Betty White & Slash vs. Lisa Simpson, et al.

It's a crap premise for a piece of fiction, but, in reality, it works ...

Golden Girl Betty White and Guns N' Roses rocker Slash team up to battle a veritable army of fellow celebrities on behalf of Billy the Elephant at the Los Angeles Zoo.

Weird, but true.

In the battle over whether to keep the elephant at the zoo, or to place him in a sanctuary, it's Betty White and Slash vs. Kim Basinger, Susan Sarandon, James Franco, Brendan Fraser, Alicia Silverstone, James Cromwell, Willie Nelson, Lily Tomlin, Bob Barker, Ed Begly, Jr., Bill Maher, Cher, Madeleine Stowe, Goldie Hawn, Bea Arthur, Tippi Hendren, Lisa Simpson ...

Lisa Simpson?

That's what it says at HelpBilly.org.

Lisa Simpson.

— TJ Sullivan in LA


* Cross posted at LA Observed.

Peacocks Run Amok in Affluent LA Suburb

Here are today's links to my posts at NBC:

- Peacocks run amok in La Cañada Flintridge ...

- Strawberries up, cream down ...

- Does Two-Buck Chuck have to end ...








— TJ Sullivan in LA

Billy the Elephant is Billboard Bound

Here are today's links to my posts at NBC:

- Newsstands selling out inaugural issues ...

- Billy the elephant is billboard bound ...

- New city north of LA still in the works ...









— TJ Sullivan in LA

Slash ... The Hat Has Got To Go

Here are today's links to my posts at NBC:

- Slash speaks for elephant, but, about that hat ...

- Ex LA SWAT cop a comfort-food cook ...

- LA Angels of Anaheim keep the preposition ...









— TJ Sullivan in LA

The Case of the Mysterious Fire Truck

As I was researching one of my posts this morning at NBC, I couldn't help but speculate on where this story might go from here.

The Setup: Rangers find an unlicensed, unregistered fire truck parked in the desert darkness at the edge of Joshua Tree National Park and among its occupants are three living people, including a hitchhiker, as well as a dead owl, an elk's head, and a baby skunk.

The details appeared this morning at the bottom of A-1 in the San Bernardino County Sun [see inset], which said the vehicle was destined for the Burning Man festival in Nevada, a ridiculous notion to say the least considering that Burning Man doesn't start until Aug. 31.

The whole thing bumped my brain to the start of David Lynch's film Blue Velvet, in which a button-down college kid played by Kyle MacLachlan discovers a severed human ear in a field and, upon realizing that the cops couldn't care less about what was obviously the heinous act of a monster, sets off on an investigation of his own that leads to the seedy underbelly of this seemingly faultless American town.

The late Hunter S. Thompson, I expect, would have sent the fire truck on a savage journey to the heart of the American dream.

In Denis Johnson's hands, I imagine, the animals might have entered the truck alive and intact, only to expire in some strange sleep-related accident.

Of course, wherever Lynch might take it would surely be interesting.

But me? ... I'm still thinking, but it'll probably involve a journey to the desert outpost of broadcaster Art Bell in Pahrump, Nevada.

— TJ Sullivan in LA