If you want to know the history of the "Street Names of Pacific Palisades," you should talk to the man who wrote the book. Randy Young says that Temescal Canyon Road in Pacific Palisades "probably came from 'temecal,' which is an Aztec word. But it's been simplified or anglified."

And for those of us who can't remember a single vocabulary word from high school Aztec class? Young says "temecal" means "sweat house." "They were kind of health addicts even way back in Native American times."

Sweat houses, fine. But it still took a few years before that Aztec health food store moved into the neighborhood. You know – Gelson's.

(Airdate for this story: 7/8/07)