Did You Know - Los Angeles, CA Street Names Edition

10 Streets Named After People in Los Angeles

2. L. Ron Hubbard Way
Is there a more disliked figure to have an L.A. street named after him than L. Ron Hubbard, the science fiction author and founder of the Church of Scientology? 

The single-block street in East Hollywood, site of the church's headquarters, was named for Hubbard in 1996. According to the L.A. Times, City Council president John Ferraro backed the move, as did the vast majority of people who showed up to give public comment. Councilwoman Ruth Galanter was among the three no votes, saying at the time: "I believe that L. Ron Hubbard was a manipulative [and] dishonest [man]. ... He's a cult leader. We don't name streets after cult leaders."

Councilman Richard Alatorre defended Hubbard, who'd been dead for a decade: "I'm not here to try and fight or to try and defend or condemn any one person. ... The fact of the matter is, this is the leader of this church that has been a long-standing member of the community. They are involved in positive work — they have a lot of members."

And Councilman Richard Alarcon said: "We have, literally, thousands and thousands of streets named for people, most of whom I have no idea who they are."

4. Hoover Street

A number of U.S. presidents have streets in L.A. named after them — Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Lincoln and so on. But Herbert Hoover is not one of them. Rather, Hoover Street is named for Dr. Leonce Huber, "a Swiss who served as a French military surgeon under Napoleon Bonaparte," according to the L.A. Times, which reported:

After arriving in Los Angeles in 1849 with his wife and three children, he changed the spelling of his name from Huber to Hoover and became a pioneering vintner, growing high-quality wine grapes near what is now the town of Cudahy. Hoover died in 1862; 30 years later, Hoover Street was named in his honor.

7. Astronaut Ellison S. Onizuka Street 

But there is an even littler street with an even longer name. This half-block diagonal thing, running southeast from First Street in Little Tokyo, was named after Ellison Onizuka. Yes, he was an astronaut — the first Asian-American in space, killed aboard the Challenger explosion in 1986. A year later, the city decided to rename Weller Street after Onizuka, who, like Kosciuszko, never lived in L.A.

Tiny streets honoring better-known celebs include Chick Hearn Court, the two-block street on which Staples Center sits, and Johnnie Cochran Vista, the 2½ blocks on which Johnnie Cochran Middle School sits.

Complete list (LAWeekly.com)

This Is Why Car Meets Suck Now

Learning To Survive A Different Kind Of Car Meet

As an outsider looking in, this set up that brings out the flaws. If you don’t have a group to go with and instead try to wing it alone, you’re going to be disappointed. These meets are as much a social courtroom as was the high school prom or the first day of class. If you’re in, it’s great; if you’re out, you’re left alone. Instead of one guy in a lawn chair hoping for someone to ask him about his car’s “legacy” and assortment of awards, you get clusters of people with inside jokes making plans for the after-meet meet. 

(Jalopnik.com)

I Just Want To Drive This

Michael Schumacher's Mercedes 560SL Was a Hammer on Wheels

​One of three built by the original AMG.​

Michael Schumacher may never have arranged a hostile takeover himself, but his name is still enshrined in the ownership papers of this this incredible AMG-breathed sledgehammer, transformed from slightly squishy boulevardier to something with more attitude and menace than a sleep-deprived Gerry Wiegert during a cocaine binge. In days gone by, he would have blown past the huddled masses with the 330 horsepower from the 6.0-liter V8, which AMG also shared with the hallowed 300E "Hammer." He would have enjoyed the stealth of the deep, dark blue. (Color-matched wheels? Certainly. Color-matched wood trim, with matching shift knob? The jury is still deliberating.) And, while driving for Mercedes-Sauber well into the 1990s, he would have specced this grandest of grand tourers out himself—no holds barred, delivered right from the factory. Then he would have gone off into the night to terrorize some autobahn dawdlers. 

Hard to believe, but in 1986, the house at Affalterbach built just three SLs. Safely ensconced in the Mercedes-Benz line, AMG produces hi-po machinery nowadays, of course—faster and more powerful machinery but perhaps rarely as dramatic as this. Meticulously restored by a former AMG engineer, it has since received a limited-slip differential, color-matching factory hardtop, a rear bench seat, a steering wheel from an E55 AMG, complete with airbag—and, of course, the requisite 6.0 badging.

It can be yours for a mere 295,000 Euros, or around $336,000 USD, or a huge tick under the price of a fully-loaded, twin-turbo V12 S65 AMG Coupe, which also features an engine that is 6.0 liters in size, but lacks both the required 1980s-ness and the celeb-chasing status of this ur-AMG. That's a shame. Because this may just well be the ultimate Mercedes SL: simultaneously understated and ostentatious, during an era that prized the Mercedes-Benz star as the pinnacle of success. Check it out at Classic Driver.

 

(Road&Track.com)

Here's A Unicorn

There's a One-Mile Lamborghini Diablo For Sale in Montreal for $500,000 

Just a half a million dollars for this as-low-as-you-can-possibly-get-mileage 1999 Lamborghini Diablo SV.​ 

Montreal just upped the ante, and lowered the mileage: Witness a 1999 Lamborghini Diablo SV on offer for $500,000, with less than two miles on the odometer.

Listed by Lamborghini Montreal, this late-model, facelifted Diablo might be the lowest-mileage example in the world, with just 1.8 km on the clock. "Car has never been driven," the listing states, and with an odometer that's basically all zeroes, it's not an overstatement.

Of course, we sort of have to take the dealer's word on this—there's no clear photo of the digital odometer turned on. Or maybe, like Italian cars of old whose speedometers didn't indicate anything below about 40 mph, the odometer just doesn't light up for such paltry numbers.

(Road&Track.com)

This Is Exactly Why

Why U.S. Car Enthusiasts Love the Nissan Skyline

​"We always want what we can't have."

In the case of the Nissan Skyline, there are a number of reasons, but perhaps, its "forbidden fruit" appeal is the greatest reason of all.

"The [Toyota] Supra, back in the day, you could go to the dealer and purchase one. You could never purchase a Nissan Skyline."

(Road&Track.com)

There Are No Other Options When GTR Is Life

(CarThrottle.com)

Cause We're Brothers, Identical Twins As You Can Suby

(CarThrottle.com)

Where's Carmen San Diego When You Need Her?

An updated look at the most elusive memorabilia in sports 

Original World Cup

• Perhaps no trophy in international team sports is more coveted than the prize that is awarded every four years to the winner of soccer’s World Cup. The original Jules Rimet Trophy was presented to every champion between 1930 and ‘70 with the first team to win three World Cups taking permanent possession of the trophy. Brazil did just that in 1970, and placed the Rimet Trophy in a bulletproof case at the headquarters of the Brazilian Football Confederation in Rio de Janeiro. Permanence, however, lasted only 13 years. In 1983, four thieves broke into the confederation offices, beat up a guard, broke into the trophy case and made off with the prize. The four men were later apprehended and convicted, but the Jules Rimet Trophy has never been found. It likely was melted down for its valuable metals.

First issue of The Ring magazine

• The International Boxing Hall of Fame in Canastota, N.Y., has a complete collection of Ring issues but private copies of the original magazine in good condition are extremely hard to find. It has been estimated a good first edition of The Ring could fetch more than $500.  Legendary promoter Tex Rickard is on the original cover along Lord Lonsdale, a patron of the sweet science in Great Britain.

Baseball's most elusive score sheet

• According to baseball collector Peter J. Nash’s “Hauls of Shame” newsletter, the missing score sheet is No. 1 among baseball’s most wanted missing treasures. The sheet belonged to the New York Public Library’s A.G. Spalding Baseball Collection but has not been seen since 1973. When John Thorn went looking for the sheet in ‘88 he realized that pages of the manuscript were missing.  Nash wrote, “Under close examination, it appeared that the score sheets were removed from the Knickerbocker Game Book with a sharp object.”

First football helmet

• The helmet worn by Navy’s Joe Reeves in 1893 is quite a prize, according to College Football Hall of Fame curator Kent Stephens. In an era when all players went bareheaded, legend has it a Navy team doctor warned Reeves that a kick to his head could result in “instant insanity or death.” Suitably alarmed, Reeves had a shoemaker create what is believed to be football’s first helmet. Later in life, Reeves became better known for integrating aircraft carriers into the U.S. Navy’s fleet.

Ed Thorp Trophy

• Yes, that’s Ed Thorp, not Jim Thorpe. Ed Thorp was a referee, rules aficionado and a supplier of NFL equipment in the league’s early days. When Thorp died in 1934 a large trophy was made in his honor to be given annually to the champion of the National Football League. As with hockey’s Stanley Cup, the Thorp Trophy would have the year’s champion inscribed on it and be passed around from year to year. But where is the original trophy? Although there are several duplicates, some speculate the Green Bay Packers took possession of the original Thorp after winning back-to-back NFL titles in 1961-62 and again in ’65. Another theory is that the Minnesota Vikings, the ‘69 NFL champ in the final season before the NFL-AFL merger, somehow misplaced the trophy. This has led to talk of Ed Thorp’s ghost condemning the Vikings to Super Bowl misery. Minnesota is 0-4 in Super Bowls and has not appeared in the big game for 40 years. 

Vintage basketball equipment

• Any items associated with the first NCAA tournament in 1939 or the very first NBA game between the New York Knicks and Toronto Huskies on Nov. 1, 1946, carry high interest. Matt Zeysing, curator of the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame, says although the Hall does not have any Knicks or Huskies jerseys from that 1946-47 season, it would not surprise him if private collectors have gotten a hold of a few. And any basketballs or uniforms used in the first NCAA tournament in Evanston, Ill., certainly would draw interest from collectors, curators and historians of the game.

NFL’s first championship trophy

• The very first season of the National Football League was a bit of a free-for-all. In 1920 teams played different schedules, from as few as one game (the Muncie Flyers) to as many as 13 (the Decatur Staleys—later the Chicago Bears—and the Canton Bulldogs). It wasn’t until the following spring that league officials declared the 8-0-3 Akron Pros to be the ’20 champs over the 10-1-2 Staleys and the 9-1-1 Buffalo All-Americans. Akron featured Fritz Pollard, the first black quarterback and coach in professional football. Pollard and his teammates were awarded with a handsome cup made by Brunswick-Balke-Collender, a sporting goods manufacturer in Cincinnati. But within three years the Pros had become the Akron Indians, and by 1927 Akron was out of the National Football League. The Brunswick-Balke-Collender Cup? No one knows its whereabouts. Unlike the Ed Thorp Trophy and the Dauvray Cup, there are no known photos of what was described as a silver loving cup. Brunswick-Balke Collender truly is pro football’s Holy Grail.

Complete list (SI.com)

 

 

Yes, It Is

(BroBible.com)

Did You Know - Whiskey Edition

What How You Take Your Whiskey Says About You

On Ice: You’re drinking with a purpose. The ice is just enough to cut the burn a little bit, but you still want some of the hurt. Adding ice makes it go down just smooth enough that you can drink until life isn’t bothering you anymore. This is the type of drinking for home or sitting at a dive bar at an inappropriate hour. Seeing someone drinking a whiskey on ice lets you know they’re appreciating the booze for its painful nature, and ability to take the edge off. If you see another man drinking whiskey on the rocks, its bro code to do a shot with him. This is drinking whiskey like a real, pissed off and bothered man.

Complete list (BroBible.com)

R.I.P. - Mrs. Barone

Actress Doris Roberts of ‘Everybody Loves Raymond’ Dies at Age 90

Veteran actress Doris Roberts has died at age 90, The Wrap and other entertainment sites were reporting Monday.

Perhaps best known for her role as Marie Barone on “Everybody Loves Raymond,” Roberts earned five Emmy Awards.

A representative for the actress confirmed Roberts' death to Hollywood entertainment news website The Wrap.

(KTLA.com)

 

What The 1% Need To Really Know About The 99%

19 Working Class People Share What They Wish The Upper Class Could Understand

1. That when you say you’re broke you really are. They always think you must have some money. I find my middle class friends and family will always assume I can come out for a meal or to socialise when I tell them I’m out of cash. I guess middle class people always have some savings and aren’t checking the back of the sofa for loose change.

3. Knowing that falling sick and losing a weeks’ pay would cause financial burden that would take weeks, if not months to recover from.

That is fear.

5. The feeling of the check engine light coming on and knowing that the repairs will likely cost more than you have to your name.

17. Things that are necessary, that you pay extra money for? They pay for those things in time. You paid extra for a car to drive to work. It takes you say, 20 mins to get there, 20 mins back. They pay 5 bucks a day to take the bus, which takes them an hour to travel the same distance, and an hour back. Not counting the time they spend just waiting for the bus.

So, every month, assuming they are lucky enough to work full time, they spend $100 and lose 40 hours to transportation alone. That is an entire extra week of work per month to just get to work.

19. Telling someone to work hard, doesn’t mean they can escape their situation. There are cleaners on minimum wage that work harder, and longer, than 99% of the population, but they’re still on minimum wage, so can barely cover the rent.

Complete list (CavemanCircus.com)

Exactly

(CavemanCircus.com)