fear and loathing of teenagers

riding a bus in l.a. in the mid-afternoon is a pedophile's dream come true.  there are so many teens trying to get impregnated, even the most outlandish fetishist could be satisfied, but particularly ones with a preference for big, olive-complected girls.  rather than hire their own bus drivers who may give in to the temptation of barely pubescent girls, lausd lets the whole bus-riding public loose on them instead.  hell, they even encourage it with student discounts.

the wanton display of flesh is something you'll get in any hot climate, but it reaches a frenzy if hollywood producers are in the mix.  the promise of fame pulls helpless girls in from all over the world, but nowhere does that drumbeat pulse quite as incessantly as in the san fernando valley, close enough to hollywood that dreams look real, but far enough that shattered ones, littering every motel and production office, aren't in plain sight.  that a conveyor belt of fresh meat from the midwest primed for hollywood's predation makes journeying to the san fernando valley unnecessary for producers deters these girls not.  they are seeking attention and will not fail.

on occasion, when i got to leave work early, i bore witness to this insanity.  somehow, all the single moms with screaming babies and years of premature despair written on their faces didn't act as a deterrent.  in fact, it just emboldened the boys, the complete absence of fathers assuring them no one would hold them accountable to any of their own eventual spawn.  though i no longer understood the specific language, it was clear that the mini-skirts, hot pants and bare midriffs were just the first step in daily mating rituals, ones in which the politeness and civility of dinner and a movie were punished by more base instincts requiring just 5 minutes and some privacy.