I didn't stumble on this 2006 (yes, THIS side of the millennium) Twisted Sister video without help. Mediabistro's FishbowlLA led me there.

The fact that a bona fide '80s band actually pulled it together enough to both record a new song (OK, it's an old song, "Oh Come O Ye Faithful") and make a totally kick-ass video is ... words fail me.

I was telling Tom Gapen about the ice on my car windows that kept me from driving until I could defrost it from within, and he said I needed an ice-scraper.

This is L.A. There are no ice-scrapers.

So I MacGyvered it. And yes, I do carry sunscreen year-round.

Joe Pass, who in between being somewhat and more than somewhat famous taught guitar lessons out of his Northridge, Calif., garage, is one of a kind, a master of his genre and instrument.

When it came to voting in his first presidential election, Kyle Honkoski left nothing to chance.

The 21-year-old Van Nuys resident, who works at Neiman Marcus in Beverly Hills, took the day off to make sure he could cast his ballot.

"I stayed up late watching the news," Honkoski said at 11 a.m. Tuesday in line at the Burbank Oaks Apartments in Sherman Oaks. "I'm actually really excited."

The apartment complex on Burbank Boulevard, just north of the Van Nuys-Sherman Oaks border, drew a long line of voters the entire morning, with waits of about an hour.

While Honkoski was eager to cast his vote for Barack Obama, 76-year-old Van Nuys resident Louise Gfeiner was thinking more about who she was voting against.

The retired registered nurse wore a vintage "Morris for President" button. In case you don't remember, Morris was the finicky cat who would only eat 9Lives brand food.

"I think (John) McCain is too old," Honkoski said, "and if he dies, we'll have Sarah (Palin). She may be fine as governor, but I'm not ready for her to be president."

Honkoski was also planning to vote against most of the measures on the ballot.

I think we're deeply in debt enough. We can't afford more bond issues."

During their hour wait in the morning sun, voters had plenty of time to chat with their neighbors, or even catch up on their reading.

Jill Jacobson-Bennett, 53, of Van Nuys, carried a volume on California native plants.

A choreographer-turned-landscape designer, Jacobson-Bennett was as determined as others in line.

"I feel passionate about the election and some of the propositions — I want my voice to be heard," said the Democrat, a former Hillary Clinton supporter. While happy to cast her vote for Obama, she was glad Sen. Clinton didn't draw the vice-presidential spot that instead went to Sen. Joe Biden.

"I don't think it would have worked," Jacobson-Bennett said of the Obama-Clinton ticket that never was. "It would lessen her power politically — and I'd like to see her run again."

Jacobson-Bennett's husband, Dale Bennett, a Disney animator and registered Republican, voted earlier in the day.

"We usually cancel each other out, but I convinced him to vote my way on the propositions," said the ardent supporter of Proposition 2 and opponent of Proposition 8.

Prop. 2 would improve conditions for farm animals. Prop. 8 seeks to ban gay marriage in the state.

At one point, a voter shouted to a friend, "Starbucks after we vote!"

"There's a long line there, too," another yelled. The coffee chain — which has a small, busy store at the corner of Burbank and Van Nuys boulevards — was pouring free drinks for voters with the fortitude to brave two lines in one day.

Other polling places in the area were similarly inundated. Waits of an hour were reported at the Horace Heidt apartment complex on Magnolia Boulevard, and lines snaked out of the auditorium door at Chandler Elementary School, both in Sherman Oaks.

I hadn't checked in on Andrew Hurvitz's Here in Van Nuys in a while and was surprised to see that he moved the blog from Blogger to WordPress.

While Here in Van Nuys has always looked good, it looks even better in WordPress, where it has an uncomplicated but pleasing layout and choice of fonts.

I'm in full agreement with Mark Frauenfelder of BoingBoing that persimmons — which grow like crazy in Southern California — are best eaten dried.

We tend to get them already dried at the Encino Farmers Market, and as yet we don't have our own persimmon tree. However, our next-door neighbor has graciously allowed us to pick some of his.

Mark points to an article in Mother Earth News about how to make your own dried persimmons:

If you want to try it yourself, use astringent persimmons, such as 'Hachiya' or 'Honan Red.' Pick or buy fruits when they are orange but still hard and inedible. If picking them yourself, use a clipper and cut the stem twig so it forms a small T above the fruit for easy hanging. Peel the fruit with a knife or vegetable peeler. Use sturdy string to tie the fruits from their twigs in a line, so they do not touch when hung vertically. Hang outside in a place that is protected from rain and snow, such as from nails or a horizontal pole under the eaves of the house. (I have also had luck drying persimmons without stems using clips or on flat baskets -- just make sure to turn often.) When the fruit begins to soften (one to two weeks), gently squeeze and massage each one. Repeat this after a few more weeks. They are done when dark brown, leathery and shrunken, but not overly hard -- about one or two months. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator or a cool, dry place. Enjoy Japanese style, as a snack with roasted green tea (hojicha) or ginger tea.

The hardest part seems to be finding a place to dry the persimmons where critters can't eat them.

Pierce College isn't exactly keeping it a secret that its music department have two extremely well-known and experienced guitar instructors on its faculty: John Schneider (pictured at right) and Ron Anthony (below).

Way back when I was a classical guitar student in the '80s, I didn't study with John Schneider, but I was a regular listener to "Soundboard," his KPFK-FM radio show that featured, as I remember it "music for the fretted string," meaning fretted instruments of all kinds. He's an expert in microtonal music, and that means freaky fretboards to reproduce unusual, multitonal temperaments (if I have that word and phrase right; I'm almost sure I don't).

I didn't study with Ron Anthony either, and a little jazz study would do me a whole lot of good, but that's another story for another time. Anthony is famed for his associations with George Shearing and Frank Sinatra. I used his excellent instruction book, "Comping," to help me find my way through the charts I was playing from while a very unexperienced guitarist in the Grant High School Stage Band even earlier in the '80s.

Very few books have ever been written about jazz accompaniment on the guitar, and Anthony's book was probably the best I'd seen. At some point, I lost track of it, but I do remember it fondly.

I won't go into excruciating detail about the Daily News' recent move after about 20 years on Oxnard Street in Warner Center to the shared but infinitely fancier confines of the nearby Warner Gateway office park (where Owensmouth Avenue meets the Ventura Freeway), what with the clean carpets, lack of grime on everything we didn't bring with us (meaning there's still plenty of grime to be had), and actual windows.

But there's one thing I will talk about:

Better coffee.

The Organic to Go company has a little cafe on "campus" (is that the right word for this grouping of buildings?) and while the place looks pretty nice, the employees are friendly (especially the ever-cheerful Damon) and the food looks OK (haven't had more than a bagel thus far), the one thing Damon and Co. do absolutely right is coffee.

All I'm saying is that the coffee at Organic to Go rocks extremely hard.

I had the Peru blend today, and it rivals the dark roasts at both Coffee Bean (Organic's is less bitter but still full-flavored) and Starbucks (which, if you follow this blog, you know is gutting the very core of its business with its insistence on pushing the mild, nondescript Pike Place Roast in place of its signature dark blends).

And best of all, at $1.80 for a large coffee, Organic to Go's coffee is not only better but cheaper than that at both S*Bucks and Coffee Bean.

Wait ... it gets better.

Organic to Go even has one of those "Buy 10 get 1 free" cards, which Starbucks never had and Coffee Bean abandoned at least two years ago, if I remember correctly (and I very well may not).

So yes, the moles of the Los Angeles Daily News have a clean carpet, phones not caked with two decades' accumulated grime, no rat traps under my desk (and yes, years ago I did unwittingly grab one — rat included — while looking for an errant pen on the floor), bathrooms with no-touch fixtures that'll probably save me six communicable diseases per year and real windows to the outside world (which here includes quite a few trees).

Still, nothing beats good coffee.

In case you wondered why I haven't been ranting about Starbucks lately, a number of reasons come into play.

First of all, the Daily News is moving down the road as of this Friday. OK, that has nothing to do with it. Just thought I'd put it out there.

Moving is a pain in the ass. I need to pack my final boxes, shove my two-dozen dead or dying computers somewhere and get over it ...

Anyway, short story shorter, I moved the coffee pot from where the Features Department used to dwell to the desk directly to the left of mine.

During a trip to the magnificent, awe-inspiring, why-can't-they-put-one-in-the-damn-Valley, larger-than-imagined Whole Foods in Pasadena, I picked up a can of 365-brand French Roast coffee. It's pre-ground. It's cheap. It's good.

And that's what I've been making. I just got another can, so I'm rolling my own, saving money and caffeinating the whole planet one beaten-down journalist at a time.

It's about damn time that KTLA remove its head from you know where and bring Stephanie Edwards back as Rose Parade co-host. And just that has finally happened, as I learned today from L.A. Observed.

I'm no big Rose Parade fan, nor do I care much about what KTLA does, but come on! The woman is a legend and she deserves to regain this annual gig.

There's more on the return of Stephanie Edwards at Laura's Miscellaneous Musings (and while I can spell miscellaneous — I've spent way too many years as a copy editor, doing so makes my head hurt).