The Los Angeles Looter

I heard of Neil Kramer while living in Philadelphia, from a Jewish girl who worked in my building.

"You've got to read his blog," she assured me in the elevator. "I'm in love with him, but I have a thing for funny guys."

"Maybe one day you'll meet," I suggested.

"He's married."

"I mean, I hope you never, ever meet."

Once I saw his blog, I learned Neil married a Russian woman, who's a Republican. Even though they claimed to be "over," he pined away for her every day on his blog, which is absolutely hilarious and addictive. It's the type of blog that should be make into a book, a television show, or a "How Not to Be Married Manual."

Sophia, his Russian bride, went through his e-mail address book, wrote all of his "blog friends" and organized a virtual birthday party. We all sent birthday gifts to him from around the world, and today we're having a "blog carnival" -- a blog event surrounding a certain topic, hosted by one person who lists all the participating blogs.

This is the first time I've ever participated in a carnival, so I'm not sure if I'm doing it right. Nevertheless -- Happy Birthday, Neil. You've made things funny that I didn't think possible, created a real blogging community, and managed to make people all over America hope your marriage works out. Plus, I no longer hang out with Jews -- now that I live in rural Tennessee -- so you're pretty much it for me. If I want Jewish humor, it's you or Woody Allen.

Here's one of my favorite posts:

Today, the lights went out in Los Angeles. There was a major power outage. It affected more than 1/2 the city. Everything went off, including Dreamhost, my web host. That’s why my website was down half the day. I was at home on my computer when it happened. With no internet access or TV, I needed something to occupy my mind. I figured that this was a good opportunity to try my hand at looting.

I shaved, put on a new shirt I bought on Saturday at Nordstrom, and ran into the street excitedly. I ran to Wilshire Boulevard, but was disappointed when I didn’t see any other looters. Frankly I was hoping for more of a "social" event. And here I was wearing a new shirt for nothing.

I was going to back down from the looting experience, but then I told myself, "Sometimes you just gotta do things by yourself."

My first decision: What to loot?

Read the rest here.

And Happy Birthday!