Sarah Palin was in town last month, meeting with an editor over a coming book.  A meeting took place in a quiet corner of the La Jolla Living Room and went off without a hitch.

2 A.M. outside Honey Bee Hive: Guy sits alone at an outdoor table, laptop on tabletop, websurfing and drinking from a beer can, obviously working in a time zone all his own.

3 A. M. at Mystic Mocha: Guy sits outside the coffeehouse with a guitar, picking a 12-string. Said he prefers the place when it’s closed and that it’s great for thinking up new music. No word on what the neighbors think.

Old Guard at Brickyard cloud up the courtyard with cig smoke and negativity some mornings, bellyaching about the economy, Obama, creeping socialism and everything else. One nondescript regular regularly takes down their words for a screenplay he's working on. Turns out he needs dialogue for the "loony fringe" characters in his story.

Misspelled at Bread &Cie.; a literate observer noticed that a sign for pecan tarts was misspelledA at the famed bakery, and complained to the clerk. She asked if it mattered. He replied, "Only if you don’t want to seem like an illiterate moron.” The sign was corrected at once.

Rebecca’s was the site of a reunion of coffeehouse patrons from the famed Quel Fromage coffeehouse which existed in Hillcrest between 1978 and 1996. There seems to be a growing group of former patrons of the much-loved coffeehouse who got connected via Facebook. One of that who attended the reunion did so via laptop; the electronic attendee was in Japan at the time. Man, did we all love the Quel...

It was her birthday. He showed up with flowers, some little gifts, a box of her fave chocolates and something in his pocket. She took the gifts graciously and smiled at him like a woman who likes the man she’s smiling at. When he had enough of that, he gave her the little box from his pocket and whispered something in her ear. She widened her eyes, took a deep breath and wept as she slipped the ring on her finger. Then she ate the chocolate at 976.

A man sat outside Caffé Calabria one morning, quietly reciting verses from his Koran. At the other end of the outdoor tables sat a man with a notebook and a New Testament.  Fortunately, no one was hurt.

Older Than Dirt Man at The Other Side lip synched to Betty Boop’s recording of  “I Wanna be Loved By You” very early one morning. So surreal was this episode that YT had to go off to Caffé Calabria for coffee.

Murphy’s Law at Bassam’s: On her day off, Mary Grace came in to fill in an unexpected absence. She didn’t change before she arrived and showed up in a gossamer silk blouse. Someone hoped she wouldn’t stain it with coffee and she didn’t—she accidentally spritzed some cherry syrup on it instead, about thirty seconds later.

Guy goes to Java Jones, orders a capp and sits down to watch the eye candy traipse by. Sees a woman, follows her with his eyes onto another one, then a third until he’s mesmerized by the passing pageantry. Does not notice that his date has returned from the bathroom, unamused, with tight lips, pulsing, gritted jawbone and clenched fist and all. Some guys are just born that way.