As someone who has grown up living in Southern California, I know all too well about the costs and scarcities of water.

I grew up with fantastic Southern food. In Southern California.

The costs of doing business in Southern California are much higher than the costs of doing business in Tennessee.

Southern California, where the American Dream came too true.

Like so many named places in California it was less an identifiable city than a grouping of concepts--census tracts, special purpose bond-issue districts, shopping nuclei, all overlaid with access roads to its own freeway.

The bag was a hybrid I had picked up at a store called Suitcase City while I was plotting my comeback. [...] It had a logo on it -- a mountain ridgeline with the words "Suitcase City" printed across it like the Hollywood sign. Above it, skylights swept the horizon, completing the dream image of desire and hope. I think that logo was the real reason I liked the bag. Because I knew Suitcase City wasn't a store. It was a place. It was Los Angeles.