I used to live in the same neighborhood as John Gotti in the 90's. It was the safest place in NYC....trust me on that one. Just don't get them mad at you.

I don't condone the mob (don't get me wrong) but maybe they'll get rid of Crackhead Bob and his drunk cousin! Not that I know anything about it........!!

Have an awesome weekend in your new backyard watering hole. Be sure to take some antibiotics before you go in, okay??

Cancercrip Liz, signing off....yo.

Where there is porn, the mob will follow.

And I love Ray Liotta. Yum. My favorite character he played was Shoeless Joe Jackson in Field of Dreams.

I love that you know about Luca Brasi. I once said that line to a friend and she gave me a blank look. I thought everyone knew that one.

And Liz is so right about safe neighborhoods. When I lived in SF and wanted to go out alone, I would go this bar in North Beach that a lot of ... ahem ... businessmen. Oh yeah. And the other guys who went to Catholic school with them would be there too -- off-duty cops and firefighters. Safest place in town. If you ever make it up this way, I'll have to take you over there.

A little L.A. history: All of the Italians live in the SF Valley. Why? Well, originally the early Italians (as well as everyone else) settled near the L.A. Pueblo (Downtown). The area where China Town is now was a French and Italian area. The very Catholic Cathedral High School is still there, in addition to a few Italian fraternal organizations and the now shuttered Little Joe's restaurant. Just like everyone else, the group moved west from downtown and eventually to the SF Valley....bigger houses, less expensive, more land, better schools. I have found some really great Italian restaurants in the Granada Hills area...check it out, because I am Ellen.

OK. I so need caffeine. The rest of the sentence was "businessmen hung out in."

I once attended a CA State Fair opening (I lived in Sacto. & was dating a guy in the band; it looked like a Goodfella's meeting ifyaknowhatImean. Kinda creepy, really.

Just remember, if you meet any mobsters personally, be very very polite and if you mock them in the blog, do so them very, very respectfully.

Ooo! You have an "erotic thriller" in your ads now! Maybe you'll have Good Vibrations and Stormy Leather next. Would you then need a field trip to San Francisco to investigate?

not to nitpick - but i believe the correct spelling is FUGGITABOUTIT or FUUGEDABOUTIT-lol - Definitely no R's involved

michelle... must be my cracker roots coming out! LOL We drawl an "r" into just about everything. i.e. warshing, arning (ironing), arning (awning), etc.

you keep telling us how you can find *anything* in the valley. now, you're unhappy? what is this, a joke to you? are these people clowns to you?

i'll watch ray liotta work on his tan any day of the week, bay-bee.

Cannoli sounds dirty, is that part of the porn industry?

Where do mobsters put their gun when tanning? Is that a glock in your trunks or are you just happy to see me?
Happy Friday!

So, what kept you up all night? An x-rated Cyrano deBergerac?

Yes, love it! Brilliant! "When Worlds Collide."

Hope the tomato plant makes it.

Man, that Sobakowa looks fierce! The Mob is no match for that cat. You have nothing to fear, as long as you have a good source for cannoli.

Wanna change? Here we don't have earth quakes, tornados etc. No poisonous animals (except one viper and it's not so poisonous either). But we do have russian mafia, one famous porn "star", and 10 months/year the average temp is below 20 C degrees. ;) By the way, I love Ray Liotta, too. And those Portuguese soccer players...

Gotta love that movie when Nicholas Cage was still Nicholas Capolla. And if you are trying to imagine where the mobsters came from, why Rhode Island of course, because they are tired of Newport and Providence.

Hot? That's not hot.

108 at 11 in the morning. That's hot. Welcome to The Great Tectonic Depression of the Sun! AKA Phoenix, AZ. Or Tempe, where I live. And it hasn't even BEGUN to get really hot yet. Last summer it was 116 for three months straight. I think it cools down to a balmy 89 at 4am. That's good times right there.

I am originally from OJAI! Land of the free, home of the brave, born and raised. It cracks me up when my sister bitches about it being 92 degrees. There's nothing like being able to tell it cooled DOWN to 103.

But heat is heat and too much of it is never fun. Maybe I should hit up the mob for a room to rent in The Valley. Maybe they could hook me up with a job. That would be swank. And lucrative. And probably the only way I'll ever be able to afford to move home. 2 Days in The Valley. Great movie.

Time to crank up that AC!

Speaking of swimming with the fishes, isn't it the season finale for The Sopranos on Sunday?

If that's how you work on 3 hours of sleep, I'll take it. You're cracking me up!

Over in the IE, I am not looking forward to the heat anymore than you are. If only there were time for a beach trip. Course the kitties would be wild about the waves I guess.

I think Soba is the Godfather. Godmother? And anyway, her name is Japanese, so would it actually be the Yakuza that she's in charge of?

I watch too much TV. :)

I (heart) Ray Liotta, too. Wasn't he in "Corrina, Corrina" with Whoopi Goldberg? He was muy cute. And I've never had a really good cannoli, either. Maybe that's my excuse to visit NYC? I could lurk at Babbo or whichever restaurant Mario Batali's running now, and feast on the dessert menu. Gnocchi + pesto + wine + cannoli = happy girl. :)

Stay cool, Laurie. Here's some ((((virtual bacon)))) for Roy, and ((((love)))) for the Sobinator!

Oooh, "Valley Girl"!!!

Back when Nicholas Cage was kind of scruffy and WAAAY cuter than now..... *sigh*

Great blog, love your gatos. You go, Purlie!

"the supremely hunkalicious Liotta"

Oh god yes. I would like to lick Ray Liotta. Repeatedly.

You just crack me up! When is your book coming out?

P.S.Italian men are incredibly gorgeous...I suffered severe eyestrain when traveling to Italy.

Say,if you try to kiss that pretty lil' black Soba nose, are you next on the face transplant list? Just wondering.

OK, I'll raise Ellen (ridiculous, because Ellen knows everything about L.A.) and tell you that 50 of the 85 large porn companies are based in the valley and the reason that the valley is home to the Adult Entertainment Industry - well, aside from suburbanites receiving $1000 for one day rental (more if there's a pool), it was really all about the home video camera and being next to Hollywood - amateurs turning into "pros"

Yes, well, those of us in Tucson are thankful for the heat in Phoenix, 'cause it makes us look cool!

Edging toward 110 down here this weekend....

I lived in a very safe neighborhood too for a while. Somewhere there is a picture of me and my sister with the local capo. There was also an unbelievable bakery at the end of our street. I do miss that bakery. They must have had ten different kinds of cannoli. (If you seriously don't know what a cannoli is, it's kinda like a sweet taco wrapped around flavored cream cheese. It's the world's yummiest thing, and only about 6000 WW points per bite.)

I love The Godfather, one of my favorite books of all time! One of my good friends from Hayward, WI (coincidentally a big Mario Puzo fan) tells me that northern WI was a big hotspot for the Chicago mob. Al Capone supposedly had a hide out there. Because even mobsters need to get away from it all and enjoy some deer hunting and fishing sometimes.

You know how it seems that only Bank of Americas are the scene of massive shootouts and robberies, I would bet money the first big mob hit would be at a Trader Joes. Some kind of setup where a Paulie Walnuts type leaves an empty parking space RIGHT in front of the store, until a Fat Tony type pulls in, smiles evily, then gets plugged 46 times. The TV news people would eat it up with bacon grease...

I think overall ray liotta is a handsome man but because of his complexion... I can't help butthinking that his mob name would be Ray "crater face" Liotta.

I AM SO BAD

by the way, you amuse the hell out of me too...

The claim to fame of the town or rather, the hamlet where I grew up is that it was the scene of a big Mafia meeting in 1957. This was in upstate NY in East Nowhere, aka Apalachin. I guess those guys wised up (no pun intended) and followed the sunshine. From cow-tipping to adult entertainment...more money in it, definitely.

Oooooo, Ray Liotta. YUM. He is one of my all-time faves. Gotta give it up for Andy Garcia, though. He's the HOTTEST man. Caliente!

Favorite road sign? You are now leaving Brooklyn. Fuggetaboudit.

Laurie,

Guess what? I was just in LA for a celebratory "graduation from college and other great milestones" vacation. I thought I would like to meet that knitting Laurie! Alas, we were busy trying to survive $112 dollar breakfasts at The Ivy, paying out the ass for parking everywhere (ihop has valet for chrissake) and having one of your MAD drivers back into our rental!

It was lovely! No wonder you love public transportation. Because of your blog I kept praying for no! rain! because I know the city comes to a standstill.

The weather was awesome though! What an experience!

You like how I formatted that comment like a letter? Ha. I am a dork.

I would SO take you over the canoli, Auntie!!!Hilarious as always. Luv ya

i have been lurking on your blog for a while now and must say, i love it! i grew up in the valley and miss it so and love to read all of your stories. thanks for bringing me home every time i read. :)

oh, and your cats are darling!!

WTF? How come my comments keep going to someone else? I want the damn credit for hitting on you!

Perry (aka txdad58)

lol, ok....Doh! NOW I see the name is UNDER the poster...damn it's tough working nights!!! You have the best blog on the net, Laurie. And you're pretty damn cute too....Mr X is a dumbass!

So, they found out about the pointy stick wielding gang over there did they? Shame on you for starting The Knit Mafia! Now you're just going to have to take a knit out on whoever it was who wrapped you out to the Koigu Kops! Those Kops musta dropped a purl of news to the herd of reporters out for any Tit-bit of gossip. Shear boredom has them spinning yarns of hurtful needling and cruel froggings. It might be time to garter up on them and knock them out of the loop.
Fugeddaboutit!

I think Dorothy is partially right. What they heard about was this new group, the Cancercrips. I feel a war coming on.

"Earthquake Weather" Do-huh?

The Mob isn't funny, and is alive and well, I have to tell you. From experience. My maiden name is Giuliano. I was engaged to a charming young upstanding member of society .. who also happened to be the nephew of a lesser Don in the NY-Boston area.

The most unlikely places, huh? So true...

Northern Wisconsin, yes, Al Capone used to hang out up there. Would YOU go to Northern Wisconsin to look for anybody if you were a cop? I don't think I would.

Northern Minnesota, yes, there are some "weighted" human remains in Lake Superior...you'd be surprised who vacations up here!

I used to work at a radio station in Duluth, MN, and had to be absolutely sure to never, EVER say anything disrespectful, not that I ever would, to our businessmen friends in the listening area. It was kinda cool, actually.

The MARY POPPINS GANG is loose in da valley.

Beware.
Fret.
Panic.

I urge caution!

Allllways take the cannoli. I recommend Cavaretta's on Sherman Way in Canoga Park, or (mmm, even better) Nicolosi's in Encino at Ventura and White Oak.

I know about things Italian in the valley because I married into a Sicilian family. But they're not mobbed up. (I don't care how many sharkskin suits they own amongst all of 'em. KIDDING.)

Hey, Northern Wisconsin is very pretty! :-)

(Former Wisconsin native here...) My family used to vacation near where he would go. Pretty cool. I can't imagine him there fishing, cuz that's all we ever did.

I heard a great interview once on KPCC with one of the Earthquake ladies. [There are two women from Caltech/USGS that are regularly featured on TV whenever there's an earthquake. Technonerd types, not LA Babe types.] She said that "Earthquake weather" is an Urban Myth. Recent large earthquakes have mostly been on very hot days, so people think that hot days are earthquake weather. But the older big ones (I think Sylmar, 1970; Long Beach, in the '30s) were on colder days, so people used to talk about earthquake weather as being colder days.

Besides, earthquakes take place way below the earth's surface, where the temperature is always just about the same.

Mmm...Ray Liotta. But I have to agree with whoever it was (sorry) that said Andy Garcia is muy caliente. Si! I heart Andy Garcia! Also, Al Pacino is a total hottie. I never quite figured out why Marlon Brando was awarded the Oscar, when "The Godfather" was Michael Corleone's story all the way. (The movie was, anyway. The book? Oh my, that was everyone's story. Love the book.)

Pävi are you living in Finland by chance? I am in Sweden. :-)

I'll have to second some comments about the mafia. Although I think that what the mafia does and how they go about it is very wrong it probably will clean up the neighborhood so to speak. Maybe those bank robberies and car thefts will go down. The mafia usually doesn't like any crime that they don't know about or are a part of.

And I'll take the Italian American mafia over the Russian mafia anyday. Here in Sweden a lot of crime has come over from the Russian mob. They are brutal and ruthless and have no boundaries at all.

Hmmm, I thought Portland, OR was the porn capitol. I mean, you can't go ten feet without running into boobies here in certain parts of our fair city. It's almost as bad as Starbucks...

Hi, thought you'd like to know that approaching the Verezzano Bridge heading to Staten Island in NY, there is a highway sign that reads, "You are now leaving Brooklyn, Fugettaboutit!" It's true, I swear on my Mother.

HA! I live in SCV over my magic mountain, and it is sooooo freaking hot over here. I'm sure that SFV has mobsters... I mean they have every other freak out there right? Lol, talk about some freaken diversity.

Sobakowa is the boss isn't he? Oh no... now that I know, it's sleeping with the fishes for me...

My brother's best friend is named Angelo Guilotti. I always wondered if he was connected.

Now that I think about it he's tall, thin, dark, handsome, funny, smart, rich, divorced, and lives in Malibu. I might have to do a little match-making here!

Hey, I'm back, fully moved now, living in Denver! It rocks, and apparently, like LA, it never rains here.

No mosquitos!

Chase

Shannon said "you can't go ten feet without running into boobies here"

That sounds just like a bar game I played when I was in college!

Just a brief note to Debby re: earthquake weather.

Debby. Hon'. We don't REALLY believe that there is 'quake weater. That's just something we tell ourselves so that we can live with the constant fear of the earth opening beneath our feet or being crushed by a falling building at any moment.

Those living here know the drill. When it's hot someone says in dire tones that "its earthquake weather" And then someone else pipes up with "Nope. Santa Ana's need to blow for 6 days and 27 mintues followed by an abrupt shift of ocean current that drops the air temp by at least 20 degrees. Nope. Not gonna be an earthquake today." Then we all go about our day happy in the illusion (delusion?) that we are safe for one more day.

See how it works?

Ah... Ray Liotta.

I need a moment.