The Lawless Misers

The thing about The Misers, as a general rule, is that we don't really like rules. Rules are for losers, and rules are for breaking or bending if you will, (although there are certain rules that we would never ever break - like the ten items or less line at the grocery store.) And today, we broke three of them.

To celebrate our Brand New President Barack Hussein Obama, the Misers decided to splurge by going out to lunch. We went to Phillippe The Original in downtown Los Angeles, and the three of us dined in style for under $20 (including tip and free parking). Bee loved the atmosphere there; the sawdust on the floor, the sassy waitresses, the crowds of people - she loved the busy business of it all. Plus she got a free paper Phillippe hat from a friendly employee. Phillippe is a must go to place in L.A., where fun is always to be had for not a lot of money. 

Okay, so here's how we broke Rule Number One. We went out the front door and walked to the Terminal Annex Post Office, built in 1938, to show Bee the building and the murals. We left our car in the FREE parking lot of Phillippe's (which you are not supposed to do) because The Misers don't pay to park - not if they can help it. The Terminal Annex building is beautiful and impressive, and the magnificent murals were painted by Boris Deutsch from 1941 to 1945. Deutsch won a WPA commission to paint 11 murals.  As we admired the murals, Bee ran around on the highly polished tile floor. We were the only people actually looking at the work, so there was nobody there for her to bother. And here is where we broke Rule Number Two. We could only view about half of the murals as the rest were roped off (for some strange reason), so one is not able to see the totality of Deutsch's work. This hardly seemed fair as the work was commissioned by the WPA, which was paid for by taxpayers, so this art belongs to the people. They are public works, and we were determined to see them. Bee started it. She just toddled underneath the ropes. And we followed. There was nobody around, no guard on duty, so we just went with it. In my humble opinion, Deutsch's strongest works are on the forbidden side. These murals are full of weird scientific gadgetry, and scientist types fiddling around with them. The last one, painted in 1945, was of World War II, where soldiers are looking through telescopes and periscopes and futuristic instruments. The perspectives are whacked in all of them, which makes them strangely compelling. Anyway, I'm glad we broke the rule because these murals are well worth seeing - Huell Howser worthy. Bee was talking very loud the whole time (well, babbling really) because she was enjoying her voice echoing off the vast, high ceilings. It's a beautiful building with stellar art deco details, it's really a shame that half of it is closed off to the public. And odd that there was no guard, what with Homeland Security and all. But just as we were exiting the building, we crossed paths with the security guard, apparently returning from her break. She seemed to shoot us a knowing, disturbed glance, but we were gone. Whew - The Misers sighed with relief, realizing that we had just gotten out in the nick of time.

Next stop - Union Station. Sparky and I hadn't been there in forever, and Bee's never been, and it is just about a block away from the Post Office Annex. What a grand old building from the golden age of train travel. It saddens the Misers that trains have fallen out of favor, as we have always loved traveling by train, and plan on doing so again when Bee is a little bit older and we aren't feeling so miserly. Much of the train station is also blocked off to the public, but this wasn't always the case. When we first started riding the rails back in the early 90's, the whole building was open to all. (At least now they have the cool restaurant and bar Traxx, which we frequented in the past, and is worth checking out if you have a bit of spare change.)

Bee's favorite part of the station was the outdoor fountain, located in a quiet little garden where one can catch their breath after a busy day of train travel. When we left the station through the west  doors heading to the Metropolitan Water Department plaza, we stumbled upon another, larger garden with two fountains. Bee loves running water, and one of the fountains had big, fat rainbow colored Koi fish, and Bee was completely and utterly mesmerized by them. We sat down, relaxed, and took it all in. 

Afterwards, as we were leaving, Rule Number Three got broken by Bee herself. Instead of staying on the path she ran into the garden and tromped around - Sparky had to go fetch her. Anarchy and toddlers go hand and hand. By the end of the day, we had spent under $20 and broke only three rules. And I think that's pretty good for the lawless Misers. Pretty, pretty good.