You knew in your heart of hearts from the very beginning. Even as you watched those first flames take the first houses and then leap up through the canyons and down through the hillsides, through the breaks, even jumping PCH to gobble up the houses tucked next to the highway itself - those uniquely SoCal structures sandwiched between the asphalt and that big, blue Pacific surf...you knew. You knew would never see it again, for all the gargoyle grin assurances of the mayor who couldn't be bothered to be there when the flames broke out. For all the slickster, huckstering,...