The World Series starts Friday, with the Los Angeles Dodgers taking on the Toronto Blue Jays.
It’s true that one is supposed to root for the underdog, but the underdog, the Canadians, don’t need this the way LA needs this. And they’re not even a real team. They’re Canadian.
It’s been a doozy of a year for La La Land. The fires, the ongoing Hollywood contraction, our hapless, hopeless mayor (and the dearth of any serious challengers in 2026).
That’s to say nothing of the graffiti and the housing market and the homeless. We’re told by the powers that be that things are getting better, but literally no one here thinks things are getting better.
Now, President Donald Trump is threatening to yank the 2028 Olympics from the city, because he’s waging war on California governor Gavin Newsom, and because there are (understandable) fears that we might not pull it off. It’s unclear whether Trump can do that, but that’s not the point. The point is the city is a mess. It makes one sad to recall the opening ceremony of the 1984 Summer Games, which was attended by President Ronald Reagan and featured 84 grand pianos playing George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” and a guy in a jet pack called Rocket Man.
