Salmon

Cherie Mercer Twohy If you can't fit a spa day into your hectic schedule, consider a spa lunch hour at Favorite Place in Glendale. Its relaxation magic begins before you enter. The building's exterior is enhanced with trompe l'oeil garlands, hinting at the ambience within. Open the door onto a bower of flowers, chintz and charm. Carefully mismatched chairs invite you to sink in and relax. Tables are laid with cloth napkins and fresh flowers and strewn with silk flower petals.

'Twelfth Dog Night' opens Thursday at Falcon Theatre The Falcon Theatre invites comic anarchy to take the stage Thursday when the Troubadour Theatre Company opens its "Twelfth Dog Night," a madcap combination of Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night" and the rock 'n' roll of the '70s pop band 3 Dog Night. Songs such as "Joy to the World," "One is the Loneliest Number," and "Just an Old Fashioned Love Song," help tell the tale of Shakespeare's star-crossed lovers and their entourage of comic buffoons.

One of the newest restaurants in Montrose, Portobello’s takes the space once occupied by Havana Beach. The new owners removed the booths and redecorated sparingly with dark wood tables, stone-tile floors and posters of turn-of-the-last-century Italian liquor ads framed on the mustard-hued walls. In spite of paper place mats, it is a more formal restaurant. Pizzas ($8 to 10), like the pizza alla Siciliana, can have roasted eggplant, baked ricotta and garlic, and are topped with mozzarella basil sauce.

The Chris Hopkins exhibit at the Forest Lawn Museum in Glendale is both an homage to our native roots and a silent indictment of the cultural genocide our European forefathers visited upon indigenous peoples. Hopkins’ beautifully detailed oils offer portraits of tribal elders and historical snapshots of tribal communities up the northwest coast of America that reveal the everyday lives and spiritual journeys of native cultural heritage. The first large oil, titled “Columbia River Bounty,” shows a scene at Celilo Falls on the Columbia River of native men “dip net fishing,” a custom still employed today.

Bill Scollon Students of history, hearing the name Tallyrand, may think of the 18th century French diplomat Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand. But if you're a Burbank resident, you think of the Tallyrand Restaurant, part of our local history since 1959. No offense to Charles, but the restaurant has nothing to do with him. The founders picked the name simply because they liked the sound of it. And the rest, as they say, is history. Tallyrand offers good, diner-style American food at reasonable prices.

The year was 1946. The first of the baby boomers was born. The first computer was unveiled. The Flamingo casino opened in Las Vegas and Bob Hope and Bing Crosby were part of the opening night celebration at The Smoke House in Burbank. The venerable restaurant has been serving stars and moguls, tourists and locals ever since. They're celebrating their 60th anniversary the entire month of October. Smoke House prices are decidedly modern, but everything else is pure nostalgia.

SUN VALLEY — On paper, the boys' basketball playoff matchup between Bellarmine-Jefferson High and Village Christian had the makings of a classic blowout. The Crusaders came into Wednesday's CIF Southern Section Division V-AA first round game not only as the No. 2 seed, but they had lost just two games all season and had won 22 of their last 23. In contrast, the Guards had to receive an at-large berth into the postseason and came in losers of five of their last seven games. But in the first half, Bell-Jeff took advantage of Village Christian turnovers and gave the Crusaders all they could handle.

So, a horse walks into a bar and the bartender says "Why the long face?" The first time I heard that joke it made me chuckle. For days later it put a smile on my face when I thought about it. Because of the genius of its simplicity, combined with its offbeat sensibility, it has become one of my favorite jokes of all time. I am having a similar reaction to my experience at Arbuckle's Bistro in Burbank. Arbuckle's is the restaurant attached to the recently opened "Flappers Comedy Club" and sports a clean and clever 1920s/Prohibition-era theme.

It's no secret the Flappers Comedy Club is nearing its opening date of Sept. 11. The 1920s-inspired marquee is up and turning quite a few heads on the corner of Magnolia Boulevard and First Street, according to partners of the new dining and comedy performance venue. "The signage is so large, people think we own the whole block," quipped Barbara Holliday, co-partner of the venture with Dave Reinitz. "It feels perfect. People are driving by commenting that we look old school — like we've been here forever.

AS IF YOU ASKED What's the secret to marriage? Every once in a while, some foolhardy soul drawn to our house by screaming voices and the sound of crockery exploding on the walls will ask me to share our secret. OK, that's not true. I've never been asked. But just as the name of this column promises, I'm going to answer the question as if you asked. I should quickly note there probably isn't anyone who has ever heard my wife and I doing battle, intermittently shouting at the top of our lungs as we gulp down the remnants of a martini shaker, and occasionally hurling vases and picture frames across the room.