This is news coming directly from the third world – aka Los Angeles, California. Now, I’m just crossing my fingers and praying that Los Angeles doesn’t fall into the ocean until *after* I get the hell out of here!!!

People who were born here have a catch phrase. It’s I’ve Got to Get the Hell Out of L.A., and that’s Out with a capital O . I’m working on my own escape plan. There’s nothing left for me here, in this city, or in this state. In the meantime, I’ll be keeping a blog, a record of daily life in Los Angeles as I watch the city of my birth slowly sinking into the Pacific Ocean.

Every day, I’m feeling more like the protagonist of the movie Falling Down. More and more, that movie looks less like a satire on modern day life and more like a how-to diagram of survival in Ciudad De Los Diablos, or what we used to call The City of the Angels. I can tell you there are no angels here. They’ve all relocated to Boise and gotten the hell Out.

Copyright and image of Maxine are the property of Hallmark and cartoonist John Wagner. A new Maxine comic strip can be downloaded daily from Hallmark’s website.