Glenn Gaslin's Astonishing Tales of Danger & Wonder

Update: Dropping Pizza Guy Statue Found!

Okay, they found him. The 80-year-old statue of a '49er panning for gold, which was stolen last week from an intersection near my place, has found in a scrap yard, cut in two. It's worth nearly $125,000 as a work of art and L.A. history, but a gang of statue thieves (for real) sold the 500-pound bronze hunk as raw materials for $900.

Anyway, two guys have been arrested, and the miner, who actually looked like some guy dropping a huge pizze on the ground, should be back on his rock in Carthay Circle in a few months. Whew.

World's Tiniest Jazz Critic

As Zev falls asleep in the backseat, we're listening to the jazz station, Sarah Vaughan is singing "Lullaby of Birdland." She's scatting and bebopping and otherwise jamming on some nonsense lyrics. Zev cracks a smile, his eyes closed. "This is a crazy song," he says, and then he's out.

Some Jerkoff Steals My Favorite Statue

There was this wonderfully strange and out-of-place statue near my place, of a man holding a giant flat pan and looking down. You don't see a lot of statues in Los Angeles, and it took a few days to even notice this one was missing.

Zev described him as a guy dropping a pizza. He was dropping pizza guy. T here would always be a story, as we drove by, about how, oops, I dropped my pizza! Right here on this tiny, totally inaccessible park wedged between these two very busy streets! (Apparently, I learn now, guy was a gold miner. Been there 80 years.

Anyway, dropping pizza guy is gone. Somebody took him . Assholes.