Across the Pond

L. A. is a city of contradictions. Anything goes, every opinion and every fashion. There is room for SUVs which seem more like trucks than cars and for little hybrids with environmentalists behind the wheel; for beach barbies, hippies, and old style ladies; for Frank Gery's Disney Concert Hall and for Richard Meier's Getty Center.   Disney Conc ert Hall (Photo: Carol M. Highsmith) Getty Center (Photo: Forrestn) Diversity in all its forms is what I love about L.A. as a whole. And yet - on a smaller scale I do look for integrity, a trait I sorely missed during our recent visit to the California Science Center. The museum features an educational and appealing exhibit on ecosystems  which includes a section on garbage in L.A.* The exhibitors point out how avoiding the production of trash in the first place is the best thing we can do to begin to tackle the environmental problem. So far so good, but the Science Center also features a McDonald's outlet where, a...

California Science Center, main entrance One of the things that make life in L.A. full of surprises is that we often stumble upon scenes and vistas which seem familiar from movies, TV shows, commercials. I had one such aha-moment after a recent visit to the California Science Center. One of its older buildings doubles as the (fictitious) Jeffersonian Institute which is located in Washington, D.C., in the TV series Bones. Here it is, albeit in the background and blurry: Rose garden and Jeffersonian Institute