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A few weeks ago I wrote a blog asking readers if they read the police log.

I was a little worried that no one would respond to my inquiry, because about 10 days went by without a response.

To date, however, I have had five responses. Not as many as I had hoped -- but at least I now have confirmation that indeed somebody out there is reading the police log. So the 30 minutes or so that I spend every day typing out the log has not been in vain.

It's either life mirroring art or art mirroring life.

I received a voice mail message from an unidentified man alerting me to his startling discovery: Jason West, the UC Merced graduate student deputies say was making meth, got his idea from a TV show.

The man, who I suspect may have been smoking some stimulants himself, couldn't remember the name of the show, except that it was about a high school teacher in New Mexico and on channel 63. He repeated those facts for about three minutes.

...he kindly stopped for me,' wrote Emily Dickinson, one of my favorite poets.

My longtime friend and mentor, Bob Sharp, has taken the same approach to the cancer now ravaging him in Pasadena. He's already written what we hacks call his obit:

'Robert L. Sharp, 71, retired international banker with postings in Manila, Hong Kong, and 12 years in Tokyo. He served as the elected president of the American Chamber of Commerce of Japan and was long-time board member of the Japan America Society of Southern California and Nishimachi International School.