Post #290201 by Son-of-Kelbo on Wed, Mar 7, 2007 12:27 AM

Very good to see your bouyant resolve, 'Timo.

The fight's not over; it may not yet have even truly begun in earnest. True, it will take more to win it than just the handful of those thusfar willing to actually speak up, and be counted. It may in fact be tilting at windmills, a futile effort in the face of a wealthy developer who's no doubt confident that mega-bucks will mow down any landmark, no matter how much the locals (and I include everyone in Southern California here) care about it.

As for those who've declined to stand up, who may yet be watching with wan amusement or cynical apathy, those who've made selfish and purile attempts to sabotage or ridicule our brief meetings on TikiShout a few minutes a week to begin coordinating our efforts, or who've flamed some of us for asking them not to inject their defeatism while we were trying to come together..., well, let them not be scorned so much as pitied for their lack of Aloha.

Reservations have been made at TV's 90210 for Saturday, 3-17, at 6:00pm. Some of us will be there, to enjoy ourselves in that scene we love, tap the Admiral, laugh in the light of Flaming Beef Cho-Cho's, and, without doubt, discuss further tilting-at-windmills, in an ongoing attempt to stop the place from being demolished. And because we will do so in this way and with this spirit, whatever Trader Vic's fate, it will always belong more to us for caring enough to make an effort to save it, than it ever will to those who just want to party while Rome burns.

It may be St. Patty's Day, but we're far from declaring the campaign a wake, some have said they will be there (if not in post here). And to those who think it's hopeless to try to save these special venues we treasure from oblivion, let me add that I was one of the ones who showed up to sign a petition to save Bob's Drive-In in Toluca Lake from similar avaricious extinction. That's all I did, just add my signature to a petition; but it was a petition that gathered enough signatures to put the kybosh on the bulldozer, for real.

So it is, in fact, possible to skewer the odd windmill after all.

Cheers and aloha,
SOK

(p.s.: Regarding concerns that some of us may take this issue too seriously, well, not all those who speak up about this here are humorless crusaders. But even at the happiest luau, if you see a friend getting eyed by cannibals, you stand by him, before somebody forks him over, neh? Mirthful posts from SOK are elsewhere on TC; I'm doing this as much for the memory of Kelbo's as anything. See you at TV's BH. No cannibals invited.)