Hillcrest dentist David Kennedy recently posed the following question to several friends with whom he was dining: What would you do if you knew that a toxic substance was going to be added to San …
October 2, 1997
News & Stories
It Will Give You Cancer. It Will Make Your Children Stupid. It Will Break Your Bones. The Fluoride Controversy Continues
Poet James Schuyler at UCSD
He read for an hour. Then stopped. Still, he’d never looked up. People rose to their feet. Clapped. Clapped louder. All at once Schuyler looked up from the table into the faces that fell down before him.
October 2, 1997
Why we pay a check at a restaurant and not a bill?
Dear Matthew Alice: Why is it that when you dine in at a restaurant, the waiter leaves you with what is referred to as a check? Why is it not called a bill, since it's …
October 2, 1997
The early use of "dope" for illegal drugs
Matt: If you can avoid the obvious wise-guy answer, can you tell me how drugs got to be called “dope”? — No Dope, La Jolla We sure know our dope: early America, the Dutch word …
October 2, 1997
What is good E. coli and what is bad E. coli
Matt Alice: I'm totally confused over this whole Escherichia coli ordeal I learned in microbiology that E. coli exists in our intestines. What's up with E coli 0157:H7? Where did it come from? How does …
October 2, 1997
Why John Brizzolara hates football
Most things on television are moronic and violent, but these players aren't actors; the violence is real and we are invited to participate in the stands, in the parking lots, in our living rooms.
October 2, 1997
Should we or shouldn't we welcome the aircraft carrier Midway to San Diego Bay?
"San Diego is the right place to have this. It's a tourist town with naval history. It's like trying to have a steak house in Kansas City. You have to blow it for it not to work."
October 2, 1997
Mayor Susan Golding invested well in pharmaceuticals
Mayor Susan Golding has filed a personal financial disclosure statement showing she has invested well in the pharmaceutical business. The mayor, who's seeking the U.S. Senate seat held by Barbara Boxer, is required by Senate …
October 2, 1997
Where we get flower "bed"
I have a new set of instructions from the research elves, communicated to me through a spokeself, who apparently lost a round of one-potato, two-potato. I have to warn them when there’s a word-origin question …
October 2, 1997
Up and down Symphony Towers
“If you have an office building, 1 story, 30 stories, or 80 stories, the owner wants to look forward to a profit. One way, if the economy is good in that market area — you can raise the rents.”
October 2, 1997