With Silberman's imprisonment and the death of his one-time partner, liberal Republican Robert Peterson, Foster had become one of the few remaining pillars of the city's left-of-center establishment.
May 31, 2001
Thursday, May 31
Married rich: Helen Copley, Susan Golding, Robert Dynes, Scott Peters, Maureen O'Connor, Joan Kroc, Alan Bersin
The bus driver's mind
Yost is formidable, the body of a wrestler or linebacker. You can picture him as a cop or prison guard with whom you would think twice about arguing. He usually wears a baseball cap or visor.
May 31, 2001
Swords Unsheathed
Next week's runoff election in District 6 for the city council seat vacated by Valerie Stallings last January will close a match between first-time candidates Steve Danon -- former chief of staff to Ron Roberts …
May 31, 2001
Mother's milk
National Republicans collected $13.6 million in so-called soft money during the first three months of the year, compared to just $1.2 million for Democrats, with wealthy San Diego contributors leading the way. In fact, the …
May 31, 2001
Why doesn't the Costco's outdoor dining area have as many pigeons as most outdoor dining areas?
Matt: While dining on the fine cuisine served up at the Morena Boulevard Costco outdoor dining area, I noticed a distinct lack of bothersome feathered friends. What in the world do they do at Costco …
May 31, 2001
Do kids these days still get cooties?
Hey, Matt! Do kids these days still get cooties? And what's a cootie anyway? -- Buglady, San Diego Cooties live! Science has not yet found a cure. According to our survey of neighborhood short people, …
May 31, 2001
Follow a segment of the Coast to Crest Trail along the north shore of Lake Hodges.
Lake Hodges has become one of the key units in the sprawling San Dieguito River Park, slowly taking form along 55 miles of river valley from the coast at Del Mar to Volcan Mountain near …
May 31, 2001
Thursday, May 24
San Diego encyclopedia peddler explains inside of business
I can still see Jay trying to sell this young Navy wife a Bible, while she kept telling him she was agnostic. I didn’t know whether to laugh out loud or butt in and set …
May 24, 2001
Survival Poet
'I'm totally lyric," says Erika Lara, a woman in her early 30s who sits on a metal folding chair on the marble landing before Tijuana's municipal government building. "A lyric poet. Uneducated. I barely finished …
May 24, 2001
Cowed
Computer magnate Ted Waitt has had his share of bad luck lately. First a huge plunge in sales at his Gateway computer company, then an embarrassing story in Fortune magazine, describing the problem-filled move of …
May 24, 2001
At Sea World, why can you walk around with a 16 oz. cup of beer from the concession stand, but you can't walk around with the 4 oz. sample size cups?
Dear Alice: What's up with the beer rules at Sea World? I'm an annual pass holder and often like to sample those 4 oz. cups of beer at the Hospitality Center. My question is, why …
May 24, 2001
Friday night laundry near Redwood Street
I was walking along Revolucion when a barker called out to me, “Hey, Paul McCarthy!” Huh? He was pointing at a pretty good T-shirt, black and rose with a portrait of a famous Beatle, not Paul.
May 24, 2001
I'm not going to fold laundry on Mother's Day
I had a hard time waking up on Mother’s Day. I’d been up until 12:30 a.m. folding laundry. With five children aged eight and younger, we generate a lot of dirty clothes. Every week, I …
May 24, 2001
Ramble about on the shady trails of Peters Canyon Regional Park in suburban Orange County.
Deeded to the Orange County parks system by the Irvine Company in 1992, Peters Canyon Regional Park has -- like several other newly declared open-space areas around the periphery of the Orange County metropolis -- …
May 24, 2001
Thursday, May 17
Sheep to Sweater in North County
The Shepherdess Rancho Borrego Negro is home to white sheep, black sheep, black fish, a black-and-white sheepdog, and a couple of near-black llamas, but for Kathy Gluesenkamp, the hardest thing to produce on the Ranch …
May 17, 2001
Justice for the Giant
In early 1999, over a dozen similar assault-and-robbery crimes took place against elderly pedestrians in the Mid-City area. In all of them, the victims were knocked over from behind, held face down, and robbed. Many …
May 17, 2001
We Can't Kidnap Them
Across from Lincoln High School, San Diego Fire Station 12 has three fire trucks and an ambulance. Although all firefighters are trained medical assistants (most are paramedics), the ambulance crew is the most critical life-saving …
May 17, 2001
Rising tide
An ambitious plan by Mexican president Vicente Fox to develop a series of upscale marinas along the Baja California coastline for wealthy gringos is drawing heat from world environmentalists. Dubbed "Nautical Steps," the plan would …
May 17, 2001
On an average day, how many airplanes are in the sky across the United States?
Hey Matt: With dozens of flights continually taking off and landing and airlines bragging that they're adding more flights, it amazes me that they don't run into one another more often...or that we don't look …
May 17, 2001
When I put Icy Hot on my hand, I can only feel the effect on the top part of my hand. Why?
Hey, Matt: I put Icy Hot on my hand the other day because my thumb was hurting. Unfortunately I was nearly struck mute with astonishment when I found that I could feel the "icy yet …
May 17, 2001
Hike the gently rising Pine Mountain Trail in the Laguna Mountains.
The Pine Mountain Trail, the newest designated trail in the Laguna Mountains, invites your attention this verdant and merry month of May. Spring rainfall in our local mountains, abnormally extending to as recently as last …
May 17, 2001
Thursday, May 10
If you want to see wrestling, go to Tijuana
“There were three sisters, all of them wrestlers. Two sisters married brothers who were also wrestlers.” Speaking is a man I’ll call Earl Elkin, 53, who, in the maturity of his life, found a career …
May 10, 2001
Of race and riots
Ex-San Diego city manager Sylvester Murray, who lost his job in 1986 after saying in a newspaper interview that "I get an orgasm just being a boss of police," has been hired by Cincinnati mayor …
May 10, 2001
Is it possible to accurately shoot two guns?
Mattmeister: I was watching TV last night and saw one of those scenes that we've all seen too many times. The scene showed a gunperson (PC) holding two (2) guns, shooting and doing a dandy …
May 10, 2001
What kind of chemical is "sodium laureth sulfate?"
Heymatt: What kind of chemical is "sodium laureth sulfate"? It seems to be the main ingredient in almost every shampoo or body wash. -- Joe E. Simpson, the net What kind? The cheap, popular, widely …
May 10, 2001
Does the hands-on-hips position help with the intake of oxygen?
M.A.: After a run or a quick walk up Cowles Mtn. I have a tendency to put my hands on my hips as I breathe deeply. This is the only situation in which I stand …
May 10, 2001
Endure Sisyphean ascents and descents enroute to one of Los Angeles County's finest waterfalls: Fish Canyon Falls.
One of L.A. County's most attractive waterfalls, Fish Canyon Falls in the San Gabriel Mountains, lies today in a canyon whose mouth has been ripped apart by large-scale quarrying operations. Once beyond the canyon's gaping, …
May 10, 2001
Thursday, May 3
San Diego's MOPA and its indefatigable Arthur Ollman
“I’m a scopophiliac, I guess,” says Arthur Ollman. “I love to look.” What the founding director of the Museum of Photographic Arts in Balboa Park loves to look at is photos. He claims his eyes …
May 3, 2001
The Voice of the Poet by J.D. McClatchy
And T.S. Eliot, I remember his giving a reading at the University of Michigan, and the entire football stadium was filled to hear him speak. Eliot had that kind of celebrity. He had a kind of authority.
May 3, 2001
Ahead of Its Time?
Most San Diegans have medical help available, even the uninsured. Many residents are minutes away from an emergency room; even rural San Diegans can be life-flighted to a trauma center. But what do you do …
May 3, 2001
Who really owns the Padres?
Who really owns the Padres? That question has remained unanswered since John Moores and Larry Lucchino proposed in 1996 that San Diego city taxpayers subsidize the team's venture to build a downtown baseball stadium. The …
May 3, 2001
Conventional decline
It's just what local convention-center boosters don't need to hear right now: a big software outfit based in Fairfax, Virginia, has canceled its San Diego conference for 1450 analysts and customers. WebMethods, Inc., an e-business …
May 3, 2001
Is there such thing as a chest hair transplant?
Hi, Matt: How shallow we are. I'm a gay man chasing a younger gay man who won't give me the time of day because I don't have a hairy chest! My question: Is there such …
May 3, 2001
Are the snails in my garden edible?
M.A.: In my garden, I have been experiencing extensive damage by snails. I have been able to curb the destruction by using the infamous beer trap that works for their cousin, the slug. My question, …
May 3, 2001
Where did the term "soft core" come from, as in porn?
Matt: Where did the term "soft core" come from, as in porn? -- Jake, the net No offense, Jake, but "soft core" is...um...the opposite of "hard core," dontcha think? But, hey, that's okay. That's what …
May 3, 2001
Removal Remembrance
Estimates say the Cupeños never numbered over 1000. Today the Cupeños, combined with the Luiseños, on whose land the Cupeños were relocated, have a combined membership of under 900.
May 3, 2001
Climb Cowles Mountain by way of a more difficult approach from Santee.
Cowles Mountain, the centerpiece of Mission Trails Regional Park, stands 1591 feet above sea level, making it the highest point within San Diego's city limits. On a warm springtime day, hundreds of people -- maybe …
May 3, 2001