it's a bit spooky how much this author has made me into the person that I am today. He's a "children's" author. The main character always smokes cigars even though he's eight years old. And he makes it a point to venture around on the bus. And he comes across total weirdos. Everybody stays awake all night. And it's extremely psychedelic. Nobody sleeps. They're into eating really greasy food and staying awake all night cruising around the city and venturing in between alternate dimensions. And, I was so bummed out thinking that all of his greats were all he had to put out (Daniel Mendelson, the Boy From Mars, Lizard Music, The Snark-Out Boys and the Avocado of Death, just to name a few), and I found out, he wrote some new ones. I got them sent to me to the Hollywood library, and was ecstatic to discover that they're even better than the ones he wrote in the early eighties. The Neddiad, almost the whole thing takes place in LA which I thought was interesting since he's from the east coast. The main character goes to the La Brea Tar Pits. And it was such a beautiful thing because I never knew this: :La Brea" means "the tar" in Spanish, so when you say "the La Brea Tar Pits", you are actually saying, "The The Tar Tar Pits". Just remember that. Whenever anybody wants to bust your balls about anything, just tell them that. So, I just read this book, "The Education of Robert Nifkin". It's amazing. It's loosely based on Daniel Pinkwater's life growing up in Chicago. Very loosely. It's one of those books that's so short and so good that it makes you feel a bit guilty reading it too fast. Every single sentence is heavenly. It's written so well, and so super fun to read. So, if you have a LA Library card, go to www. lapl. org, and hold a copy and you can get it sent to your local library. If you don't have a LA library card, you suck major cajones. I can't even understand how you can subsist from day to day. It's free, culeros! Use it!