Elbow Room

Around 3 o' clock at Musso & Frank, with the counter mostly emptied of its flannel-cake stragglers, a busboy smooths out white linen napkins for the dinner crowd. An ashtray smell of cold, burnt wood comes off the grill behind the counter's middle, and a man pokes among the dead ashes for a while before walking over. "If you hear a little explosion," he says, "don't worry. I'm turning on the grill. If you hear a big explosion . . . run like heck."

Mira Tweti does plenty of squawking over the size of parrot cages. Most, she says, are too small for the colorful birds whose charismatic and intelligent natures make them popular pets. That's why the Playa del Rey author and journalist -- whose last name rhymes with "tweety" -- is launching a national campaign to encourage parrot owners to swap their standard-size bird cages for larger ones. Typical bird cages measure 24 inches wide, 16 inches deep and 16 inches high.

Edward S. Gould grinned every time he opened the door to another meeting room in the new home of the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Community Services Center. At last, space! After 17 years of operating out of a Highland Avenue building so cramped that clients' body sizes were sometimes taken into account in scheduling appointments, the center is moving into its new, 45,000-square-foot Hollywood headquarters this weekend.

Morning begins in the Grisso household with the coffee maker grinding beans at 6:07, churning with the same grating sound as a fork spinning in a sink disposal. The eight occupants of the house stir. Two grandparents float into the kitchen and head to work, taking the whole pot of coffee with them for their hourlong commute. Upstairs, a teenage girl hits the snooze button, annoying her uncle in the next room over, who doesn't want to hear the alarm buzz again after another all-nighter playing video games.

Sunshine and warm temperatures aren't the only lures for retirees. They also want cheaper housing and elbow room, and that has made places like Colorado, Idaho, Utah and New Mexico more attractive to the over-65 set. Each of those states saw its senior population grow by at least 6% between 2000 and 2003, placing them among the 10 fastest-growing states for that age group, according to Census Bureau figures.

Summer may be the best time to explore Cal State Northridge. The 350-acre campus is calm and quiet, parking is ample, and you don't have to elbow your way through thousands of students rushing to class. Many galleries and exhibitions are padlocked during the off-season, but visitors can view sculptures dotting the grounds, arrange for a backstage theater tour, stroll through shady garden paths and even take a dip in the pool.

Mayhem in the Middle plays on, better than most realize because they are paying so much attention to his elbows--the elbows that inspired an organization to cry out for protection and are part of one of the ugliest jump shots in basketball. It has played all the way to the NBA finals, where Bill Cartwright, 7 feet 1 not counting the shadow of accusation that follows him, is shooting 55.

Morning begins in the Grisso household with the coffee maker grinding beans at 6:07, churning with the same grating sound as a fork spinning in a sink disposal. The eight occupants of the house stir. Two grandparents float into the kitchen and head to work, taking the whole pot of coffee with them for their hourlong commute. Upstairs, a teenage girl hits the snooze button, annoying her uncle in the next room over, who doesn't want to hear the alarm buzz again after another all-nighter playing video games.

There were disco music and champagne but no elbow room at Nipper's nightclub in Beverly Hills recently, where a fashionable crowd gazed coolly at models on platforms. And the models, dressed to kill, stared back. The setting made sense for a showing of Milan superstar Gianni Versace's second cruise collection, presented by the Versace boutique on Rodeo Drive.

Lyon used to be the smallest French restaurant in Los Angeles--a tiny former sushi bar on West 1st Street where chef Matsuno Tadayoshi dazzled his fans. The place was so popular that when the Zagat Guide came out last year, this minuscule establishment was rated among the five most popular restaurants in the city. And then it closed. Those who were dismayed by the restaurant's demise will be thrilled to learn that it has just reopened in Pasadena at 1065 E. Green St.; (818) 449-4519.

I'm watching what I eat up here. First I watch it, then I eat it. Total elapsed time, about 4 seconds -- a new North American record. What's really doing me in are these Japadogs (about $9). Japadogs are basically Japanese hot dogs, served from a couple of simple carts on busy Burrard Street, one of the main Vancouver thoroughfares. Japadogs have seaweed on them and a whole bunch of other stuff that could be good for you -- I'm not sure. But don't let that put you off, because bite for bite, Japadogs might be the best thing you ever barked down.

UCLA's California NanoSystems Institute, or CNSI for short, is the first Los Angeles project by the New York-based architect Rafael Viñoly. It is something of a stealth building. Its broad, low façade, overlooking the Court of Sciences near the southern edge of the UCLA campus, has a modesty that borders on the bland. Sure, the cantilevered glass-and-metal box protruding from the third floor is enough to catch your eye. So is a ground-level auditorium, in the form of a squat drum, edging out toward the pedestrian walkway that runs along the front.

Re "Zev tours growth areas in a fury," column, March 19 Thanks for Steve Lopez's wild tour with L.A. County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky. In our neighborhood, we're asking the same kinds of questions about development. Will we be at maximum density when we all bump heads picking up our morning paper? In our case, a developer purchased nearly an entire block of homes and has a large condo project underway. So is that enough density on one block? Apparently not in the eyes of city planners, as they're now considering allowing the same developer to do a similar condo project on our side of the Monopoly board too. When I asked a city department if the project required a traffic plan, I was told, "Nope, the project's too small."

The first thing you notice about Janet Mitsui Brown's remodeled Mar Vista home is its sense of balance, harmony and consistency. The slate on the fence posts is repeated on the chimney, the front steps and into the foyer. The red-toned wood of the double front doors appears again in the eaves and around the windows. The lanterns flanking the fence posts and porch unify its design, a combination of Asian and Craftsman features.

Elephants may be an unlikely star in a political drama, but the ones who inhabit the Los Angeles Zoo are taking center stage -- and that stage may get a lot bigger. A long-awaited report by city officials on whether the elephants should stay at the zoo or be retired to a sanctuary declares the elephants to be well-tended but in need of more space. The zoo, which is a city department, has been gearing up for several years for the elaborate "Elephants of Surin" exhibit.

The English? "I love them, some of my best friends are English," says my left-leaning, politically correct French son-in-law. We all know what that phrase really means: The English and the French just don't like each other. And not for the first time, the future of Europe may be affected by the tendency of either country to do the opposite of what the other is doing. The English think of the French as provincial, shifty, unwashed and very bad at making correct change.

On Friday nights, Ravioli Restaurant & Bar in Northridge attracts a big dance crowd. The club is open from 9 p.m. to 2 a.m. with a $5 cover charge. THE SCENE: No hassle at the door. Inside, the main dance floor fills up by 10:30 p.m. A second floor offers more elbow room, a bar with no line and a place to cool down. Either way, you don't need a partner to dance--groups of women hit the floor together. THE CROWD: Mostly college age.

Dan Rather gets more elbow room, but viewers will be hard-pressed to notice much else different when "CBS Evening News" occupies its new working newsroom starting today. Rather will still deliver news stories from a desk, the map of the world behind him. Some viewers may spot a deeper blue background and several new camera angles taking advantage of the studio's greater spaciousness, but no major program changes are planned.

Sunshine and warm temperatures aren't the only lures for retirees. They also want cheaper housing and elbow room, and that has made places like Colorado, Idaho, Utah and New Mexico more attractive to the over-65 set. Each of those states saw its senior population grow by at least 6% between 2000 and 2003, placing them among the 10 fastest-growing states for that age group, according to Census Bureau figures.

A proposal to erect a new, $30-million city hall in Newport Beach has watchdogs and some city officials questioning the wisdom of such a large expense at a time when the city has had to slash its capital improvement budget. No one disputes that the current City Hall -- which started out as one building in the '40s and has grown to five -- is bursting at the seams with people, equipment and mountains of paper. A shortage of parking forces some employees to park more than three blocks away.