I know I am going to get lambasted for this blog but let me try and defend myself anyway. My wife and I own dogs, rescue dogs. We love them and they love us and love that they have been rescued. At least I imagine they do. We will probably always own dogs so we understand people who LOVE their dogs.
But a couple of things came to my attention this week that causes me to comment. We own a store and we allow dogs to come in with their owners IF they are not wetters and they are calm and friendly. Otherwise I’ll toss them out.
The other day I was in a local bakery and a gentleman ahead of me had a dog with a “Support Animal” vest on. This means nothing except that he paid some support organization $50-$200 for a vest to pretend he had a certified reason to bring the dog into an eating establishment. He doesn’t. According to the ESA doctors website, a vest or a card saying your animal is an emotional support animal translates to a right to take your pet anywhere, think again. That card merely says that your pet has been registered in some database of pet owners who have the money to pay to an organization, or organizations as the case may be, which has no official government recognition. Emotional support animal certificates do not entitle their holders to bring in their pets to stores, hotels, trains, restaurants, taxi cabs, buses, and parks. Unlike service dogs, which are legally allowed to be with their owners anywhere the handler is present, ESA dogs and cats are classified by the federal government as untrained companions and are limited access to certain locations.
Now with the dog I was speaking about it had its tail between its legs and a wide-eyed look that indicated anything other than a desire to be in that bakery. What kind of emotional support was that? Right now if you get on a plane and are allergic to dogs or cats or whatever and the person next has a “support” animal you have to deal with it. Sniffle and cought for the rest of the flight because Fluffy comes first.
As reported in today’s Los Angeles Times by Hugo Martin starting May 1, Alaska Airlines will require passengers who want to travel with emotional support animals to provide proof that the animal is healthy, well-behaved and is needed to support the flier during the flight. The change comes only months after Delta and United Airlines both adopted similar requirements, which took effect March 1.
That proof comes in a couple of ways – It requires that passengers flying with emotional support animals provide a letter from a mental health professional or medical doctor, affirming that the flier needs the animal for support.
Starting May 1, passengers must also print and fill out two additional forms from alaskair.com. In one form, the passenger affirms that the animal is well-trained and that the passenger accepts liability for any injury or damage caused by the animal. Another form certifies that the animal is healthy. All three documents must be submitted 48 hours before flying.
Delta and Alaska both have cited a recent surge in incidents involving animals on planes. Delta said it adopted the new policy in response to an 84% increase in animal incidents since 2016, including animals urinating, defecating, biting, barking and lunging on planes. A Delta passenger was mauled by a 50-pound dog on a flight from Atlanta to San Diego last year.
Alaska carries about 150 emotional support and service animals daily and has been noting problems almost weekly.
I understand people need support…some people.
You may qualify for an emotional support dog if you have emotional or mental illnesses. If you suffer from one or more of the mental illnesses listed below, you may qualify for an emotional support dog.

• – Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD)
• – Learning Disorders
• – Autism
• – General Anxiety Disorder
• – Gender Identity
• – Bipolar
• – Cognitive disorders
• – Depression
• – Severe anxiety
• – Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

If you suffer from anxiety, depression, or any of the illnesses listed above, you may be interested in having an official Emotional Support Animal.
But the law needs to clarify and make people get some sort of certification if indeed they really need support as opposed to “I just don’t like to leave fluffy alone at home and I’m too cheap to board her or get a dog sitter.” The law needs to be for people on both sides of the equation.
 
As always I look forward to your comments
 

Since the loss of Creature Features along the Magnolia Monster Crawl fans of the wonderful Magnolia Park area are realizing the impending true loss of their unique shopping area. I addressed this problem with my very first post (scroll down to read it) and now a letter from a local resident in "My Burbank" raises the concern of everybody. The unique strip of shops in Burbank along Magnolia Blvd are desperately losing out in their fight against overpricing of properties with some seeing increases of over a thousand dollars per month.
The only reason for it is because the landlords can. They have not increases to them of this nature but are just out for extra money. There used to be many more events along this stretch of road to bring in customers including a big holiday celebration at the start of the season. It was paid for by a $0.17 increase in the business owners tax. Seventeen cents! When it came up for a vote to renew the building owners turned it down. so the business owners struggled to put together the funds to have a much smaller but at least family friendly and fun time for the families on the Blvd. Of course, on the night of the event you can find the Mayor and the rest of the unhelpful city council strutting about during the event as if they had something to do with it other than being continuous obstructionists and pro building owner mouthpieces. Below is the letter from local resident Jamie O'Brien Moore as it appeared in today's MyBurbank.com. You can also scroll all the way down to the first post in this thread to see my original post a few weeks ago. 
Please leave your comments after reading.Letter To The Editor: Save Magnolia Park!By Staff On April 16, 2018

TweetLetter to the Editor:
City of Burbank government officials and Burbank residents, we are now in danger of losing a local treasure – Magnolia Park.
The charm and success of Magnolia Boulevard in Magnolia Park is due to the local “Mom and Pop” shops that form the Magnolia Boulevard Merchants Association. Since 2012, they’ve worked hard to make Magnolia Park a destination to shop, eat, and play. They created a neighborhood marketing campaign and hold events like “Ladies and Gents Night Out” and “Holiday in the Park” – all paid for from their own profits.  
However, when you speak with the owners of these locally owned shops you’ll learn that over the next year or two we will face a mass exodus. It’s already started –for instance, we’ve just lost Creature Features. Why? The landlords see this success and are now astronomically raising rents – sometimes in the thousands a month – and these independent shops can’t afford such an increase.
These are the same landlords who voted to disband their own Magnolia Park Partnership in 2011 just to stop paying an up to $0.17 cents per square foot fee toward marketing and events. They now want to reap the fruits of others labor.  
Don’t these landlords know they are killing the goose that laid the golden egg?  Is there something we can do, either legislative or just as a community, to help keep these shops from having to move and stop Magnolia Boulevard going the way of Melrose Avenue?  
SAVE MAGNOLIA PARK!
Jamie O’Brien Moore
Burbank

What has happened to the monsters? For three decades, from the 1920s to the 1950s Universal gave us the demons that became classic fodder for our nightmares. Now nobody at the studio has the slightest clue how to utilize or market these creatures in the modern world. Is there no relevancy for the great terrors? Has the world moved on and left these beings to rot and crumble in the dust? Does anybody still have vision enough for these beasts to creep out the modern movie-goer?
The basic group, as all good horror fans should know, are Frankenstein, The Bride of Frankenstein, Dracula, Wolfman, Mummy, Phantom of the Opera, Creature from the Black Lagoon, and, okay for good measure, The Invisible Man. There are also plenty of second and third tier beasts to play with. This is quite a large group and yet Universal seems more eager to let the monsters die than to promote and reengage the latest generation of viewer with new experiences and kick start these franchises.
A giant Jacob's Ladder and some flashing test tubes was cool technology in the 30's. Go ahead and update. that would be lovely. Actually go ahead and do something with a little heart and a little vision. But we either get garbage or nothing. The grip of the studio is so tight that monster lovers need to create their own versions. Guillermo Del Toro was refused access to remake the Creature form the Black Lagoon story, supposedly, (that is part of the tale of creation of The Shape of Water Hollywood mythology which we'll leave for another day) so he went on to win an Oscar with his version of an Amazon fish man.
Why can't Universal find their way to creativity and or even decent marketing efforts with their stable of (what I consider) genius monsters? Who and what is REALLY holding them back? Many of the legacy monsters were based on books. Dark Delicacies is filled with books and, more often than not, writers who would give their canine teeth to see their fears come to life. Take it all a step further and ask where is Poe and Lovecraft and all the great unnerving horror that lies dormant in its grave? Is it the fussing and feuding among the original stars families, do modern filmmakers feel there is no relating to 100 year old tales, or idiocy and lack of motivation in the front office? Over the years tales, reasons and excuses have abounded. But no one size fits all excuse seems to have satisfied as a true explanation.
If something needs to give these beasts a punch to get going I have one idea. How about we turn all these horrors over to the women? This is their time to shine. why not shine in the area we all love and cherish so much? The men seem to have failed dramatically for the last two decades ending with that horrible Tom Cruise debacle of the Mummy (2017). The talented women of Hollywood could breathe new life into these franchises and resuscitate the corpses of our dark dreams. I would love to see a female producer,  director and writer tackle these myths. I can hear the screaming now.

There are times in life when we become so bogged down with the day-to-day crap that we forget to enjoy or even laugh at living. You've got to. It is a steam valve. smile a little and reflect on the absurdity of damn near everything. My personal feelings are that there is nothing that cannot be joked about or that has humor...including death. As with all humor it is all about timing.
For instance we may be able to tell jokes about death from long ago -
How long did Caine hate his brother? As long as he was Able. (I didn't say it was good humor) But maybe not joke about Hitler yet. Comedy. Timing.
The point is that there is humor all around you. The other day we were holding a big signing event in which people attending were given a number for their place in line.  I received a phone call.
"I have a number for your event tonight."
"Yes."
"I'm just trying to figure out when to be there."
"Okay. what number do you have?"
"Well, are you doing the numbers in order?"
I should have told them no. we're pulling them randomly like the draft so be here from the beginning.
Today somebody walked in and asked if I carried cassettes. I told them I didn't, only CDs.
"What kind of place is this?"
"A horror book and gift store"
"So do you have Simon and Garfunkel?"
'nuff said.

I have been thinking a lot lately about the polarization of America, maybe it's worldwide. I don't know. I vowed when I started this blog that I would not devolve into political talking points and yadda, yadda, yadda. I won't. This is about relationships between people.
I've watched all of us get more distant by being closer together in conversation online all day, every day.  People don't discuss. they label. You're Leftist or Right-wing or Progressive or Conservative. Whatever. The thing none of us are is just a person. Wow. what happened? When I stand in Dark Delicacies and talk with people we all have different opinions no matter the subject. Because we're human with different experiences and opinions. That's cool. That's what life is all about. But once on line and it is like the guy driving his dick down the highway.
Is it just me or does everybody feel a sense of oneness and not part of the human synergy? So I asked my friend Brian Keene how he felt about the situation. Hmmm. We're kind of in sync as you'll see below. After reading this tell me how you feel, without politicizing. How do you feel as an individual? How do you feel about yourself? How can we make this work? I look forward to reading your comments.

Now...Here's Brian

I'm apolitical in that I belong to neither party, and don't blindly echo the talking points of FOX News, MSNBC, or CNN. On some issues, my personal code leans to the Left. On others, it leans to the Right. But mostly, I stand firm in the middle of the road -- the most dangerous place to walk, but the only place I feel true to myself and my principles.
 
The key, for me, has always been to be respectful of another's opinion, regardless of whether it's an opinion I personally hold. I have friends who identify as Conservatives, Progressives, Republicans, Democrats, Socialists, Libertarians, and even a few anarchists. As long as they are being respectful of others, and being respectful of me, I listen. Sometimes, I find my perspective or outlook changing depending on the information and knowledge and personal perspective they share with me.
 
But when it comes to racism, or bigotry, or sexism, or any other form of disrespect or hate, that's when I elect to stop listening and tune out. I'll defend to the death a stupid person's right to express stupid political speech, but that doesn't mean I have to stand there and listen to it, nor do I have to respect it. The moment a person begins castigating someone for their sexual orientation, religion, gender, race, or political party, I disregard everything else they say. And that goes for ANY discrimination. I have as much intolerance for those screaming that every American who voted for Trump is a racist as I do with every American screaming that Clinton was in cahoots with Russia and some ill-conceived and poorly-articulated Illuminati Pizza Trafficking ring. I'm as repulsed those who disrespect Christians as I am by those disrespecting Muslims. I'm against the clamor to ban all firearms as I am against the clamor to ban gay marriage.  
 
And as a result, I feel very alone these days. And very small. I watch the carefully cultivated social media echo chambers of my friends, all curated to cater to their own individual confirmation biases, and I feel very small and afraid of what's happening in this country, and to us.
 
I find myself spending less time online, and more time reading books. But mostly, I'm just worried about the future, and how both sides of the political aisle seem hellbent on hurtling us into oblivion, with no quarter asked and no fucks given, simply so they can score points on the other team.
 
I find myself heartbroken.
 
Brian Keene