Maria’s Thursday Three: Fonts, Online Shops and an Atwater Boutique

1. Obamabats: Forget about Gotham, Obama’s font of choice for his political campaign. Designer Jeff Domke created this collection of Obama dingbats in honor of the president-elect. Available for download and use free-of-charge. I like free.

2. Frecklewonder: I wish I can fit into this dress, featured in Frecklewonder’s online shop. Seriously, this lady has an eye for fashion and vintage is her game. And the prices? Far too good to be true.

3. Amelia Fitzwater: I kinda want to keep this store to myself, tucked away among beauty salons and gallery spaces along Glendale Blvd. in Atwater Village. The assortment of cards, jewelry, books, accessories and everything else is top notch.

Cruel, Cruel, In-N-Out Burger Internet Rumor

Here’s a delicious-sounding email making the rounds:

In-n-Out’s 60th Year Anniversary is Wednesday, October 22nd. All hamburgers will be sold for 25 cents, Cheeseburgers 30 cents, Fries 15 cents, and drinks are 10 cents!!! So mark your calendars!

Oh, you know I’m there. If it were true. Sadly, it’s not. You can still celebrate on Oct. 22 — but at full price. The fast food joint dispells the rumor on its website:

“We’ve always tried to keep our prices as low as possible in order to give our customers the greatest value. One of the ways we accomplish this is by not discounting and our anniversary is no exception.”

Here’s the full letter:

Gimme My IMDB Page

Just call me Michael Schneider The 14th. That’s right — thanks to “Gimme My Reality Show,” I finally get my own IMDB page.

The 14th Michael Schneider to get his own IMDB page. Yep, apparently us Michael Schneiders are a prolific bunch.

My favorite may be Michael Schneider the 10th, who appeared as an actor in the direct-to-video movie “Avenging Disco Vampires.” I’m probably most proud of Michael Schneider the 4th, the director of 1996′s “Alarm für Cobra 11 – Die Autobahnpolizei.”

And congrats to Michael Schneider No. 1, for appearing in something that we’ve actually heard of: “Schindler’s List.” As the first Michael Schneider on IMDB to be credited as “self,” I promise to do the other 13 proud.

Ex-Mayor Gal Pal’s Fiance Wants Everyone to Know: Mirthala’s Back To Her Senses

The site’s front page — “I am Marrying my Best Friend!” shortened from the original line, “I am Marrying my Best Friend now That She has Stopped Banging the Mayor!”

There’s no better web find today than Curbed LA’s discovery of the cheesy online wedding site for Mirthala Salinas and b.f. Yanni Raz.

Mirthala, of course, made headlines last year when she started dating Antonio Villaraigosa — all while reporting on Villaraigosa’s separation from his wife as an anchor at Telemundo’s KVEA/Channel 52. (Check out Los Angeles magazine’s profile of Mirthala here.)

Well, she and the mayor broke up at the end of last year, she parted ways with Telemundo and eventually landed a new job as a morning host on Spanish talk radio 690 AM. And… she’s now engaged to marry real estate agent Raz.

Now, their site. For starters, the headline “My Woman Is Back on Track again” links to a few graphs on Mirthala’s new job at 690 AM… as well as a link to an ABC7 story about the gig. The ABC7 story’s lede? “Mirthala Salinas, the mayor’s ex-girlfriend, is back on the air and back in the news.”

OK, really? You want everyone visiting your wedding website to be reminded of Mirthala’s tawdry year in the headlines?

Now, this:

Yanni Raz Really didn’t know that his basically locking him self in “SALINAS PRISON” That’s, um, sweet?

And this:

Mirthala Salinas Understands today that the world is YANNI CHINGASSSSSSSSSSS Take that, Mayor V!

Ex-Mayor Gal Pal’s Fiance Wants Everyone to Know: Mirthala’s Back To Her Senses

The site’s front page — “I am Marrying my Best Friend!” shortened from the original line, “I am Marrying my Best Friend now That She has Stopped Banging the Mayor!”

There’s no better web find today than Curbed LA’s discovery of the cheesy online wedding site for Mirthala Salinas and b.f. Yanni Raz.

Mirthala, of course, made headlines last year when she started dating Antonio Villaraigosa — all while reporting on Villaraigosa’s separation from his wife as an anchor at Telemundo’s KVEA/Channel 52. (Check out Los Angeles magazine’s profile of Mirthala here.)

Well, she and the mayor broke up at the end of last year, she parted ways with Telemundo and eventually landed a new job as a morning host on Spanish talk radio 690 AM. And… she’s now engaged to marry real estate agent Raz.

Now, their site. For starters, the headline “My Woman Is Back on Track again” links to a few graphs on Mirthala’s new job at 690 AM… as well as a link to an ABC7 story about the gig. The ABC7 story’s lede? “Mirthala Salinas, the mayor’s ex-girlfriend, is back on the air and back in the news.”

OK, really? You want everyone visiting your wedding website to be reminded of Mirthala’s tawdry year in the headlines?

Now, this:

Yanni Raz Really didn’t know that his basically locking him self in “SALINAS PRISON” That’s, um, sweet?

And this:

Mirthala Salinas Understands today that the world is YANNI CHINGASSSSSSSSSSS Take that, Mayor V!

OK, I’m On Facebook. Now What?

I finally succumbed to peer pressure and joined Facebook over the holiday. And quickly became addicted to it: Finding friends, looking at others’ friends lists, looking at their friend lists, etc. There seemed to be an unending list of people to “add” as contacts.

But that seems to be coming to an end, as now most requests are of the “so and so took a movie quiz. Does your score match theirs?” variety. Yeah, it’s fun to update my status… but where does it go from here?

In the meantime, I got so hooked on the site (and again, I know, I’m a year late to this, sorry) that I even started a group. If you’re an L.A. blogger on Facebook, be sure to add “Blog-LA-Sphere” to your list of groups. And where does that go from here? I guess we’ll see…

Maria’s Thursday Three

Oinkster burger; Flickr pic by Jeremy Okai.

1. Where’s your favorite place to get a burger in L.A.? For me, the burger at Oinkster is pretty top-notch and what I usually get when we go. My friend Andrea likes to get one at The York. This is not necessarily a best-burger-in-L.A. question but where do you like go for a burger in Los Angeles?

2. Woot.com – Has anyone ordered anything from this site? They offer daily electronic deals on $5 shipping, and the savings are good, really good. The descriptions are a hoot and the customer reviews guide you as you consider a product. I also like the wine and t-shirt deals; I’m most likely to buy a shirt first ($10, free shipping!) if I ever get to one before it’s sold out.

3. I have to post about Top Chef since last night was the season finale: Casey faltered, Dale shined but was spotty and Hung came through perfectly. Last night’s highlight was the sous chef surprise: Rocco DiSpirito (who assisted Hung), Michelle Bernstein (Casey), and Todd English (Dale)– the pairings were exciting to watch. The lowlight was seeing losing contestant Brian at the dining table — I took offense to the fact that he was suddenly on the other side of the table critiquing the dishes. Just a few days ago, he was a contestant, and it seems unfair that he was given a voice at the judges’ table. It would’ve been fine if he was there to observe as a prize perhaps for making it that far on the competition. But shush-it! I did not want to hear what he had to say about the food.

Maria’s Thursday Three

Oinkster burger; Flickr pic by Jeremy Okai.

1. Where’s your favorite place to get a burger in L.A.? For me, the burger at Oinkster is pretty top-notch and what I usually get when we go. My friend Andrea likes to get one at The York. This is not necessarily a best-burger-in-L.A. question but where do you like go for a burger in Los Angeles?

2. Woot.com – Has anyone ordered anything from this site? They offer daily electronic deals on $5 shipping, and the savings are good, really good. The descriptions are a hoot and the customer reviews guide you as you consider a product. I also like the wine and t-shirt deals; I’m most likely to buy a shirt first ($10, free shipping!) if I ever get to one before it’s sold out.

3. I have to post about Top Chef since last night was the season finale: Casey faltered, Dale shined but was spotty and Hung came through perfectly. Last night’s highlight was the sous chef surprise: Rocco DiSpirito (who assisted Hung), Michelle Bernstein (Casey), and Todd English (Dale)– the pairings were exciting to watch. The lowlight was seeing losing contestant Brian at the dining table — I took offense to the fact that he was suddenly on the other side of the table critiquing the dishes. Just a few days ago, he was a contestant, and it seems unfair that he was given a voice at the judges’ table. It would’ve been fine if he was there to observe as a prize perhaps for making it that far on the competition. But shush-it! I did not want to hear what he had to say about the food.

When Is That Free Citywide WiFi Coming?

Not so fast — it won’t be happening any time soon, the L.A. Times reports.

And L.A. isn’t the only place that may see its WiFi dreams put on hold:

The catalyst for the sudden retrenchment came last month when Internet service provider EarthLink Inc., the nation’s largest builder of municipal Wi-Fi networks, said it was halting work on such projects and bailing out of some contracts as part of a massive corporate restructuring.

The Atlanta company plans to complete construction in Anaheim and Philadelphia, the nation’s first major city to embrace broadband wireless, and operate those and a few other existing locations.

But EarthLink is stopping all new projects until it figures out a way to make money.

In San Francisco recently, I took advantage of the free WiFi in Union Square to update this blog. (It was at night, and crazy screaming guy walking around the park was definitely a little scary, but I got it done). It made me wonder whether L.A. at least had drips and drabs of a WiFi network.

The answer? It does, but it’s extremely limited: “Its 72 public libraries contain about 2,000 computers with Internet access as well as Wi-Fi hot spots for people with their own laptops. It also has free Wi-Fi service in Pershing Square downtown, Little Tokyo and the Van Nuys Civic Center,” the LAT writes.

Rather than focus too much time on the way too ambitious — and seemingly impossible — all-city WiFi plan (this is a big city, afterall), L.A. ought to first look at ways to get WiFi to more heavily trafficked areas. That’s a little more manageable.

Mexico City Reviewers vs. Citysearch

Our friend Jess, a new mom, had a rare evening out with some friends the other week — and unfortunately, had a terrible time at Mexico City. She’s not alone, as commentators on various websites — including people leaving messages at Rate-A-Restaurant — have equally unkind things to say about the eatery.

But Jess, who was disappointed enough to actually write a review on Citysearch, is puzzled: Why, if most of the reviews are negative, does Mexico City still earn a 4.5 (out of 5) rating?

(Flickr pic by L.A. Addict.)

First, her review:

Being a new parent, finding time to go out to dinner isn’t easy. That’s why we were so disappointed with the awful treatment we received at Mexico City last weekend.

My husband called in advance to make a reservation and made sure to tell the person on the phone that there’d be 2 babies needing high chairs in our party. We were assured that we’d be accommodated. When we arrived, the restaurant’s 3 high chairs were all in use. We asked to speak to the manager. She came over to our table and was wishy-washy about the whole thing, saying that people came in off the street and needed the high chairs.

She told us whoever we spoke to gave us wrong informationand they couldn’t reserve high chairs. Then she proceeded to say that they’d even purchased morehigh chairs to accommodate people with families(how many did they have before, 1?) We didn’t even receive an apology. Then, she just kind of walked away from the table and didn’t say anything else. She was quite rude. The food was good, but needless to say we won’t be returning.

And here’s what she wrote Citysearch:

Question for you — we dined at Mexico City over the weekend and had a bad experience there. I wrote a review, and when I went to look at it, I noticed that a lot of the other reviews were pretty bad, but the restaurant received 4.5 stars.

I did a little math and found that if you divide the total stars received by the number ofreviews, it would work out to a little over 3 stars for the restaurant — but it has 4.5 on the site. So my question is, how do you calculate the total number of stars a restaurant has? If we had seen that it only got 3 stars (which is really what it should have gotten if you weight each review equally), then we never would have gone.The current system (whatever it is) seems a little misleading. Thanks for looking into this.

You go, Jess!