Angel Dean Lopez is a Hollywood television writer and father who enjoys doing projects with his three kids. Every fall, he helps them transform 7-inch-long blocks of wood into whimsical race cars for the neighborhood’s annual Pinewood Derby in the Los Feliz area of Los Angeles.
“So you have to take your block of wood, shape it, sand it, paint it, use your imagination,” Lopez said, pointing to some favorites from derbies past that sit on a shelf in his home office — cars in the shape of an ice cream cone, a penguin and an Altoids peppermint box.
But one derby project lives in infamy: an S. Pellegrino bottle on wheels. It was the brainchild of his son Theo, then 9, in the fall of 2016, a time when Lopez recalls he was frantically busy at work. (read more
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