This weekend in Southern California, things were rockin’ and rollin’…literally. An earthquake (7.2 on the Richter scale!) hit Baja California and was felt all the way up to Santa Barbara and Las Vegas, including the LA area – which led, as you might expect, to a profusion of agitated celebrity check-ins on Twitter.

While it may not have been “the big one”, it was nonetheless a big one – this was the strongest earthquake to hit SoCal in 18 years, since the 1992 Landers quake, which clocked in at 7.3.

Older parts of Los Angeles suffered building damage and a parking structure collapsed on the Mexican side of the border. Here’s hoping for a more stationary week for the Golden State! Which brings us to our travel recommendation: if you’re terrified of earthquakes but really want to visit Southern California, the next few months might be a great time to book a ticket – what are the odds of two big ones in a row? (We don’t really want to know the answer to that.)

Welcome to the Zit List, where we tell you exactly what to think about the week that was.

Link: Take Your Kids to Work Day?
Early this week, an air traffic controller at JFK was suspended for allowing his young son to give air traffic control directions to planes. Obviously dumb of the dad, who was laughably quoted as asking what his bosses might have expected when school’s out…but give that kid a medal for grace under pressure. A future Captain Sully, perhaps?
Rating: 3 zits

Link: Oscar Showdown
Entertainment buffs are probably already salivating in anticipation of this Sunday’s Oscars, and specifically the Best Picture showdown between former married people Kathryn Bigelow’s good-but-twenty-minutes-too-long The Hurt Locker and fatuous James Cameron’s thudding live-action-Ferngully Avatar. The plot thickened this week when one of Locker’s producers was banned from the ceremony for sending out emails urging members of the Academy to vote for his movie, in the process disparaging Avatar. 1 grudging zit given here for “unsportsmanlike behavior”, but to be honest the Oscars would be a lot better with less fawning self-congratulation and more squabbling between bitter exes. And, we all know Up is the real Best Picture here, anyway.
Rating: 1 zits

Link: Earthshaking
Last Saturday’s 8.8 earthquake in Chile (which was thankfully less destructive than the one in Haiti, but still no small bones where earthquakes are concerned) was powerful enough that it actually knocked the earth off its axis, shortening the day by a matter of milleseconds. Unfortunately, weekdays and weekends were affected equally.
Rating: 6 zits