There’s a point to this all, so bear with me.  It’s not about a favorite food, though it may seem so on the surface.
 
The tale does begin though with what has become a favorite food.  It’s known as “Nashville hot chicken” and has become very popular in Los Angeles, and apparently has been spreading through other parts of the country.  It began back in 1936 when Thornton Prince opened the BBQ Hot Chicken Shack (in Nashville, of course…), which later changed its name Prince’s Hot Chicken Shack in the 1980s.
 
I became a big fan of the food five years ago when Kim Prince (great-great niece of the original) opened her wonderful Hotville Chicken in South Central Los Angeles.  The inveterate Chris Dunn -- who introduced me to the place -- and I began frequent lunches there, and I wrote about Hotville four years ago here, if you want to know more about the place and its history.  Though that’s not the point here.
 
As great as their food is -- and it is great, in fact a “Best of L.A.” award--recipient from Los Angeles Magazine and making the Los Angeles Times 101 Best Restaurants list -- the owner/chef Kim Prince is even better.  She’d visit with the customers, and Chris and I have always loved our conversations with her, not a perfunctory "How's it going, how was your meal?," but stopping to talk, sitting down sometimes ​for 10-15 minutes. Full of kindness, not just for her customers, but her community, but even (actually) for her competitors.  She wants everyone to succeed, and puts actions to her words, a dynamo going out through the city relentlessly.  But that’s not the point here either – though it gets closer to it.
 
Because of COVID and the restaurant’s difficult location (though one Kim insisted on because of the community), Hotville Chicken unfortunately had to close down.  However, she teamed up with another pillar of the community, Greg Dulan of the legendary L.A. spot, Dulan’s Soul Food on Crenshaw – and the two created a successful food truck, Dulanville, which has relentlessly (of course) traveled throughout the city for the past several years.  And no, that too is not the point, but we’re getting close.
 
The point (and finally, we’re there…) is that last week, Kim Prince and Greg Dulan were on Jimmy Kimmel Live!  The reason is that he’s been featuring local chefs who have shown up in wildfire zones to feed people in need – and Kim and Greg, being who they are, are among those.
 
But it’s even more impressive than that.  To put it in perspective, when I sent an email to the Hotville account about how nice it was to see her on Kimmel’s show, she wrote back the following note, the details of which blew me away.  Though (being who she is), I wasn't surprised at that.  She wrote –

​​Here’s the video of their appearance on the show –
​

On this week’s Naked Lunch podcast, hosts Phil Rosenthal and David Wild have a special episode where they take listeners’ calls to discuss the recent wildfires in Los Angeles -- among them, check-ins from Brad Paisley and David's wife Fran Wild. They also write that “To learn more about building community through food and ‘Somebody Feed the People’ visit the Philanthropy page…” here at philrosenthalworld.com.

Every once in a while, you make one of those revelatory "light bulb moments," when the bulb goes on over your head and something comes to you that you're surprised hasn't occurred to you before.  It was big realization about the wrong-headed slams by the MAGOP at how Democrats supposedly mishandle fire management, which they then use to justify the unjustifiable -- their reprehensible claim that they may not provide emergency aid to California during a catastrophic disaster without any "strings".  Or perhaps not give any aid at all.
 
Putting it aside for the moment that Democrats do not mishandle fire management, and no MAGOP has really explained how they do (other than Trump suggesting that they use brooms to sweep up debris…) -- even if someone on the extreme right chooses not to believe that fire management is mishandled and instead blindly (and wrongly) insists (wrongly) that Democrats in California really do screw up fire management, and that’s why the state shouldn’t get emergency aid --
 
-- there's the very-simple, basic, near-impossible to not understand reality that anyone should be able to grasp: 

The forest that surrounds Altadena where one of the major wildfires has been burning out of control is…Angeles National Forest.  Which, of course, is..."national"! It’s controlled by the federal government, and so California has absolutely zero to do with managing it.  As for the other major fire in Pacific Palisades, that is surrounded by two separate forests.  One of them is Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area…which again, is…(yes, you've figured it out by now) national.  The other forest is state – Topanga State Park -- but (okay, are you ready?)…it’s actually part of the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area!!!

Which, y'know, is again -- national.
 
Don't believe it?  Well, okay, here's a screenshot from the National Park Service website, with information about its properties.  You can't miss it -- there's "National Park Service" at the top, and "Topanga State Park" at the bottom.  And you can read about it here.

​In fact, there's even a page on the National Park Service website devoted to Fire Management in the Santa Monica Mountains Recreation Area.  Rather then type it in second-hand, I figure it's best to see it direct --

​(Moreover, back in 2012, Congressman Brad Sherman, who represents the district that the SMMNRA is in, got federal funds that helped restore sections of the park's popular Backbone Trail.  So, yes to reiterate -- those were federal funds, not state.)​

In other words, almost all the current wildfire damage in Los Angeles forests has been on federal land.  Some parts are overseen by state management, but all is controlled by the federal government.  Yes, of course, there have been wildfires in state forests and state parks in California over the years.  But these major wildfires -- right now -- here in Los Angeles, these forests are federal.

I will anticipate your question:  “So, why is no one else mentioning this??!”  The answer is – I don’t have the slightest idea.  Is it possible that the state of California is involved with some of the forest management?  Absolutely possible, if not likely, though only on state grounds.  But not on national forest land -- and it's the national forest and national recreation area that overwhelmingly have predominated in these two most-major and devastating wildfires.  Perhaps there is some coordination that overlaps -- I don't know.  But I do know that the only forestland around Pasadena is Angeles National Forest.  And that all the forestland around Pacific Palisades is under the oversight of the National Park Service with the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area.

So, why has this seemingly gone unmentioned, as far as I can tell?  At times, this is one of my burdens in life…  Who knows?  Having worked years ago for Will Rogers State Historic Park helps grasp the fact, but that’s no explanation why it's been largely overlooked.  But overlooked or not -- it's reality.

The only guess I can make is that most officials and reporters are focusing on the immediate hell of the forests and homes burning, and they hear “Topanga” and "Pasadena and Altadena" and it’s all in Los Angeles, so that just viscerally says local -- and their other focus is the repugnant, but serious threats of MAGOPS in the White House and Congress to withhold aid, so they’re dealing with resolving that.  And while dealing with these critical issues, they can't see (no pun intended, but oh, does it fit) the forest for the trees.

But it's still the reality.

It might be an inconvenient reality for those on the right tied to trying to screw people in the midst of a catastrophic disaster who (whatever their party affiliation) live in a state that votes Democratic.  But it's reality nonetheless.

I believe this is where some people might insert "What would Jesus do?" so that the faux-religious right can understand it in their language.

It would be so cool to know what changes does the Great Swami suggests, since I am certain he doesn’t have the slightest clue of all the detailed planning that is truly done in the state.  Being Tuberville, maybe he thinks that California should cut down all the trees here and install Astroturf in the forests.
 
Still, Mr. Tuberville is welcome to the Hurricane Helene emergency relief that California helped pay for – and pay more for than any other state.  Which, in fact, it pays more for than any other state for all disaster aid, all the time.  In fact, contributing more in federal taxes than it gets back, so that all the states that underpay (like, say, Alabama) can use for their disaster relief.

And all MAGOPs in Congress know this.  Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) knows it.  But that didn't stop the faux-wannabe religious leader from saying with his veneer of devout emotion, when asked about emergency aid to California, "I think there should be conditions."  (No word yet if this is what Jesus would do.  Though if anyone does knows, it could be the self-proclaimed Moses, Mike Johnson, as he directs the people trying to escape Pharoah into the fire.)  By the way, when Louisiana screwed up building its levees, I might have liked to have said there should be conditions on emergency aid to them after Hurricane Katrina drowned New Orleans, but...well, I didn't because I'm not cruel and heartless, nor a religious hypocrite about my fellow citizens when in catastrophic need.

That’s just four MAGOPs (including Trump) out of all the self-righteous MAGOP officials they represent spewing intentional cruelty and ignorance – while the wildfires are still burning, and millions of people remain at risk.  Because that's who've all seen the MAGOP is today.  Splitting families. Denying healthcare.  Caging children.  Banning books, banning the teaching of Black history, banning drag shows.  It's just business as usual.  And it’s all the more pathetic for their inhumane vindictiveness not only being directed at the tens of millions of people (most who don't even live in the area) simply because the majority of the state votes in a way these MAGOP officials don't like, but also ignoring there are over 10 million people in their own party here -- and ignoring, too, that everyone in the state is a part of the same whole, taking on the same burdens of helping and rebuilding (because that's how states and community work) and suffering the same.  To refute every MAGOP lie, misinformation, ignorance, disinformation and conspiracy theory would be like playing the world's most hellish game of Whack-a-mole.  ​

I’m not suggesting all the country would rise up in outrage – it won’t.  But 5-10% (or 25%) recognizing how totally unacceptable this would be to Americans whose lives and communities have been destroyed, seeing it all on TV endlessly for a week – I don’t think that is unreasonable to consider.  I don’t think Trump can come away from withholding funds unscathed.  That doesn’t mean he still won’t do it, only that even he might get pushed enough to act, but if he doesn’t, if he withholds federal funding,  or starts layering on "strings" and "conditions," I think he’ll pay a price.
 
In fact, for all I know, if Trump does nothing, despite Dr. Sen. Barrabasso’s contention of "ultimate" aid that comes with all his "strings" (along with Coach Tuberville's "changes" and the Very Rev. Mike Johnson's "conditions"), most members of Congress might even ignore them and vote to put together an aid package because, as much as they follow Trump, they aren’t Trump and know that their own states might well face far-less emergencies at some point and need assistance.  And this is a national disaster.
 
Though maybe not as much as what used to be the Republican Party.

Well, it’s been quite a couple of days, so far.  On that first night, I was getting a lot of calls, emails and texts from relatives back in Chicago, watching news of the Los Angeles fires, and asking if I was all right and how close it was and if I was going to evacuate.
 
I much appreciated their concern – and completely understood:  the continual video on the news was horrific, and the fire came closer to me than any in all my time in Los Angeles.  Maybe 5-6 miles.  But although it was close, I wasn’t in any danger, which I would explain.  (The toughest question asked was “Do you have somewhere to evacuate to??!” – because I didn't want to frighten them further since most of my friends are on the Westside, and even closer to the fire zone than me.  I was offering my guest room to them.)
 
I did have my electricity go out for 15 hours, but compared to what else was going on in fire areas almost doesn’t qualify as much more than a temporary inconvenience.
 
But of course, what stood out most for me was not just what was sure to be massive devastation, but on a personal note were all of the people I knew in very real danger in the Palisades, or at nearby risk.  I was able to get in touch with one friend whose home was directly in the heart of Pacific Palisades, and his family was able to get out in the afternoon, thankfully.  Another friend lives in northwest Santa Monica (that borders the Palisades) right next to the evacuation zone.  He decided to evacuate and stayed in my guest room.  He safely went back home yesterday.  A third friend was packed and ready to leave as soon as he and his wife got an evacuation notice.  Happily, none came, though they did decide to evacuate to their son's home.  But so very sadly, my friend in Pacific Palisades lost his house.  I can't even imagine the feelings.  Fortunately, he has good coverage and a temporary place to live – but it’s not just the loss of a home and everything in it, but the major disruption to one’s life to have to regroup and start over.
 
Now, multiply that by thousands, and the devastation of all the fire zones – mainly for the Pacific Palisades and Pasadena/Altadena.  With one person, when such a loss happens, agonizing as it is you may have the option of rebuilding and eventually returning to the life and community you had before.  But in the Palisades and wide areas of Pasadena and elsewhere, there's no life to return to, no community, it's gone.  At some point, those villages and communities happily will be built up again. And may even (or likely) flourish with a new vibrance. Growth is the way of the world, a new start.  But it will be starting from scratch.
 
What also was so awful was another loss.  But first, some background.

In my earlier days after graduate school and before I seriously got involved in the film industry, I worked for 3-4 years for the California State Park Service at Will Rogers State Historic Park.  It was a great place – Will Rogers’ home, polo field, equestrian arena and barns, and grounds so wide that they were used as a three-hole golf course (which he put in when an actor friend, Lewis J. Stone, had badly injured his legs in an accident and recuperated there, for which Will Rogers converted the grounds to the golf course as an incentive for Stone to get walking in every day) and extensive forest land.  It was a wonderful job – I learned to twirl a rope and jump in it while spinning (really, honest!) and even considered applying for taking the California Park Ranger test.  Until my father basically said, “You didn’t go to film school and get a Masters degree in screenwriting to become a park ranger.”  He was right.  I loved the park service, but am glad I stuck with my goal.
 
The Rogers ranch house, up a winding road north of Sunset Blvd. in the Palisades, was tremendous.  It was two connected wings, full of historic mementos from his travels and life, cowboy artwork from his renowned friends (notably Charles Russell, who Rogers thought was far more authentic – being a former cowboy, like himself -- to the more famous Frederic Remington), a great library filled with books inscribed to him by his famous friends, letter and more.  I would periodically find hidden material as I wandered through the place, things that were never seen by the public and that probably even the staff didn’t know were there.  I surreptitiously made copies of some of it, and still have it – a book inscribed by Harry Houdini, a book with a magnificent thank you note carefully hand-printed by Helen Keller, a framed letter of thanks stuck in a drawer written by Theodore Roosevelt.  Things like that.
 
(By the way, if you ever see The Will Rogers Story on TCM, it’s not a bad telling of his life.  His son, Will Jr., played his father, with Jane Wyman – Ronald Reagan’s first wife – as Betty Rogers.  And they did a great job creating the house, though they moved some of the furniture around as better for the movie.)
 
And so it was with a rush of deep memories and heartache that learned it too was lost in the fire yesterday.  That was a fear of mine as I followed the news.  And it was awful to have it confirmed. I don’t know how much was destroyed, but it seems that all the buildings were.  I saw a photo of one small structure almost all ashes and a partial shell, and it awful.  If there’s a happy note, it’s this sentence – “State Parks was able to evacuate the horses and some of the cultural and historical artifacts, including artwork, at Will Rogers SHP ahead of the fire.”

I have no idea what the insurance is like on the estate.  While I suppose it's possible that the Park Service will rebuild a re-creation of at least the home and perhaps some of the horse facilities, it's not something I expect.  We'll see.

About 40 years ago, there was a big Palisades fire when I was working at the park -- I was off that day, but drove in to help.  I did what little I was allowed to, like watering the roofs of the home, and took a few photos of the fire.  And happily, the ranch house and buildings were saved, though the grounds and surrounding forest had been overwhelmed.  I went back the next day and took photos of the devastation, following a path I'd taken a year before, that I'd photographed. And then followed the same path six months later to photograph the regrowth.
 
I recall one of my fellow park aides – a girl named Lisa – got upset at me for taking the pictures after the fire, but later one of the Rangers said he was glad I did because it was important to have a record of such things.
 
I can’t touch on the devastation of the current fire that was so much more massive and destructive.  And the great loss to my friends and others.  And so I don’t want to even try – it would be too small and give the wrong impression.  Instead though, with the loss of Will Rogers State Historic Park, I thought I'd end this all by honoring it with some of those photos that I took.  Some before the fire, and those during, the day after and six months later.
 
None of these touch on what’s going on now.  These 28 pictures serve only as my way of honoring this one historic loss, and commemorating all the others.

It starts with photos I took of the ranch house, grounds and forest land of his property around a year before the fire about 40 years ago.

Then, there was that day when I got a call about the fire in the Palisades and foothills, asking if I could come in to the park to help. 

As I got in the car, I saw this looming to the west, where I was headed.  Adding to the impact of it all is that I lived across the street of the Veterans Cemetery in West Los Angeles, and you can see the headstones at the bottom.

The next day, I went back to the park and took photos of the burned-out grounds, and followed the hiking trip I'd taken previously to show the same parkland.  I would imagine that this is much like it so sadly looks today -- but with the ranch house and all the other building and barns gone.

Then, about six months later, I took the same hike yet again to document the regrowth, showing how remarkable nature can be so soon.  Along with the mudslides and work left to do.

Happily, nature can grow back.  So sadly, the same can't be said for man-made structures.  Here is the ranch house yesterday.  That is the fireplace in the living room from the third photo above.

Happily, as noted above, the Park Service saved some of the cultural and historical materials, and artwork.  Their prescience and efforts are honored for protecting at least some of a legacy.

Marjorie Taylor Greene has been on quite the roll the past week.  First, she claimed that “Yes they can the control the weather."  (No, really, she said that,  In fact, she added emphatically to make sure you knew she meant it, “It’s ridiculous for anyone to lie and say it can’t be done” -- even doubling-down afterwards when the derision began pouring in.)  And then the other day, she followed that up by explaining how great raw milk was for you -- and that we should all return to raw milk for a healthy life.
 
By the way, a quick search of the term “raw milk risks” brought up as the very first result an article from the FDA titled “The Dangers of Raw Milk: Unpasteurized Milk Can Pose a Serious Health Risk.”  It quotes statistics from the CDC and notes that “the germs in raw milk can be especially dangerous to people with weakened immune systems (children, older adults, and pregnant women)."  While adding that though most healthy people will recover from harmful germs in raw milk -- some can develop symptoms “that are life-threatening.” 
 
That search took me about eight seconds to find.  Apparently, though, that’s too much of a challenge for Dr. Marjorie Taylor Greene (honorary).
 
In fairness, I didn’t do a search to find out if they could control the weather.  In part, I didn’t do so because I didn’t know who “they” was.  And that made the search too difficult to start, having far too many options to check out.  At first, I did think it meant the Democrats.  That, or New York Mets.  But then I realized it couldn't be them because Democrats are too disorganized, and the Mets are Satan's Team, so they wouldn't want to destroy Florida, which is headquarters.

In part, too, I didn’t check it out because her claim also begs the question:  if “they” can control the weather, why can’t the MAGOP, too?  Indeed, such a profound inability would show how deeply problematic the party’s total disdain of science is!  (Not to mention, it would show Climate Change is real.)  Furthermore, if the MAGOP can control the weather, as well, why then aren’t they doing something to counteract all the disastrous hurricanes being created?  But instead are just sitting and letting all the pain and misery happen.  That would be wildly irresponsible of the MAGOP and make them essentially co-conspirators.
 
So, it seems like the claim by Science Whiz Marjorie Taylor Greene (honorary) is not only much too convoluted to make any sense, but ultimately fully counter-productive to benefit the MAGOP, indeed actually harmful to their best interests.  Which raises the question then:  between this and the whole “raw milk debacle”, is it possible she’s just total flaming idiot?
 
A valid question since we have to add in her claim about Jewish Space Lasers starting the California wildfires.
 
Importantly, though, in remembering that, we are actually able to draw some connections.  That’s because, after posting her claims about how “they” can control the weather, some of her online followers believed they knew who she was talking about.  After all, if Jews are able to start wildfires using space lasers, and since “they” and “those people” have long-historically been used as a more discreet way to describe Jews and hide virulent anti-Semitism, then “they” must surely mean Jewish people, especially if it’s coming from Marjorie Taylor Greene – which explains the rash of anti-Semitic social media attacks on Jews controlling the weather started to crop up.
 
And then it all starts to make sense.  Not just this, no, that's just a small part of the residual dust.  I mean it all explains Marjorie Taylor Greene being such a major critic of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and the Green New Deal.  I always thought that was due to her jealousy over AOC's massive popularity as a new female member of Congress from the same freshman class and being identified by her three initials, which is why Greene soon began referring to herself as "MTG" (honorary).

But no.  Because when it comes to Marjorie Taylor Greene’s wildly ignorant concept of science -- from the health benefits of Salmonella-laden raw milk, a delusional ability to control the weather, and Anti-Semitic Space Lasers starting wildfires -- it’s all a matter of proprietary trademark infringement.  Because it's her birthright.  And importantly, "Greene" has more letters.  And as everyone knows, more letters means you win! 

Hey, it's as good an explanation as anything insane, yet damaging that Marjorie Taylor Greene has come up with.