Dear Media Bistro LA chicks:

Couldn't help but cringe as one of you snarked at the Los Angeles Times' decision to deem their year-end Opinion section special, "Polishing the Big Orange," an invitation for essayists and reporters (full disclosure: I'll be one, inshallah) to ponder about how to make Los Angeles a better town. Yes, to call LA the Big Orange sounds stupid, especially since the real Orange County really is big, but know your history, gals! Back in the 1970s and 1980s, the term was a nickname sometimes used for Los Angeles, popularized mostly through the tongue-in-cheek efforts of legendary Times columnist Jack Smith. I don't have my copy of his essay collection, The Big Orange, in front of me, but I'm sure Smith used the term as an ironic vis-a-vis to New York's Big Apple moniker. For the Times to resurrect such an antiquated (30 years--ha!) term, then, is homage, hyper-localism--and a monkey wrench into young bloggers whose sense of LA identity makers go back to Mark the Cobrasnake.

Love,

Gustavo

PS: Gracias for the summertime defense from that dolt Gurza!

PSS: Luke, ol' buddy--Change your post, pronto.