LA Times shake-up jogs memories

     It’s a small world, I guess. When I lived in Old Towne, in the City of Orange, my next door neighbor and friend at the time (I haven't spoken with him in years) was Davan Maharaj.
     Well, I just heard on the radio that he’s now been made the Big Cheese of the LA Times! Sheesh. (See L.A. Times Editor Russ Stanton Resigns, to Be Replaced by Davan Maharaj, Reuters)
     The charming dude is from the southern Carribean. He and his wife—and his sister, who stayed with them at the time—introduced my wife and me to Trinidadian cooking, which is deeply influenced by Indian cuisine. Kathie and I still occasionally make kuchela, using his (or his sister’s) recipe. (See.) That's good stuff, man.
     Davan's wife, Abby, was a lovely, sweet girl from Kentucky. (Gosh, I hope they're still married. I last spoke to her maybe five years ago.) She had  a marvelous voice. She'd sing with a crazy band comprising an odd assortment of LA Times characters. As I recall, they played at the Coach House. They sounded pretty dang good.
     And Davan was a great guy who had many strong enthusiasms—especially for music. (A big Ben Harper fan.) Likely, he's still that way.
     Congrats Davan!

Sunny Girl

P.S.: perhaps you'll recall Sunny Girl, my late cat (my wonderful little girl). I just remembered that Kathie and I used to see the young Sunny, then a semi-feral cat, hanging around our backyard in Orange (c. 1993). One day, we heard some faint crying sounds, and we followed them to Davan and Abby's basement (this is in Old Town Orange; see below), where we found Sunny and her two surviving kittens (one had died). Naturally, we "rescued" this brood, and Sunny became one of our (later, my) cats. The kittens were adopted by friends.
     One of the kittens, Mojo, died a few years ago—something I documented here at the time. The other kitten, Violet, is still alive and well, living with my friend Laurie in Laguna Niguel.

SEE ALSO • Hangin’ with Mojo, Democrat 9/22/07,
• Sunny and Mojo 9/22/07
• Davan Maharaj, Former Times OC Reporter, is New Editor of the Los Angeles Times (OC Weekly)

My old house at left; Davan's at right (Photo c. 2009)