Happy Sunday.
Here are a few stories you missed in the California Sun over the last week.
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Sun sampler
1
A serpentine section of the California Aqueduct in Palmdale.
California Department of Water Resources
Scientists ran the numbers on what would happen if California placed solar panels atop the state’s 4,000 miles of water canals. The results: It would save 63 billion gallons of water from evaporating each year, while providing 13 gigawatts of renewable power annually, about half of the new capacity the state needs to meet its decarbonization goals by the year 2030. Supporters are calling the idea a no-brainer. WIRED | Gizmodo
2
France Doiron, 95, and his wife, Roberta, 92, have been married for 72 years. Before the pandemic, France visited the Chula Vista nursing facility where Roberta lives so often that staff members sometimes thought he lived there, too. Then they were separated for an entire year, visiting only by FaceTime. Both vaccinated, they finally reunited on Tuesday, hugging and holding hands. Caregivers looked on with tears in their eyes. S.D. Union-Tribune
3
Laguna Beach on March 17.
“Ooh! That was so good!”
The bioluminescence is back. In recent days, beachgoers along the Orange County coast have reported sightings of the glowing aqua-colored waves caused by phytoplankton that glow when agitated. The resurgence comes nearly a year after an especially vibrant bloom sparked nightly watching parties, a joyful respite as the state plunged into its first lockdown. LAist | KABC
The photographer Mark Girardeau caught some good video in Laguna Beach last week. 👉 YouTube
4
Finds inside Jensen Karp’s box of Cinnamon Toast Crunch.
Jensen Karp
Jensen Karp, a 41-year-old comedian and writer in Los Angeles, was filling a morning bowl of Cinnamon Toast Crunch on Monday when, he said, “something plopped out of the box. I picked it up, and I was like, ‘This is clearly a shrimp tail.’” So began a stomach-turning saga that played out on Twitter and was chronicled by the N.Y. Times, which reported this startling fact: “This is not General Mills’ first shrimp rodeo.”
5
Photo: Olema House
Olema House, pictured above, is the best hotel in all of America. That’s according to a 2020 analysis of thousands of reader reviews by Condé Nast Traveler. The hotel got high marks from guests for its accommodations and seasonal food. But it also held a unique advantage over the competition: gorgeous views from its perch at the edge of the Point Reyes national seashore.
6
The colorful tufts of nylon, suspended like wisps of smoke along the Point Reyes coast, appear to result from digital trickery. But look closely and you can spy tiny supports holding them aloft in the wind. The artist Thomas Jackson spent his pandemic year experimenting with the real and the imagined along the Northern California coast. See a few of his works below, and more here: @thomasjackson415
(Also take a behind-the-scenes peek at his process.)
“Tulle no. 8, Point Reyes National Seashore, California, 2020”
Thomas Jackson
“Tulle no. 23, Point Reyes National Seashore, California, 2020”
Thomas Jackson
“Tulle No. 5, Point Reyes National Seashore, California, 2019”
Thomas Jackson
Today I learned
7
The Los Angeles Times masthead from a 1909 edition included a pronunciation guide.
For part of the 20th century, a common pronunciation of Los Angeles used a hard G, as in “dangle” or “sangria.”
Various pronunciations of the city had been competing for prominence since its founding in 1781. In the early 1900s, the Los Angeles Times felt so strongly about the correctness of a Spanish pronunciation that it included a daily reminder under its masthead: “Pronounced Loce-AHNG hayl-ais.”
But as Midwesterners poured into California, the historian D.J. Waldie told LAist, “they had no patience trying to twist their tongues” around Spanish sounds. Pronunciations along the lines of “Loss-AN-guh-lus” and “Loss-AN-guh-leez” entered the parlance.
In 1934, the U.S. Board on Geographic Names sought to settle the matter with a decree affirming an Anglicized “Loss AN-ju-less.” Mortified, the Times predicted the East Coast bureaucrats would next declare that San Joaquin should become “San JOK-kin.”
But the newspaper was fighting a losing battle. In 1952, Mayor Fletcher Bowron impaneled a jury of local experts to decide the city’s official pronunciation, once and for all. “Loss An-ju-less” won the day.
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Hear Los Angeles Mayor Sam Yorty call it “Loss-AN-guh-lus” in 1968. YouTube
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