For all of your time travel needs.

Where can you get all of the news from the future as well as the past? Only at the Echo Park Time Travel Mart.
Welcome!

 

The moment I heard about the Echo Park Time Travel Mart (EPTTM), I had to go there for a visit. It's at 1714 W. Sunset Blvd. in the Echo Park District of  Los Angeles.
What a great experience --- an experience you shouldn't miss.





Trevor Byrne was running the unique (that's an understatement) shop that offers everything you'll ever need for that time-travel trip you've been planning. It doesn't matter if you're going forward or backward in time, this store has what you'll need.

It opens up at noon (not that time matters), which gives you more than enough time to examine the goods for sale there --- goods such as Time Travel Sickness Pills, bottled Robot Milk, dinosaur eggs, medicinal leeches and Woolly Mammoth Chunks.











My mouth was watering for a Time-Freezy Hyper Slush, but the machine was out of order. I didn't have time to go back yesterday when it was working.

I was able to sneak into the back room to see if they had other things in stock, but what I discovered instead was the real reason for this timeless store's existence.

You see, it's really a front for a tutoring service that's part of what's called 826LA. Truth be told, I first heard about this remarkable volunteer effort when I watched a fascinating video about the germ of this project on Ted.com. You can also view it at  Dave Egger's Ted Wish.


I know that there are a lot of educators who visit my blog, so I encourage you all to consider volunteering for the one-on-one tutoring during the school year or work with the entire classes that come to EPTTM during the daytime. You journalists out there can also help out ever Monday night from 7 to 8:30 p.m. when the young staff of "828LA Good Times"convenes to put together its astoundingly professional newsletter.

The student journalists write about more than their pets. For example, in the current edition, reporter Alanis offers up a Q&A with seismologist Kate Hutton from CalTech. Josephine, another reporter, interviewed Tom Overton of Gems and Gemology Magazine as well as Wendy Van Norden of National Earth Sciences Teacher Association. Ruby used her interviewing and writing skills to address the dispute about whether Pluto is really a planet. She turned to USC Professor Werner Dappen for her material. Pretty impressive stuff, indeed.

I promised Trevor that I'd have to travel to the future (when my next check arrives) before I can return to buy some of the really cool items at the store --- including books that the students have published as part of the program.



The best part is that the money the store raises goes directly to the tutoring programs and helps pay the rent. It's a worthy endeavor and I encourage you to stop in and buy something.

That is, if you have the time.

You can learn more by visiting them online http://www.826la.org