GELFAND’S WORLD - The Los Angeles neighborhood council system consists of 99 separate councils which are created by act of the City Charter to advise the government and oversee its actions.

GELFAND’S WORLD - One popularly used comment is "there oughta be a law" and following that, "I should write a book. " 

GELFAND’S WORLD - It's been a long two years and it seems like this month has been a replay of last January.

GELFAND’S WORLD - You've got to wonder what those Capitol rioters were thinking.

GELFAND’s WORLD - For all of us, I offer the following New Year's toast: "To 2022, may it bring 2023." It's not supposed to be clever or sarcastic, it's just a hopeful bit I developed for myself back when we were always in danger of being blown to bits by a nuclear holocaust. Anyway, that will be my toast. For most of us, it will be true. 

GELFAND’S WORLD - The problem with end-of-year columns is that they can be pretty redundant.

GELFAND’S WORLD  - Back when the late Martin Bernheimer was the music critic for the L.A. Times, he used to do a year-end story that summarized the previous twelve months with a long string of adjectives.

GELFAND'S WORLD - It was a weekend of ironic juxtapositions, at least for me. Perhaps you will indulge me a brief moment of explanation. 

GELFAND’S WORLD - It's curious that the actions by the government of the City of Los Angeles in 2021 led to the violent 2025 border clashes between the San Fernando Valley Neighborhood Council Alliance and the Coalition of East Hollywood Neighborhoods.

GELFAND’S WORLD - It was the monthly meeting of the emergency preparedness alliance. We were chatting away about everything and nothing, as if we were in an Isaac Asimov short story.

GELFAND’S WORLD - This is being written on the 58th anniversary of the murder of John F. Kennedy.

GELFAND’S WORLD - Call this Chapter One.  If you were going to write a book about the homelessness situation, the one thing you would ultimately conclude is that all sides are wrong.

GELFAND’S WORLD - "Four little words -- 'do your own research' -- are hurting the U.S. pandemic response CNN's chief media correspondent Brian Stelter said on 'Reliable Sources' Sunday."  

GELFAND’S WORLD - I told the publisher of CityWatch that I wouldn't be doing a column for Thursday because I was going to the LA Opera to hear Wagner's Tannhauser, and it wouldn't be over until 11:30 at night. So unless Tannhauser was that good, you wouldn't be hearing from me. 

GELFAND’S WORLD - I'm going to start this a little differently than usual. I'm simply going to quote the law. 

GELFAND’S WORLD - George Orwell already said it: "Sometimes the first duty of intelligent men is the restatement of the obvious." 

GELFAND’S WORLD - A few days ago, I shared with you my experience of being asked for proof of vaccination while buying a hamburger at a McDonalds in Frankfurt, Germany.

GELFAND’S WORLD - I just got back from a trip to Europe. There were several lessons to be learned, first regarding the difficulties of travel in this era of the Covid-19 epidemic. 

GELFAND'S WORLD - A substantial number of Republican voters are convinced that the presidential election was stolen from Donald Trump.

GELFAND'S WORLD - Well, that election is now over, and instead of the subject of deep thought, it turned out to be a joke.

GELFAND’S WORLD - It's suddenly become the most common cliche on television or the internet. We are presented with a sick -- most likely dying -- man in a hospital bed or perhaps a wheelchair, and some sonorous announcer asks him if he regrets not getting the Covid-19 vaccine.