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Blogistan

Best Lede About Dodgers-Padres Fracas Goes to…

Who is Grey Albright? Well, when you click on an embedded mention of that question at fantasy baseball blog razzball.com, you learn that this prolific LA-based author is using part of the proceeds from an e-book to support his “growing drinking problem.”

This morning, under the headline “That’s Fertilizer!” (a reference to Vin Scully’s instant-(again)-classic, family-friendly relaying of Matt Kemp’s “That’s f***ing bullsh*t!” 6th inning fury), Albright is also the owner of a very funny lede about last night’s bench-clearing brawl at Petco Park. We understand, as one of them, that this is no laughing matter for Dodgers fans. Still, it’s virtually impossible not to smile when reading Albright’s opening sentence:

When one guy in a fight is named after a maximum security prison and the other guy is named after something Velma from Scooby Doo says when startled, who do you think is gonna win?

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Mediabistro Event

Find Out How To Land Your Dream Job

Job Search IntensiveLooking for guidance as you job hunt? Look no further. Join our Job Search Intensive, an interactive online event starting June 11, 2013. Over four weeks, you’ll watch live weekly webcasts featuring HR professionals, career experts, and recruiters who will share best practices for landing interviews and getting hired. Register here.

The G-Rated Parenting Blog Facebook Doesn’t Want You To See*

The Tumblr blog Reasons My Son Is Crying is only 6 days old and already has an enthusiastic following. That’s because the site’s chronicle of the very specific logic behind a toddler’s meltdowns is familiar to anyone who has ever cared for young children, or even used to be one. Reasons My Son Is Crying is finding fans on Reddit and parenting blogs alike.

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Facebook, however, is not laughing. They’ve blocked the website “for being spammy or unsafe” (the blog is neither) and removed all posts that linked to it.

This isn’t the first, or even the hundredth time Facebook has blocked innocuous links and content. In 2011, Facebook briefly took down film critic Roger Ebert‘s page for “violating the terms of service” after a controversial post by the author generated complaints. Facebook soon restored Ebert’s page and said its removal had been a mistake, but declined to explain further.

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Ken Layne Recalls the Enterprise Known as LAExaminer.com

Despite the Church of Scientology across the street, the pit bulls next door and a car that didn’t really work, Ken Layne insists his original home office set-up for LA’s defunct LAExaminer.com was “very pleasant.” That description also applies to his overall reminiscences for The Awl.

Layne says he was prompted to start the site and quickly rope in neighborhood pal Matt Welch by his daily dose of Romenesko. Later on, Richard Riordan would almost turn the blog into a weekly print publication, which would have been super cool:

The style was just the way we talked around endless pitchers at Ye Rustic Inn up the street on Hillhurst, full of moral certainty and outrage and cheap jokes — it’s what is widely practiced and critically dismissed as “snark” today, although we never had any interest in celebrities. The dreary mayor James Hahn and the pompous columnists at the terrible Los Angeles Times were regular topics, as was boosterism about the Lakers, public transportation and the eastside neighborhoods in general. We were reflexively opposed to the bland wealthy valet parking lot of the Westside.

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Hidden LA Sues Los Angeles Magazine Over Borrowed Moniker

Hidden Los Angeles, the popular Facebook page and website dedicated to our town’s lesser-known treasures, has slapped Los Angeles magazine with a trademark infringement lawsuit, reports LA Observed. Hidden LA’s complaint is with the magazine’s February issue and its “Hidden LA” theme, featuring “73 secret spots in the city.” The magazine also ran a Lexus Hidden LA sweepstakes and a private Hidden LA dinner event.

Los Angeles first published a “Hidden LA” themed issue in 2011, prompting Hidden LA founder W. Lynn Garrett to have a sit-down with the mag’s publisher, Mary Meltonleaving Garrett with the impression it wouldn’t happen again. This time around, she decided a sit-down wasn’t enough and filed suit.  ”I am not by nature a litigious person,” Garrett wrote on the Hidden LA facebook page. “I was left with no choice. A legally registered trademark is only as good as your steady enforcement of it.”

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USC Prof to KPCC: You Blew It with Patt Morrison

Carol Muske-Dukes, an author and professor of English-creative writing at USC, takes KPCC 89.3 management to task on The Huffington Post for the way they have recently treated Patt Morrison. The SCPR radio personality and Pulitzer prize winner was shown the studio door in early September after years of weekday, on-air service:

The valedictory eloquence of Morrison’s thoughtful September 7 farewell stood in stark contrast to KPCC management’s close-mouthed handling of their cancellation of the show. There was, by all reports, no announcement or explanation by the station’s administrators until days after Morrison’s show vanished – literally “into thin air.” Then, on the creaky-voiced Larry Mantel show, which had been re-positioned and extended in the wake of the Patt cancellation, there was a brief, vague reference to the termination by president and CEO Bill Davis, who murmured something about a “change.”

Although KPCC has assured that Morrison will continue in the future to contribute to the station, an online petition was launched urging the Southern California Public Radio operation not to cancel Morrison’s program. Muske-Dukes meanwhile called the station to complain, and to vp of content Russ Stanton’s credit, he returned her call.

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None of Christina Aguilera’s BFFs Are Bloggers

There was a memorable industry Q&A today at the W Hotel in Hollywood. The occasion was the Billboard/Hollywood Reporter Film & TV Conference; the interviewee, singer and The Voice judge Christina Aguilera:

“Now everyone is a critic,” she said with a smile, on the subject of the tabloid press and online bloggers. “I don’t read blogs. It’s just God-knows-who in Buttf— wherever writing hate sh–. You can’t take it seriously. I’m sure you’ve all been hated on at some point by Buttf— people.”

Taking Aguilera’s analogy to its logical extreme, FishbowlLA checked out the blogs on the Internet’s two leading platforms that are literally parked at Buttf—. This will probably be only small consolation to Ms. Aguilera, but there is nothing posted at the Blogspot namesake, while WordPress Buttf— is in a foreign language.

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Forbes Adds Another Blog: Letter from L.A.

Under the watchful eye of Lewis Dvorkin, the Forbes blog network has grown to a gargantuan size. Today, yet another flavor has been added, with veteran journalist David Hochman at the helm. It’s called Letter from L.A. Check out today’s clever introductory lede:

On a trip abroad recently, someone asked me to describe Los Angeles. Without hesitating, out came a sentiment I’d always felt but never quite put into words: “It’s an awful place to visit,” I said, “but you’d definitely want to live there.”

Ha ha. Hochman is also opening up item #1 to readers, asking people to chime in via the comments with their three favorite things about the city. He got things rolling by sharing his picks:

1. Sundays on the big lawn at Will Rogers State Park in Pacific Palisades.
2. The latte art “swans” at Urth Cafe.
3. The undying spirit that anything is possible.

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Chuck Philips on Life After the LA Times

Pulitzer Prize winner Chuck Philips recently launched a personal blog called the Chuck Philips Post. Today, he shares the English-language translation of an interview he did last week with Spanish website SwaggaMusic.net.

One particular passage that caught FishbowlLA’s attention is Philips’ answer to the question – ‘In what aspects did your life change after leaving the LA Times:’

“Nobody would return my calls or emails. Nobody would give me the time of day. I lost my job, my hope, my faith. My mutherf*cking mind. Then, after about a year of unemployment, I said f*ck it, and decided to spend my savings on completing Big’s murder investigation. I solved it in 2009. Late in 2010, the money ran out.”

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Forbes Duo Ponder the $6 Billion LA NFL Question

For anyone running a professional sports league, this sure sounds like a good reason to take way longer than necessary to help the nation’s second biggest market reclaim a team (or two).

The observation comes courtesy of brand new Forbes contributors Henry DeVries and Tom Searcy. DeVries is assistant dean of continuing education at UCSD ; Searcy, a sales strategy expert based in Indianapolis. Together, they have also co-authored the upcoming book How to Close a Deal Like Warren Buffett: Lessons from the World’s Greatest Dealmaker. They write:

Since the NFL made an end run out of Southern California, 28 of the league’s 32 franchises have built new stadiums or renovated old ones at a total cost of $10 billion. Taxpayers covered $6 billion of that total… The threat of moving a franchise has gotten taxpayers to pay 60 percent of the tab for new and renovated stadiums in the last 18 years.

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WeHo News Editor Thanks Dorothy Lucey for Letting Him Keep Mascot*

We should all be so lucky as to get the kind of attention Dorothy Lucey has with her first blog item. Her recollection of a Good Day LA exec’s harsh personal put-down was quickly picked up last night by LA Observed and expanded upon today by our sister site TV Spy.

Some of the blog comments rolling in are equally noteworthy. Here for example is the feedback from WeHo News editor Ryan Gierach:

Personally, I must credit you (and GDLA) with giving me the greatest gift of my life. On an October morning four years ago, you were on air petting the dog that my husband Marcus Fant and I had picked from a picture on the Net the morning before as part of your daily adoption feature. We had already named him WeHo (yes, after our city and in honor of his mascot status for my newspaper, WeHo News).

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