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As heard on July 22 - July 26, 2002 on Talk of the City
Monday, July 22
Wet/Dry Cleaning
Its called perchloroethylene or perc for short. We may not know its name, but if youve ever dry cleaned your clothes, youve used it.
Kitty takes a look at the proposal to phase out the use of perc in dry cleaning and the adoption of other technology in its wake. Will the phase
out eliminate the health threat? And, how will local dry cleaners survive? Kitty asks these questions and more of guests Scott Bell, Director of the
California Cleaners Association, Jill Whynot, Planning and Rules Manager for the
Air Quality Management District (AQMD), and Peter Sinsheimer,
Director of the Pollution Prevention Education and Research Center Urban and Environmental Institute at Occidental College
An Opera about Griffith Park?
Kitty speaks with Simon Leung and Michael Webster, the writer and the composer of a new opera-film collaboration called Proposal for The
Side of the Mountain, which is on exhibit
at the new Santa Monica Museum of Art. It is opera, sculpture, a stage set, a work of architecture and a proposal for a longer project.
Side of the mountain refers to an area within Griffith Park that provides the backdrop for the
intertwining stories of three men and a lost dog. Proposal for The Side of the Mountain is at the
Santa Monica Museum of Art located at 2525 Michigan Ave (Bergamont Station) through August 30, 2002.
Tuesday, July 23
Foster Care Series: Emancipation
Each year, 2,300 California kids ²age outÓ of foster care. At eighteen they are expected to fend for themselves financially,
academically and socially. Well take a look at the unique and terrifying issues facing emancipated youth in Southern
California and the very few programs available to assist them.
Guests include:
Jorja Prover, Professor of social welfare at UCLA who specializes in emancipation issues
Michael Olinik, the division chief for emancipation services at the Department of Children and Family Services. He is currently
putting together a new plan for transition with the county
Risa Bejarano who was emancipated last month in LA and received a United Friends of the Children scholarship to go
to college next year
Gail Parker-Tate, an Independent Living Program coordinator for the Department of Children and Family Services in LA county
Jennifer Muldoon who was emancipated from the foster care system in Orange county five weeks ago on June 13th
Ann Kilgore, a continuing services supervisor at the Orangewood Childrens Foundation (private) in Orange County
Venus Manuel, Miss LA County, an emancipated foster youth. Her platform is to advocate for improvements in foster
care transition systems
For information about mentoring foster youth, call Bill Gay with county emancipation services at 626-938-1609. Other emancipation questions
in Los Angeles can be directed to Independent Living Program at 310-312-7924, ask for ²duty workerÓ. To contact Orangewood
Childrens Foundation, call 714-636-4781.
Donovan & The 60s Folk Rock Revolution
Donovan is one of more than a hundred folk-rock musicians that Richie Unterberger interviewed for his book, Turn!
Turn! Turn! The 60s folk rock revolution, focusing on the rock-folk innovators of 64 to ‰66 - think Dylan, the Byrds, the Mamas
and the Papas, Peter, Paul and Mary AND Donovan who joins Kitty in studio along with the author. Donovan will be performing
and Richie Unterberger will be reading and signing at Book Soup in Hollywood at 8pm tonight. Book Soup is
located at 8818 Sunset Boulevard. For more information, call 310-659-3110.
Wednesday, July 24
Sacramento Update with Dan Walters
Kitty talks with Sacramento Bee columnist, Dan Walters about the latest news in Sacramento - Davis signed the ‰greenhouse gas bill making
California the first state to regulate vehicle exhausts linked to global warming and Gubernatorial candidate Bill Simon finally unveiled his tax returns,
granting only limited access.
California Beach Report Cards
Heal the Bay produces beach report cards for all California beaches on a yearly and a weekly basis (the weekly ones are printed in the LA Times).
But what exactly do the ratings mean? Should you at all costs avoid a beach that has gets an ²FÓ? And how can one beach get a bad grade when
the adjoining beach gets great marks? Kitty gets the inside information on which beach to spend your weekend at with James Alamillo, the
Heal the Bay representative who has put together the beach report cards for the last 10 years.
Organic Gardening
In contrast to the gardener last week on Talk of the City who recommended round-up to kill those perennial weeds, today Kitty
speaks with an organic gardener who recommends other, friendlier methods for caring for your garden. Nick Federoff, host of the radio shows
"Nick Federoff on Gardening" and the "Things Green Garden Minute" joins Kitty to answer all your organic gardening questions. For all your organic
gardening needs, visit AdrenalineRadio. Nick will be at this weekends home show
at the Pasadena Center at 300 E. Green Street in Pasadena. For more information on the show, call (818) 557-2950.
Nick Federoffs Tips to Organic Gardening:
1) Keep disease free and your plants too! At the first sight of powdery mildew on your roses, spray your plants with a simple solution of 3 tbsp.
baking soda to one gallon of water. Or, wash the plant off early in the morning before the dew has a chance to dry.
2) Aphids are a garden's worst nightmare. These soft-bodied insects breathe through their bodies, which means if you put 1/2 cup liquid dish
soap to five gallons of water and mix thoroughly and then splash on infested plants, the solution will dry and the soap scum will clog their breathing apparatuses.
3) Your thumb and forefinger are used for more than for hitchhiking and clearing breathing apparatuses. When put together in a pinching manner,
pick off larger insects, toss them in a bag, and then dispose of them. For those that are on the squeamish side, an electric dust buster vacuum
will slurp the insects up without you having to touch any.
4) Good bugs versus bad bugs: Lady bird beetles, a.k.a. ladybugs, make a perfect addition to landscapes and vegetable gardens. Purchased at your
local nursery, release these little buggers early in the morning. Though they seem harmless, these are voracious insects that will devour a menagerie
of harmful pests found in your yard. Keep them around by spraying pheromones on your plants.
5) Composting: Make your own compost by collecting leaves and shrubbery clippings. Pile in a corner of a yard. Occasionally water and mix.
As the material breaks down, use it with your plantings and as a mulch to suppress weeds and slow down evapotranspiration.
6) Weeds: Control weeds in your yard the old-fashioned way by pulling and cutting. (Or, you can tell the old guy down the street that your weeds are
an aphrodisiac and they will be gone in the morning - just kidding!) As mentioned before, adding a layer of mulch shades the soil surface and will suppress weeds.
7) Garlic, vinegar and onion complement many meals. However, when used in equal parts of three tablespoons per quart of water, many insects will be warded off.
8) Ants in your pants! Another place they seem to bother you! Sprinkle dry instant grits liberally among anthills. The ants will harvest the grits, take them into
their living quarters, and feast on the grits. The grits will swell in their bodies and kill them off. It's gruesome and ugly, but it's an organic-like method.
9) Control snails with mayonnaise jar lids filled with inexpensive beer. The little critters are attracted to the yeast in the beer. They drink it, get drunk, fall off
the lid, and break their necks. (Just kidding! They actually drown.)
10) Nicks final suggestion for organic gardening: Dont use chemicals. Period.
Also - if your zuchini are growing out of control, you could always try Kitty's zuchini cake recipe. It's definitely not lo-cal....
Kitty's Zuchini Cake recipe
2 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup cocoa (unsweetened)
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
3/4 cup butter
2 cups sugar
3 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
2 tsp grated orange peel
2 cups grated zuchini
1 cup chopped nuts
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour bundt pan.
Mix dry ingredients together and set aside
Cream butter with sugar. Add eggs, one at a time. Add vanilla, orange peel, and zuchini. Add half the dry ingredients, then the milk, then the rest of the
dry ingredients. Add nuts. Pour into bundt pan. Bake one hour.
Yum!
Thursday, July 25
The Line Between Work and Pleasure
When you take work home from the office, do you charge that time in? Do you consider reading the paper leisure time or something for
work? If you do ²workÓ at home, can you then rationalize doing your bills and booking your flights while youre on the clock? Kitty opens
the phones to get your definition of the line between work and pleasure. Call in at 866-893-KPCC (5722).
The Seven Deadly Sins: An Overview
Pride, envy, gluttony, lust, anger, greed and sloth - Beginning next Thursday, Talk of the City will tackle each one of the seven deadly sins.
Today we begin with a primer on the sins - how they all made the list, which is considered the worst, and the stories and myths surrounding
each. Then beginning next Thursday, and continuing for the next seven Thursdays, Kitty takes a creative and unexpected look at each
sin. Joining Kitty today to kick off the series is the Director of the center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies at UCLA, Andy Kelly.
Kelly is both a theologian and historian with an expertise in the devil.
Friday, July 26
ER solution-will you pay more property tax?
Supervisor Zev Yaroslovsky defends his new plan which he hopes to place on the November ballot to create a $175 million parcel tax
earmarked for county emergency rooms and trauma centers.
Is Internet Convergence Dead?
The recent demise of uber-agent Mike Ovitzs latest media venture would seem to underscore the death of the much-touted ²convergenceÓ
concept of media conglomoration. It seemed to make perfect sense-- in a segment aired on a 1999 Talk of the City we discussed the future
of technology that would see the merging of web and television into a single integrated system. Media corporations shaped their strategies
for multimedia convergence. With internet use continuing to rise and as personal devices proliferate, shouldnt personalized entertainment
be the next logical step? Guests included: Melanie Galuten Williams, an interactive media consultant who taught convergence at UCLA;
Stephanie Henning, a former agent at ICM specializing in internet and convergence, now at Universal Music Groups E-lab; and Gail Williams,
Director of Communities at Salon.com. Williams runs arguably Salons most famous online community, The Well.
The Watts Prophets
The original wordsmiths - Father Made Hamilton, Otis OSolomon and Richard Anthony Dedaeux - collectively known as the Watts
Prophets join Kitty for a preview of their show tonight at the California Plaza. The group is one of many acts that make up this summers
Grand Performances concerts at the Plaza. Also joining Kitty is the executive and artistic director of Grand Performances,
Michael Alexander.
The Watts Prophets perform tonight at 8pm as part of the Grand Performances
series at the California Plaza, 300-350 South Grand Avenue. The concerts are free. For more information on
the series, call 213-687-2159 or visit Grand Performances.
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