Trump Yields To Pressure, Will Release "2nd Angle", Mythical View of "Zamensky's Fall"

With demonstrators across the nation chanting "Show it Now", President-elect Donald J. Trump has agreed to release the nearly mythical movie "2nd Angle", a stunning - and different view- of the classic American film "Zamensky's Fall'. 

Rumors have persisted for years that a second camera caught the infamous slip by Douglas Zamensky which was made into a feature film loved the world over. But, few have ever claimed to see it and millions -perhaps billions -  thought it was pure urban legend.

Until now. 

Like the original, the movie tells the story of Doug, a young white man from Idaho whose attempt to make it big in Los Angeles is thwarted by the intense needs of the staff at an Italian restaurant and by the equally demanding needs of Rollin 60s Crips who constantly rob him

Doug wisely decides to move to Orange Country and becomes the general manager of Pizzeria Mozza, Newport Beach. It is here, in the restaurant's parking lot, the movie's most famous scene occurs.

Thursday, in an attempt to united the country, Trump announced he would play "Zamensky's Fall" at his inauguration in January.    This led to the protests - allegedly organized by former Zamensky associate Chelsea  Olmstead - to also release "2nd Angle".

Trump, the the astonishment of most, agreed with the protesters. 

"Every time Don watches Doug fall, he laughs," said Kellyanne Conway, Trump's campaign manager. "And, boy, do we need some laughs now." 

The original movie, "Zamensky's Fall" can be seen in Thursday's article here - . http://www.krikorianwrites.com/blog/2016/11/9/zamenskys-fall-to-be-played-at-trump-inauguration

"Zamensky's Fall" To Be Played at Trump Inauguration

Speaking with a gravitas rarely heard, President-elect Donald J. Trump announced Wednesday that the classic American comedy "Zamensky's Fall" will be played repeatedly during his inauguration in January in hopes of bringing "tears of joy to an anxious nation."

The announcement was meet with universal bi-partisan support, 

"This is a game changer," said a Beirut-based CIA agent who spoke on condition of anonymity.   "The 'Fall' brings people together, I don't care if you're a Republican or Democrat. A homo, a lesbo or a straighto. A Sunni or a Shiite. A Giants fan or a Dodgers fan. A Sine Qua Non drinker or an Olde English guzzler. Everybody loves Zamensky's Fall.."

MGM announced they would remaster the film to 70mm glory and add a "director's cut' in which the film's star. Douglas Zamensky would narrate.

The movie tells the story of Doug, a young white man from Idaho whose attempt to make it big in Los Angeles is constantly thwarted by the demanding needs of the staff at an Italian restaurant and - to a lesser extent - by the demanding needs of some Rollin 60s Crips who constantly rob him

Doug wisely decides to move to Orange Country and becomes the general manager of Pizzeria Mozza, Newport Beach. It is here, in the restaurant's parking lot, the the famous "fall' occurs   

The film  - also known as "The Grand Fall of Douglas Zamensky" been shown in over 80 countries including France ("Le Grand Chute de Douglas Zamensky") and Uganda (Kuanaguka luu a Douglas Zamensky") is being shown currently at the Cinerama Dome in Hollywood. 

In 2015, the black and white film catapulted past "The Big Lebowski", "It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World" and "Young Frankenstein" to move in to 2nd place behind long-time champion "Some Like It Hot."

Stunning $25 Raspberry Chino Farms Popsicle Is Awarded 5 Nods From Nancy Silverton, But Banned From World Competition

An hour after arriving Sunday at Chino Farms for a "Mozza at Home" book signing, "Fumin' Fred" Chino brought out a raspberry popsicle like he was carrying letters of transit out of Casablanca.  

He guardedly looked around, then, in a swift movement  handed it to me. I took a lick and a bite and passed it on. Nancy started licking. She nodded. And nodded, Licked more. And nodded. Sucked. And nodded. And -after a long, slow suck - she gave up the fifth, - and imperial nod. Nancy had given out her highest - and rarest  - rating. Five Nods 

That rave review eased some - though not all - of the sting out of the bombshell, election eve news Monday evening from Switzerland that the Chino Farms popsicle had been banned from the upcoming World Ice Pop Championships in Geneva. Judges ruled it had the unfair advantage of using more than five baskets of Chino Farms raspberries for a single ice pop and that the cost - reportedly 25 bucks a pop - was not doable for most of the planet's population..

Fumin Fred Chino was typical.

"They can go fuck themselves," Fumin Fred said.  "I'd rather have five nods from Nancy than some stupid world championship."

The Great Escape, The Seventh Game of the World Series Comes Through

The Great Escape. That is major league baseball at its best and it came through, however fleeting, last night.

There were ten or so glorious minutes when the world seemed right. That stretch of time when Cleveland tied it up and the rains came and all that mattered was this baseball game between the Indians and the Cubs.

For that exciting, innocent moment, all of the world’s horrible problems vanished.  There was no thoughts of Aleppo, of my Uncle Harry’s cancer, of the bizarre presidential election, of that nail in my right rear tire.  

All I thought about was baseball. I wish the game was still going on. I wish it was in the 57th inning. 

Shady Lady, Sqirl Chef Jessica Kowlow's Unsavory "First Toast"

(Editor's Note - The following article is reprinted (without permission) from pages 178-181 of the best-selling cookbook "Everything I Want to Eat Sqirl and the New California Cooking" by Jessica Kowlow)

If you are among the devotees of Jessica Koslow—and her intense dose of Los Angeles known as Sqirl—then you know “The Line.”

If you are not, then be informed that “The Line” is what you will get in when you come to Sqirl. It’s not merely a waiting line. It is Act One of the Sqirl experience. Sqirl without the line, well, it just wouldn’t be as good. Then again, Sqirl without the line is not going to happen.

Customers talk to other customers in that line. They share their latest personal stories. They gossip. They might talk about Jonathan Gold’s latest review or who has been nominated from town for the James Beard Awards. There’ll be Laker and Dodger talk, most recently dominated by the farewell games of Vin Scully. They might even talk politics. Recently, someone in The Line made fun of that independent presidential candidate who didn't know Aleppo by saying "What's Sgirl?". 

But, what they don’t talk about is the criminal past of Jessica Koslow. They don’t talk about that because no one except Jessica, her parents, the judge, the district attorney’s office, and her victims even knew about it.

Until now.

So, folks in “The Line,” here’s a li’l somethin’ to talk about next time you head to Virgil Avenue and Marathon Street for some Moro blood orange with vanilla bean marmalade.

Jessica’s first years on Earth—in Long Beach, California—were crime-free. It was when she moved on to the exclusive Chadwick School in Palos Verdes that the trouble began.

Dr. Jayme Darling, professor of juvenile criminal behavioral studies at Stanford University, said that the transition from a working-class neighborhood such as Long Beach to an affluent community, such as Palos Verdes is often a grueling change for a child.

“A kid like Jessica from the rough and tumble streets of Long Beach suddenly transported to an elite school in Palos Verdes, well, it’s no surprise she started getting into trouble,” Darling said. “Here’s a tough street kid who is accustomed to throwing—and taking—a punch, and now she’s around spoiled kids who are scared shitless by a mere threat.”

A spokesperson for Sqirl, Sara Storrie, declined to comment on Dr. Darling’s theory other than to say, “The Stanford lady professor is generalizing, and at Sqirl that’s not a good thing.”

Regardless, according to the court records and verified by a former vice principal at Chadwick, Koslow punched a boy in the nose in the fifth grade after she misunderstood something he had said.

The following is a school report on the incident:

A boy [name redacted] was making fun of a girl’s bra and said, “Michelle’s bra is stupid.” Jessica Koslow, without any warning, punched him on the nose, causing mild bleeding. Later, Koslow said she thought the boy had said “Michel Bras is stupid.” It was later confirmed that Michel Bras is a renowned French chef with a legendary restaurant in the town of Laguiole, France, and a hero of Koslow’s. When this was confirmed, authorities, knowing Laguiole is famous for its knives, obtained a search warrant and found twenty-nine very sharp steak knives in Jessica’s underwear drawer. Counseling was ordered. 

But the incident that put Koslow in handcuffs happened when she was in the tenth grade. A twelfth grade boy, whose name is protected by the Child Victims Act of 2002, was, according to several eyewitnesses, bullying a group of ninthand tenth-graders. Right before he would push, kick, or punch them, he yelled out, in a very pronounced, exaggerated fashion “I, I, I am going to harm you!”

Observing this, and about to peel a Moro blood orange, was Jessica. As the bully repeated his threat, yelling out the second “I”—with his mouth wide open—Koslow fired the blood orange his way.

Now this blood orange must’ve been guided by the left arm of Sandy Koufax as it went directly into the boy’s agape mouth. It was thrown with such force that not only did it enter the mouth; it lodged in the soft palate. The boy immediately began choking.

As the students looked on in a mix of horror and celebration, Koslow calmly walked over and kicked the boy in the back of his neck. This is where the controversy ensued. As a result of the kick, the boy hurled the blood orange and was able to breathe.

However, the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office, after a thorough review, said the kick “was not designed to help the boy, but rather to inflict great bodily injury.” (A full report can be seen at www.LACITY.ORG/KOSLOWKICK/ CHADWICK.)

After a brief trial, Koslow was sent to the infamous Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall in Downey. It was here, in one of America’s most notorious juvenile facilities, that Jessica Koslow’s career began.

A brief introduction to the facility is in order. Unlike, say, at San Quentin or Folsom, the cells here had windows. They were barred and tiny. A human could not crawl through but still they were windows. It just so happened that Koslow’s windows were near a fruit orchard where trees were weighed down with Meyer lemons and Moro blood oranges. There were also exceedingly tall brambles—from neglect— with blackberries and raspberries.

One night, as she read Crime and Punishment on her threadbare cot, a lone Meyer lemon and a branch of blackberries blew into her cell on a summer breeze. As she was immersed in the anguish of Rodion Raskolnikov, she absentmindedly grabbed the fruit and, with all her fury, squeezed. A few minutes later—that book always does this to Jessica, to this day— she was asleep.

In the morning, the jail guard abruptly opened her cell door and slid in the daily prison-style “breakfast” of bread and water. As she sat up in that measly cot, she noticed the smashed fruit—the Meyer lemon and blackberries—in a rather pretty clump on the floor. With an elegant movement, she swooped the fruit up with the jailhouse bread and took a bite.

Do you know the opening lines to Irving Berlin’s classic “Cheek to Cheek”? If you do, you know how Jessica felt as she tasted what would become known in Sqirl lore as “The First Toast.” That is how the cooking career of Jessica Koslow began.

“Heaven, I’m in heaven

And my heart beats so that I can hardly speak

And I seem to find the happiness I seek

When we’re out together dancing cheek to cheek” 

This article was first published on pages 178-181 inJessica Koslow's recently released cookbook "Everything I Want To Eat: Sqirl and the New California Cooking" which is available at your local bookstore or - for those with a car - at https://www.amazon.com/Everything-Want-Eat-California-Cooking/dp/141972231X

1982 Chateau Mouton Rothschild Rated A Record 103 Points By Nancy Silverton, Lawsuit Filed, Soms Stunned Worldwide

Since Robert Parker began rating wines in the 1970s, no bottle has ever been awarded - by him or anyone else - more than 100 points. Until now.  This week, at a Park Avenue townhouse, revered Los Angeles chef Nancy Silverton bestowed a stunning 103 points to a bottle of 1982 Chateau Mouton Rothschild, shattering the previous record for a wine by three entire points. 

"So this is great wine," said a clearly perplexed Silverton as she alternated between sips and guzzles of the famed nectar which features a watercolor by late film maker John Huston as its label.  "I guess what I have been drinking was good wine. There's certainly nothing wrong with that, but what a thrill to drink greatness."

Only hours after the 103 point rating was made public Wednesday afternoon, Pierre Lurton, director of the famed Chateau Cheval Blanc estate in St. Emilion  Bordeaux, filed an international lawsuit on behalf of the late Thierry Mononcourt, the storied winemaker of that estate's mythical 1947 vintage.

Lurton would not talk to the press, but the lawsuit, in part, contains the following; "If the 100 point ceiling was to be shattered, surely the '47 Cheval should have been the one to do it. This is, forgive my tongue, but it's some b*llshit."

The "One-Oh-Three", as it has already become known,, was the talk of the wine world. 

In Los Angeles, soms gathered to discuss the One-Oh-Three. Some believe it marked the end of civilized wine ratings and blamed it on America's current over-the-top pop culture which demands the outrageous. "The wine world needs words not numbers, but flashy numbers get press and sell," said Lyanka Tropea, Imperial Master Sommelier at Perino's on Wilshire Boulevard.   "I suspect, sadly, the 104 rating is not far off. Followed by a 105."

In Karachi, Pakistan, Uzma Bhutto, sommelier at the Bombay Palace in, curiously, Calcutta ( Kolkata), said she was flabbergasted by the unheard of rating. "103?  That's insane. I'd really like to know Silverton's [blood alcohol] level when she gave the score."

William Dithers, professor of wine logistics and logic at Grape Street University, said the uproar over the rating was "absurd and imbecilic."

"Look, Robert Parker and his associates at the Wine Advocate have awarded way more than 400 wines a 100-point rating, " said Dithers, author of the book "2 Trillion Galaxies and Counting; The Sky Has No Limits".  "Do you mean to tell me they are all equal? Some of those so-called "perfect wines" have to be better than others. Therefore, Silverton's 103 makes, well, perfect sense."

##  

In 2008, Slate magazine published an article by Mike Steinberger titled "The Greatest Wine on the Planet" about the 1947 Cheval. Check it here;   http://www.slate.com/articles/life/drink/2008/02/the_greatest_wine_on_the_planet.html

103 point CMR, with Ravenau and haut brion lurking

Dario Cecchini Wins Guest of Year Award for Italy MMXVI, Americans File Formal Complaint

He walked into the backyard where I had a fire going, stared at the blaze, analyzing it like a grill master would and said - in his booming Tuscan voice - Perfecto!".   Dario Cecchini, arguably the most famous butcher in the world, the maestro from Panzano en Chianti, had arrived at the summer  home of Nancy Silverton in Panicale Umbria. It was time for a an unbridled carnival of beef.  

And Dario and his troops - Tommaso, Miles and Zac - and, most importantly, his storied wife Kim, had come prepared to feed Nancyville;  25 kilos of meat for 25 guests.  It doesn't taken Copernicus to figure out that's 2.2. pounds of beef a person. On top of it, a kilo of lardo, aka burro del Chianti  When it was over the festa was already being talked about as one of the great barbecues in European history, a rival to the legendary celebration Hannibal Barca hosted  2,233 years ago after destroying a Roman army five kilometers away at the Battle of Lago Trasimene .

For that single night. Dario Cecchini has been honored by Nancy and myself  as the MMXVI (2016) GOYA, Guest of the Year. Award 

Though the news sent a celebratory wave throughout much of Italy, the announcement was quickly met with controversy by some Americans . Silverton's very own sister. Gail,  and her husband, Joel, immediately filed a formal complaint with the Italian tourism board.  "How can an Italian be a guest in his own country?" asked Big Joel Gutman, who, sources say, was extremely upset he and his wife had to clean up the party for several hours. 

"Hell, Nancy and Michael would have woken to a den of iniquity if it wasn't  for us, " a sources quoted Gail as saying. "The place looked like Hannibal and his drunken army had trampled through it." 

Also, in an interview with the Perugia Times, Georgie Harris, the 10-year-old who helped Nancy set up the party expressed dismay with Dario's selection. "Shit, I was there at nine in the morning helping set up and I didn't get a goddamn vote." 

Kim had little sympathy for the complainers. "The sore losers can stuff it," she said   "Maybe with burro del Chianti."  

Still, everyone else - including town guests Phil and Monica Rosenthal (with daugthers Lily and Brianna) - agreed it was Dario's night and the night was so special - as is the man - that it merited the GOYA. 

Just go to his website and you'll quickly realize this is not a sane person. http://www.dariocecchini.com/dariocecchini/en/

The opening line is "Abandon all hope all ye who enter, For you are now in the hands of a butcher.", a rift on Dante Alighieri.

But truth be known, it was not for the meat he brought that earned Dario the GOYA.  It was for his heart.. Look below at him holding of a dear photograph of Dario and Nancy's dad Larry "Lorenzo" Silverton.  Look at that face.. That is why he won the GOYA.

It needs to be noted that for the third or fourth year in a row, the runner up spot went to Susan Swan, the African-American librarian from Oakland who is also the wife of photographer Steven Rothfeld.  She turned in yet another fine, graceful performance, but was simply unable to overcome Dario's tour de force and also lost points by association when she could not stop her husband from asking me if i was happy three times in a row when I was in a hurry to get to Pelicanos pizzeria.  

From Dante's Divine Comedy. The 1814 translation into English by the Reverend H. F. Cary is the origin for this phrase in English, although he gave it as the less commonly used 'All hope abandon ye who enter here'.

Through me you pass into the city of woe:

Through me you pass into eternal pain:

Through me among the people lost for aye.

Justice the founder of my fabric mov'd:

To rear me was the task of power divine,

Supremest wisdom, and primeval love.

Before me things create were none, save things

Eternal, and eternal I endure.

All hope abandon ye who enter here.

Such characters in colour dim I mark'd

Over a portal's lofty arch inscrib'd:

Whereat I thus: Master, these words import.

PREVIOUS GOYA WINNERS

2015 - Leon Gold

2014 - (TIE) Hourie Sahakian and Tiffany Fox

2013 - Liz "Go Go" Hong  ( for her total disregard for the glory of Rome and utter fascination with Saldi ( Sales). 

2012 - Cast of "The Wire"

2011 - .The Berrettos (aka Oliver and his buddies) 

2010 - (TIE) Duke Feldmeier and Patsi Asanti

Fugitive Dominique Crenn Named "Best Female Chef in the World"; FBI Names Elizabeth Falkner As "Person of Interest"

In a move that infuriated law enforcement agencies around the globe, the World's 50 Best Restaurants organization has named fugitive San Francisco chef Dominique Crenn the "best female chef in the world", setting off both raucous celebrations and angry protests in her native France and adoptive California.

Crenn, who has been on the run since 2014 after a well-publicized felonious incident in Los Angeles, has managed to elude authorities despite making occasional public - albeit unannounced - appearances. More alarmingly, she has somehow been able to orchestrate Atelier Crenn, her two-star  Michelin restaurant in San Francisco while on the lam 

Meanwhile. the FBI today named chef Elizabeth Falkner as a "person of interest" in the case of the hunt for Crenn. A law enforcement source, speaking on the condition of anonymity,  said the FBI thinks Falkner, known for her unique ability to crash at various pads throughout Europe and America, could be aiding and abetting Crenn's unlawful flight. 

When asked point blank about the "Crenn / Falkner" connection at a news conference in Los Angeles, the FBI was vague.

"Let's just say Crenn is getting help from someone," said FBI special agent Efram Zimbalist, III, special agent-in-charge of the Los Angeles field office. "She can't be out there all alone. We know she's popular woman, almost like a beloved outlaw in that wacky chef community. So she has many friends. We also know for a fact that Crenn was recently seen in public with Falkner.  So, Elizabeth Falkner, if you read this, you need to contact us immediately." 

Photographs of Crenn and Falkner partying in Los Angeles in mid-April at various sites went virile on the world wide web when they were posted The two were seen in Century City, Paramount Studios and Connie and Ted's restaurant in West Hollywood. 

Connie and Ted's owner Michael Cimarusti said he had no knowledge that either Crenn or Falkner had been to his restaurant. Mysteriously, when the FBI asked to see security tapes, Connie and Ted's manager, Murray Rubinstein, told agents the cameras were turned off that day in honor of the birthday of Philadelphia Flyer hockey great Bobby Clarke.

"That didn't make any goddamn sense to me," said FBI agent Zimbalist III. "What would Clarke's birthday have to do with security cameras being on or off? To make matters really fishy is that Clarke was born on a August 13th."    

Rumors flew that Crenn was not only with Falkner. but fellow chefs Brooke Williamson, Antonia Lofaso,  Johanne "Fetunta" Killeen and a woman known only as "Miss Florida".

Reports surfaced at press time that even the legendary Nancy Silverton was with the outlaw and the crasher.  When this reporter went to Silverton's house Sunday in the Windsor Square sector of Los Angeles she denied having seen them, but only seemed to deepen the mystery.

"I havent seen either of them," said Silverton. "But i just got home and, for all i know, if she's with Falkner,  well, they could both be upstairs sleeping in the guest bedrooms."

Crenn is nominated for a James Beard Award for Best Chef in the West. The ceremony is Monday May 2,  Will Crenn be there?   

Authorities are not taking any chance. Security around the Lyric Opera House where the awards will be held is said to be the highest in Chicago since the 1968 Democratic Presidential Convention.  

#####

Previous winners of the Best Female chef include Helene Darroze, Helena Rizzo, Nadia Santini and Elena Arzak

To see the original article about Crenn's felony assault of fellow 2-star Michelin chef Josiah Citrin, check this link.

http://www.krikorianwrites.com/blog/2014/3/23/chef-dominique-crenn-wanted-by-police-flees-to-france

For more on Falkner's dubious past, check this.

http://www.krikorianwrites.com/blog/2014/8/1/chef-elizabeth-falkner

An Oasis Blooms In Watts; Dorothy Sampson and Her Roses

More than 19 years ago, I was H2H, ( heading to a homicide) on 102nd and Grape when I noticed a profusion of color to my left. Hundreds of rose bushes were in full bloom near the corner of Grandee Avenue and Century Boulevard. It was the rose garden at the Watts Senior Center. I went back later and talked to the caretaker of the garden, the lovely and spirited Dorothy Sampson.

Yesterday, I stopped in on the way to Jordan Downs and learned Dorothy, now 82,  had retired two years ago. In 2007, the city council voted to renamed this oasis as the Dorothy Sampson Senior Center and Rose Garden.Rose.

I wrote the story below that ran in the Los Angeles Times on January 1, 1997.  

###

Today in Pasadena, hundreds of thousands of people will watch the nation's best-known celebration of the rose. On Thursday in Watts, one person will continue her work on a quieter tribute--the smallest nationally accredited rose garden in America.

Dorothy Sampson will don overalls, grab pruning shears and lovingly tend the Watts Senior Citizens Center Rose Garden.

"I love this place," said Sampson, 63, the gardener at the center, pruning her way through the 480 rosebushes.

The rose garden near the tracks of the Metro Blue Line grew from a dream that germinated eight years ago.

In 1988, Dolores Van Rensalier, then the director of the center, took a group of seniors citizens to Exposition Park's rose garden near the Coliseum. A member of the group, Arvella Grigsby, taken by the beauty of the roses, sadly remarked that it was "too bad there will never be a beautiful public rose garden in Watts."

"I said, 'Why not?' " Van Rensalier recalls. "From that moment on, I was determined to have a rose garden in Watts. Everybody laughed at the idea. They thought the roses would be stolen. Even Arvella patted me on the back and said, 'That's OK, dear.' "

*

But it wasn't OK with Van Rensalier, a native New Yorker who vowed to create a place of beauty in a neighborhood too well-known for its negatives.

"It doesn't take a lot of people to make a difference," Van Rensalier said from her office at City Hall, where she works for the Department of Recreation and Parks. "Just a few people is all it takes."

Thanks to Van Rensalier, Sampson and crews from the parks department, Watts now has a true garden spot at 1657 E. Century Blvd.

The first roses were planted in 1990. By 1994, the garden was given national accreditation by All-America Rose Selections, based in Chicago. The organization usually requires a garden to have a minimum of 800 bushes before it is accredited, but waived that for the Watts garden, which at the time had fewer than 300.

"We think that a garden is such a wonderful place to reflect, especially in an urban environment like Watts, that the community deserved accreditation," said Patti Tobin, the organization's director of communications. Being accredited allows the garden to receive about 40 of the year's top-rated new roses from the accrediting group.

Today, the garden still has fewer roses than any of the nation's more than 130 other accredited gardens. Nonetheless, there are 480 rosebushes and 25 varieties at the Watts garden, which is open to the public Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

One month after the first bushes were planted, Sampson was hired as the full-time gardener. She had developed an early love for gardening while growing up in Louisiana. Her father would come home from his day job and work on his plot until dark.

"I'd hear that old hoe go 'chomp, chomp,' and I would have to go out and help him," Sampson said.

Sampson married a man who didn't care for the outdoors, so they made a deal: He'd make the breakfast, she'd work in the yard.

"It worked out fine, until he had company over," she laughed. "He would say, 'Look at you, look at you.' "

After she retired in 1983 from her manufacturing job, Sampson began to work as a professional gardener. Not until last year, at 62, did she stop cutting lawns. Now she has only roses to tend.

"It's nice to go by and see this," Juan Mendoza, 19, said as he strolled by the garden on his way to a market.

Mendoza remembers the plot of earth before the roses bloomed.

"It used to be bunk. Now it's cool. The guys around here respect this place," he said, gesturing at the graffiti-scarred neighborhood, a stark contrast to the clean walls of the senior citizens center.

There were a few thefts of rosebushes during the early years of the garden, but they have stopped, residents said.

For motorists driving down Century Boulevard near the Blue Line tracks, the garden provides a stunning splash of color most of the year. This week, however, Sampson is finishing the yearly pruning of the bushes, and soon nothing but bare canes will be on display while the roses rest for two months.

As lovely as the garden is, Sampson is not quite satisfied. Many of its older bushes are not the top-performing varieties, and Sampson longs to replace them. However, there are no funds to buy new roses.

*

The rose she yearns for the most is Double Delight, one of the world's most beloved flowers: intensely fragrant, with a brilliant red edge and a creamy white center.

She grows dreamy-eyed when she talks about the flower.

"That's my favorite rose, but we only have one," she said.

On Monday morning, with the cloudy skies threatening, Sampson was out in the garden pruning. She came across the one bush of Double Delight, graced with one last strikingly beautiful rosebud. She cut the bloom, took a long whiff, gave it to a visitor and shook her head.

"God, I love that rose," she said.