Liquor Store

BURBANK — Jack Cross leans over a sucrose-clogged counter and casually reveals his business philosophy — soda, candy and fun. Just three weeks after successfully landing Rocket Fizz Burbank at 2112 W. Magnolia Blvd., many are singing his praises, perhaps to the tune of Paul Anka’s “Diana,” which played on loop inside the converted liquor store. Cross, who opened the shop with Luke Jacobellis, said the temple to high-fructose corn syrup — a veritable storeroom filled with hundreds of bottled sodas and recollection-inducing treats — is as much an ode to 1950s and ’60s pop culture.

A short film shot from a script she wrote will be featured on the Showtime cable network in less than a month, and yet Suzanne Knode hesitates to call herself a filmmaker. But on her first try, Knode wrote a script that was made into an 11-minute film, which will be featured on Showtime's new series "This American Life" and is being shown at a film festival in Southern California. At 64, Knode had never written anything creative — not dialogue, scene settings or any of the things needed to make a screen play — but she did know something about being an older woman.

L ast Wednesday evening the Midnight Ridazz came through town. I happened to be out for a stroll around 11:30 p.m. and was just rounding the bend at the "Stalin Statue" when they passed by heading west down Burbank Boulevard. It looked like a happy bunch of perhaps 30 or so people of assorted ages and inclinations out for a bicycle ride, exuberantly exercising, socializing and harmlessly taking in what our city had to offer. I saw a little piece about the loosely knit organization on the news a few years ago and immediately thought to myself, "Hey, these must be the guys I saw on television — how cool, they really exist!"

High water cost is unexplainable OK, you wanted to hear more from the community, so here goes my two cents' worth on an issue I have tried every angle to get some satisfaction over for years. It upsets me to no avail to constantly get high water bills. And yet, when I call the department of water and power, I get absolutely no satisfaction, just a lot of excuses and runaround that leave me still dissatisfied and having to pay astronomical water bills.

Just when you think it's over, it's back in the news again. I am referring, of course, to the controversial three-strikes litigation that was approved in 1995. This is the story or Cornel Ray Joshua, a paranoid schizophrenic who shoplifted $62 worth of alcohol and was sentenced to 25 years to life in state prison for his crime. That's what the three strikes law brings us. Joshua is just the latest to be caught up in the three-strikes controversy. In this case, a three-judge panel of the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals voted 2 to 1 in favor of sustaining the sentence in Joshua's case.

Council must go, and not a moment too soon The City Council has, over the past year, proved itself to be thoughtless, random, incoherent in its decisions and blatantly without concern for the citizens it claims to represent. We can look from one decision to the next to find glowing examples of their growing ineptitude. From the decision to allow a liquor store in a residential neighborhood, despite the petition with 500 signatures from the residents, to the unreasonable passing of the noise ordinance in the hills after dozens of people spoke out against it. Let us not forget the Home Depot debacle.

People don't even want an airport Regarding your question, "Do you think Bob Hope Airport will be able to sustain the growth in passenger volume?" Are you people really and truly serious asking a question like this? What makes you think the voters in this city want an airport, or that the City Council members want one? Where have you been for the past 20 years? They don't want an airport. DOT MEYER Burbank Meters may lead to new shopping area So the City Council wants to go the parking meter route again ("Parking plan advances," Feb. 4)

By now, even smokers know that cigarettes are toxic, addictive and just plain evil. How far city governments should go in telling people when and where they can smoke is, however, a cloudier issue — a balancing act between freedom of choice and public welfare that now also threatens the privacy rights of Burbank condo and apartment dwellers. A recently adopted extension of the 2007 Secondhand Smoke Ordinance that all but eliminated tobacco use throughout downtown Burbank will, as of May 2011, outlaw smoking on many private patios and balconies.

BURBANK — NBC executives and their late-night comedy loyalists aren’t the only ones eager for the television return of Jay Leno. With all eyes on the peacock network and Leno’s move to the prime-time television slot as of Sept. 14, owners of businesses mere blocks from where the reigning king of late night taped “The Tonight Show” said they hope his return revitalizes the area and — by extension — sales. At Choza Mama, where the tang of Peruvian cuisine whips through the kitchen and into an encased eating area, owner Ian Linares said he’s seen a noticeable thinning in foot traffic since “The Tonight Show” stopped taping across the street in May. “I can’t speak for all of the businesses in the area, but I think I can say we all miss Jay Leno,” said Linares, who opened his doors five years ago. “We were all a part of the show, from those who made lunch deliveries to the places highlighted on TV. NBC was a really big supporter of ours.

AS IF YOU ASKED Burbank to the left of me, Burbank to the right. OK, I live in the middle of the city, so seeing it at every turn is hardly astonishing. But the last few weeks have seen Burbank popping up all over. It started when the city was promoted in a recent edition of the magazine "Entertainment Weekly." But this wasn't just any routine mention, with the city as the backdrop for an interview or studio meeting. In every edition, EW staffer Jessica Shaw provides a brief list of current fads, recently expired fads, and sadly dated fads.