Commentary: 'We had a thing for Cher, and now we knew where to find her'

It's been nearly 40 years since I've lived in Los Angeles. I still visit every year or so and am always struck by how surpassingly pleasant it is, and how ... floaty.

There's a buoyancy particular to my hometown, one I feel nowhere else. I'm an inch over my seat before the plane has landed, leaning into the window to stare at what never changes and always surprises: the flat-out astonishing number of perfectly turquoise swimming pools, unlikely cabochons set in the grid of neighborhoods around LAX.

Then there's that flat shimmer of water over bone-dry tarmac. I never see those mirages, not on the