From the L.A. Times (obtrusive registration required, use laexaminer/laexaminer):
Family tensions and serious illness may have led the 56-year-old operator of the Zankou Chicken chain to fatally shoot his mother and sister in an upscale Glendale home before turning the gun on himself, police, family and friends said Wednesday.
What a tragedy; sadly a mundane one these days, in which a person, despondent or enraged, kills those close to them and then kills themselves (please spare me please the emails that he did it with a gun
its been a knife, fire, a tall building and poison in other cases that made the paper recently). But it hit me hard because like a lot of other Angelinos, Zankou Chicken means a lot to me.
In 1981, my Parisian-born then-wife and I moved back to Los Angeles from Chicago. Id grown up here, hated it and fled the place at 16. Shed occasionally visited it with me and saw it, as only a well-bred Parisian can, as the emptiest most soulless place on earth.
Then one night, sometime in the next year, we went downtown to the then-thriving LA Theatre Center and saw their amazing production of Jacques and His Master, stopped at Zankou Chicken afterwards, and then went to Club 88 on Pico and saw X and Los Lobos in a room slightly larger than our living room at home.
Driving home at about 3, we looked at each other, laughed, and decided that living in L.A. might not be so bad after all. My sweetie and I met my brother in the Glendale store just a month ago, and it was as ambrosial as ever. So thank you, Iskenderian family, and please accept my very personal condolences.
ah shit… I hadn’t heard. sadness.
Horrible.
It seems there’s something basic to the human condition that leads to despondency and suicide and murderous impulses. I’m not sure any society has ever existed that didn’t experience these things.
Last year we had a lady here decided to kill herself by simply getting on the expressway and jumping into the oncoming traffic lane–killing herself and quite a few other people, not to mention snarling up traffic for miles.
It’s always hard to know what to say to such things.
I am unable to understand what your complaint is when a gun is used for its designed purpose: killing and maiming. You believe in guns; you love guns; you keep guns. Why then this regret? Anyone who possesses a gun is a menace to his family, his neighbors, and to society. That someone proves this true should be no surprise to you.
Gosh, Thomas, don’t let any unpleasant facts get in the way of your opinions. You say:Anyone who possesses a gun is a menace to his family, his neighbors, and to society, and yet half to one third of the American population owns or has owned guns; yet only an infinitesmal fraction of them are used illegally.
So how do you explain that, anyway?
A.L.
Hey A.L.
Great response to Thomas. He reminds me of a bonehead I encountered on a martial arts bulletin board once. When I defended the right to keep and own guns, said bonehead told me “You owe an apology to the survivors of Columbine.”
Hey Thomas, as long as you aren’t climbing into my house in the middle of the night, I’m no menace to anyone. It’s a shame that you can’t respect other people’s rights to do what they want in their own lives as long as it doesn’t hurt you or your property.