Off-Ramp commentator Milton Love, an eminent marine biologist at UC Santa Barbara, is also a great storyteller. And this time, he tells us stories about how fish got their names. Including one of the most disgusting fishes, which was appropriately named for one of the most disgusting humans.

In 2015 Michael Holland, the LA City Archivist, dug into his files to explore how the city reacted to the 1919 flu epidemic that killed millions around the world. Michael was inspired to explore the topic by a measles outbreak, but no matter, the parallels between 1919 and today are eerie and fascinating. Masks in theaters? Music in restaurants? It's all there, more than a hundred years ago.

Peter Mac's Judy Garland tribute show ... Lisa See's "Shanghair Girls" and "Dreams of Joy" ... Acting v Bullying ... Good Magazine ... Forget Carmen San Diego; who the hell is Moomat Ahiko? ...

Off-Ramp welcomes Lunar New Year in Chinatown ... 3 Places with Linda Vallejo, PST artist ... Spirited Away with My Neighbor Totoro - a Ghibli celebration ... Bradley Whitford on "Art" and that show he did ... have your New Year's resolutions gone out the window?

Clayton and Ellen Kershaw, the real (nice) deal ... Korean American filmmaker Andrew Ahn uses Sundance film to come out to folks ... Ted Soqui's Occupy LA photos ... Downey woman tells harrowing Costa Concordia story ...

Troy Isaac, homeless advocate ... OCMA's PST entry: SoCal's conceptual art hotbed ... EatLA and the death of restaurants ... Coachella expands to two weekends ...

Largest Vivian Maier photography show in LA ... Chris Butler uses film ... speech analysis computer can (usually) tell if you're drunk ...

Walking Out of History, John Rabe's NPR documentary about Ernest Shackleton's Endurance expedition

New and old takes on Dickens' classic "A Christmas Carol"

Judge James Reese fights for literacy ... all-star Night Before Christmas, an Off-Ramp holiday tradition ... A Christmas Story: Dylan Brody and Dylan Thomas ... EatLA eats a lot of sandwiches ...