los angeles almanac

I came across an impressive website while doing research today to avoid writing: Los Angeles Almanac. In addition to helpful census bureau data and fun facts like old telephone exchange names by neighborhood, you can find all kinds of trivia. For example, I have always wondered why traffic reporters refer to "sig-alerts" when there's an accident on the freeway. Wonder no more:

During the 1940s, the LAPD began alerting radio reporter Loyd Sigmon whenever a major automobile accident occurred on city streets. These notices became known as "Sig-Alerts," and were later issued to alert all local media. The term "SigAlert" eventually came to apply to any incident on greater Los Angeles area freeways which blocks two or more lanes of traffic for two or more hours.

I also found this very reassuring entry on vampires in L.A.:

In 1995, the late Stephen Kaplan, a parapsychology teacher at the Vampire Research Center in Elmhurst, New York, reported that Los Angeles was home to 36 vampires -- the highest concentration of vampires in the world. He described vampires as sexually charismatic, high-energy people, who fit well into L.A.'s mainstream, drawing less attention due to L.A.'s acceptance of the unusual. Kaplan explained that vampires were not to be feared. They are pleasant people who require only a very small amount of blood.

(Before you New Yorkers start to bash L.A., do note that the Vampire Research Center is in Elmhurst.)