Life in California

From novelist Mona Simpson’s essay in last Sunday’s New York Times:

Once, my mother had sent me to the landlord (who, this being Los Angeles, was the actor who’d played the Tin Man in “The Wizard of Oz”) to ask for an extension on our rent. I was a clean-looking high school girl; we thought he’d hesitate to turn me out onto the streets. The landlord’s wife opened the door wearing a floor-length silk housecoat. The aged Tin Man sat in an old robe at the kitchen counter. She asked me how I was doing in school. “Good,” I answered. “Well, that’s wonderful.” she said. “Just wonderful.”

Simpson’s parents were also the parents of Steve Jobs, whom they gave up for adoption before marrying. Thus, we can go from Jack Haley to Steve Jobs in only three moves.