Late this afternoon a state official called to tell me LADWP has promised to start refilling Silver Lake at 8 AM on Wednesday. There will be a press conference. Why? Self-aggrandizement. I was very happy to get the news, but you heard it here first: I predict (very unhappily) that they will drag out the refilling until it finishes on their all important target date of June 1. That way, they can spin H. David Nahai as a winnah twice: for doing such a great favor to the community as giving back the emergency water he took out, and for being a man of his word who sets and keeps…

I happen to have an excellent sense of taste and smell, which is one of those make-it-up-to-you things you get when you have to wear glasses since third grade. I’ve even thought of getting a taster job at Baskin-Robbins, based in Burbank! Anyway, I promised early on that I would tell you if Silver Lake started to smell funny as they drained it. One night it smelled bad, but I couldn’t identify that it was the lake. Tonight there was no doubt; it smelled just like how a water can or jug of water smells that you’ve left outside for a few days in your garden: rank, bitter, and greenish.…