. i will give you all of my attention and i will worship you. i make US my world. i do not self-serve. i will distract you from your pain and i will buy you stupid presents you do not need.”
— RaymiTheMinx is SINGLE AGAIN. Ladies and gentlemen of Canada, YOU KNOW WHAT TO DO NEXT. If I weren’t tied down here in L.A. with my own ball and chain, I’d be on a plane in a hot minute to lock that DOWN.
Finally FINALLY got to Guelaguetza for lunch. And you know how I did it???
My boss decided it was time to take the staff out for a meal: he scheduled the day, but when I got in this morning the first thing he asked was “Hey Carrie…can you plan where we’re going to go for lunch today? Poll the staff on their preferences? Make reservations? Arrange transportation? Carry me on a litter?”
And I said “YES this is what I’m good at, DONE DONE DONE.” (I’ve mentioned the LAist foodie gig at LEAST ten times to him but you know how people are. With the internet.)
Anyway, so I was all nervous about taking seven “work-related” people to a restaurant I’ve never been to before, but then we got there and it was totally walking distance and the waitress was understanding and everybody was like “MOLE?? Fried fish? Slow-braised chicken? Fried plantains? Into it!!!!”
And then we came back to work and I put together a hard-core study guide for this test we have to take tomorrow (which I think is going to be a cake-walk but everybody else in the office is FREAKING OUT over).
So basically I am the Queen of the Office and I’m kind of loving it because I am actually really really into my job right now. WEIRD FEELING. Weird. WEIRD.
Is this what adulthood is? Being good at your job? And also telling people where to eat the best Oaxacan cuisine in Los Angeles? Is that what I’m doing? I think I’m ok with this. I think I can go forward from here.
*Oh, also, I’m only saying this because my boss was like “I HAD A MULLET IN THE 80’s and I listen to Rush and Metallica.” I probably don’t have to explain; but we get along real well. REAL well.
Los Angeles County is home to the only official Cambodia Town in the U.S. It’s an interesting glimpse into a culture that doesn’t get a lot of attention in this country.
Sorry, I’m posting this from my phone, and the glare from the sun means I can’t quite tell if this photo is okay.
But I’m listening to the waves, realizing that I’ve never been a fan of the beach, and that such a fact is just plain wrong.
Sun, bit of haze, the water coming in, sliding back. I get it, why people not from here lose their minds over the beach. There is a sense of calm that really can’t be denied, here.
Looking out at the ocean, it’s like Dave Bowman at the end of the movie, his mind blown by the immensity of what he’s seeing.
Okay, done. Thanks for indulging me. Good luck, today! It’s all gonna work out.
