Talking the Walk

from: Scauzillo, Steve. "Talking the walk," Whittier Daily News, 8 July 2005.

"Last Sunday I was standing at the most dangerous place on Earth. I was a pedestrian trying to walk across Lake Avenue at the Foothill (210) Freeway in Pasadena.

I guess that old Missing Persons song is right on, 'Nobody Walks in L.A.,' because if they did, they would be dead by now or in traction.

Do it and you are risking not only injury but all sorts of ridicule. Responses to me legally walking in Pasadena or other parts of the San Gabriel Valley have run the gamut, from middle fingers thrust in my face, car horns bleeding my ears and drivers shaking their heads in condescending disapproval. Oh yeah, there's also the chance of becoming road splatter.

How do you successfully complete this perfectly legal maneuver without appearing like Tom Cruise in War of the Worlds looking over your shoulder in sheer terror? Or without somehow thinking that you are the one committing the faux pas, the one looking out of place at the party. 'Oh, he's walking across Lake Avenue? I feel sorry for him. Maybe he's homeless or retarded.'"