The Carpenters had a home on Newville Avenue, just a few blocks from Florence Avenue, Highway 5, and the San Gabriel River.

Amazingly, there's a 5-minute video tour of this home on the web. (From 1999, just a year after Richard Carpenter had sold it to a new owner.)

The house appeared on the cover of their 1973 album "Now and Then" (which included "Yesterday Once More," plus a montage of vintage of oldies.) This web page tells the story of that house, including pictures...

Thanks to TV Party for the link...

11:43 PM

Type "Pete Ellis Dodge" into Google, and the first match is...

"Pete Ellis Dodge, Long Beach Freeway, Firestone Exit, Southgate".

It's a comment on a blog post remembering classic TV ad jingles for the L.A. area. Another web page remembers the alternate version...

"Pete Ellis Dodge, 91 Freeway, Lakewood Exit, Bellflower."

But everyone remember Pete Ellis's competitor, Cal Worthington. Blogger "Torrez" reminds us of Cal's ever-changing lineup of pets, linking to the "My Dog Spot" scrapbook. And both pages find a surprising number of people who'd all mis-heard Cal's theme song in exactly the same way.

"It was a commercial whose jingle was set to 'If you're happy and you know it, clap your hands', and for some reason 'go see Cal' always sounded like 'pussy cow'."

12:29 PM

"Bahooka."

My first night in Downey, I'd written that down on a piece of paper. "Bahooka." For some mysterious reason, I'd wanted to remember the word...

"Bahooka."

Five months later, I solved the mystery. Taking Lakewood Boulevard out of Downey, 17 miles north towards Pasadena, you'll see a URL from the highway.

Bahooka.com.

It's a Polynesian restaurant with Tiki art, fish tanks, and Navy souveniers
that's been in Rosemead for nearly 40 years.

1:15 AM