Ghetto Dogs

Never thought I'd experience something like this, but hey, this is Los Angeles.

Last night, Grace and I went to Pink's for dinner.

We sit down at a table with our dogs and a man in a suit walks to another table and starts talking to this Hispanic family next to us. He starts asking them if they want to purchase stun guns or pepper spray. 10,000 volts for $35! The family's most interested as one of the guys says, "They use that to initiate guys into the crew." I hear the stun gun buzzing while I'm biting into my "Today Show" hot dog.

They talk him down to about $30, purchase the stun gun ("Don't make me regret buying this for you." Says the older guy, probably the dad, to the younger), and get the seller's contact info because he has knives to sell them also!

We take off from Pink's while he's pulling out the first of his knives...

Couple of things first off, how in the world did the seller know to approach this particular family. Was it because they were Hispanic, and if so, what about me? I guess I don't look Chicano enough or whatever, but it struck me as weird. This was also a little disturbing to me, because Pink's isn't exactly in the worst of areas. As a matter of fact, I kind of like where it's situated. On La Brea and Melrose, it's really close to what is a most intriguing part of Los Angeles, fashion-wise and people-wise. It also happens to be just a few blocks away from Golden Apple Comics, one of the pre-eminent comic book stores regionally. I guess no matter where you are, these things happen. Next, I'll probably see a drug bust going down a few blocks away from downtown Huntington Beach.

Anyway, it was a little disturbing, but pretty amusing too. Hawthorne's got nothing on Pink's.