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About:

Shamus

Yiddish for Sexton, Beadle * of the Synagogue, the lighter taper used to light other candles on a Menorah, AND slang for Policeman.

From a List of Yiddish Words and Expressions

* Beadle was originally a title given to a Saxon officer who summoned householders to council. It now refers to a parish constable. In universities like Cambridge and Oxford, a Beadle means a person who performs varying duties, represents the university and provides information. In Yiddish, the term "Beadle" (in Hebrew Shammash or "Sexton") also refers to the Gabbai, the Caretaker or "man of all work" in a synagogue. (based on Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

How Raymond Chandler used the term Shamus:

"Sit down, pal. Breathe quietly, keep your voice down, and remember that a Carne operative is to a cheap shamus like you what Toscanini is to an organ grinder's monkey."

"Philip Marlowe, huh? A shamus. You here on business?"

"I'm in a great deal of trouble, shamus." Shamus, it was the first time he had called me that. But it kind of went with his style of entry, the way he was dressed, the gun and all.

"She's a grifter, shamus. I'm a grifter. We're all grifters. So we sell each other out for a nickel. Okey."

"Copper-smart," she said emptily. "Not a real copper at that. Just a cheap shamus."

"Name's Philip Marlowe, Eddie. Lives at the Hobart Arms on Franklin. Private license, deputy's badge and all. A shamus."

"You a real dick or just a shamus?"
"Just a shamus."

Me

A pre-Baby Boomer, born in Hollywood, California.

Degrees (BA, and two MAs) from UCLA, CSULA and USC. Except for a couple of years living in Central and Northern California (Stockton and Redding), I have lived in Los Angeles all my life. I grew up riding the "Red Cars" (Pacific Electric Street cars, or Trolleys) and buses, and have driven just about everywhere in Southern California - like Raymond Chandler.

I taught third grade as well as university, repaired Xerox machines and did finger print computer (AFIS) technical training, as well as technical writing for 12 years at Xerox. Somewhere in there I was also an Audio Visual Specialist for the Los Angeles Unified School District, and a medical center as well.

How to cite this Web Site or it's Pages

According to OWL, at Purdue University, the basic components of an electronic citation are: Name of Site. Date of Posting/Revision. Name of institution/organization affiliated with the site (sometimes found in copyright statements). Date you accessed the site [electronic address].

For an individual page on a Web site, list the author or alias if known, followed by the information covered above for entire Web sites. Make sure the URL points to the exact page you are referring to, or the entry or home page for a collection of pages you're referring to.

For example: Latker, Loren. Raymond Chandler's Los Angeles. 28 Dec. 2007. Loren Latker. 10 Jan. 2008 Raymond Chandler's Los Angeles.

A page would be as follows: "Timeline." Raymond Chandler's Los Angeles:Timeline. 10 July 2007.

Tools Used - Hardware

Originally an Apple Macintosh Powerbook G4 17" 1.33 GHz with 2 GB DDR SDRAM, 100 MB hard drive running Mac OS X v. 10.4.6, which was recently upgraded to an Intel Core Duo 17" MacBook Pro running Mac OS X 10.4.7 with 2 GB DDR2 SDRAM at 2.16 GHz.

Now using a Mac Pro 2.66GHz with two Dual-Core 64-bit Intel Xeon “Woodcrest” 5100 processors, 2 GB of 667MHz DDR2 RAM and a 23" Apple HD monitor.

The initial photographs were shot with a Canon Digital Rebel, then a Digital Rebel XT, a 20D, a Canon 40D DSLR, and currently with a Canon 50D DSLR, using Canon lenses: 12-22mm, 17-85mm and 55-200 mm zooms. The 17-85 is an image stabilized USM lens.

The original time lapse video was shot with a Sony DCR-PC330 Camcorder which was recently traded in for a Sony HDR-HC3 1080i High Definition Camcorder.

Also using an Apple iPhone 3G, Garmin GPSmap 60CS and Manfrotto 303 QTVR Pan Head.

The high quality scans of the large maps and photos was done by Zuma Corporation of Culver City. Scans of smaller photos, postcards and maps was done initially on a CanoScan LIDE70, a HP Scanjet G4050 and now a Microteck i800 and occasionally a Mustek A3 USB 1200 Pro.

Software

The software used to create the maps, photo art, process the RAW images, retouch the old photos and postcards, and create this web site includes: Apple iPhoto, iTunes, Final Cut Pro, DVD Studio Pro, Garage Band and Aperture; Adobe Photoshop CS4, Lightroom, Illustrator, Acrobat Pro, Dreamweaver and Flash; Microsoft Word, Excel, and Entourage; Graphic Converter, Panorama Maker 4, GRASS & ArcSoft Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and more.

Colophon

In reference to Web sites, a colophon is a description of the tools, systems and resources used to create and maintain (the above).

A colophon can include, but is not limited to, software & hardware that was used, the server the site is running on, etc.

In publishing, a colophon describes details of a book, which generally includes the typefaces used, the names of their designers, the paper, ink, details of the binding materials and methods used, etc.

A colophon may appear on the same page as the copyright information, or at the back of the book. In early printed books the colophon follows the explicit, the final words of the text. A printer's or publisher's device on the title page or spine is sometimes loosely called the colophon.

"Colophon" comes from the Latin colophon, the Greek κολοφων (meaning "summit", "top", or "finishing"). It also derives from a tablet inscription appended by a scribe to the end of an ancient near east (e.g., Early/Middle/Late Babylonian, Assyrian, Canaanite) text such as a chapter, book, manuscript, or record. The colophon usually contained facts relative to the text such as associated person(s) (e.g., the scribe, owner, or commissioner of the tablet), literary contents (e.g., a title, "catch" phrase, number of lines), and occasion or purpose of writing.

© 2007 Loren Latker

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