I am soon to be divorced, for the second time. I should be ashamed, but I'm not. Mostly, I'm inconvenienced: Sometimes sad, sometimes grateful, as though I have been untied from the train tracks of …
June 9, 2005
News & Stories
Farewell to a second husband
800 Glimpses
'It's not like a field camera; it's more like a precision instrument," says Graham Flint. Flint, an aerospace physicist and photographer, started the Gigapxl Project with his wife, Catherine Aves, in 2000 to create "an …
June 9, 2005
Sam in Mississippi
Jazz Fest Virgin Honestly, it was more the allure of a day off from work than the concert itself. "We're going to see Widespread Panic at Jazz Fest," said the Fiancé's best friend, Josh. He …
June 9, 2005
Stink About Link
On Saturday, May 28, I went to see Link Wray at the Casbah. He's known mostly by older folks for his 1958 instrumental hit "Rumble." Younger people know him for the same song, included on …
June 9, 2005
Nothing but Class, Babies
When Wayne Newton plays Viejas tomorrow, June 10, he expects, aside from his own limo, "a separate vehicle for Mr. Newton's pilots and mechanic." His wardrobe needs a clothes rack and an "upright steamer." Newton's …
June 9, 2005
Eddie Vedder... Monkey Business?
Attorney Sandy Troy says he's tried to mediate the problems between Hot Monkey Love Café owner Alma Phelan and her El Cajon Boulevard neighbor. "He's put a chain across the driveway while customers are there," …
June 9, 2005
Millionaire Happy Waiting (Turn)tables
"We'd have burlesque dancers onstage with us," says drummer Morgan Young about his decision to leave the Millionaires, a glam band that packed the Casbah, Ken Club, and the Alibi during its three-year run. "A …
June 9, 2005
Tuned Out
You think I don't want to? It's those TV networks, Marge: they won't let me. One quality show after another, each one fresher and more brilliant than the last. If they only stumbled once, just …
June 9, 2005
Jack's Cast-Offs
Tracy Johnson, general manager of KFMB (100.7 FM), says he had second thoughts after he dropped his live DJs, quit playing new music, and switched to an '80s-oldies format called "Jack 100.7." "I'd wake up …
June 9, 2005
The Reader's Eye on Television
People don't talk in real life the way they do on TV. In real life nobody makes a statement then waits for the other person to speak. Nobody answers a question directly. People don't listen …
June 9, 2005
Seek out fledgling western azaleas along Cuyamaca's Azalea Glen Trail.
Prior to October 2003's great Cedar Fire, Cuyamaca Rancho State Park sprawled across more than 25,000 acres of chaparral, gentle meadows, gurgling streams, and forests of pines, firs, cedars, sycamores, and oaks. Today, of course, …
June 9, 2005
Shrimp Ice Cream
When I got an invitation to attend the grand opening of the House of Blues, I was jazzed. Those parties have great food, lots of booze, and interesting people. The entertainment for the evening was …
June 9, 2005
Hard to Think Of a Worse Choice
It's bad enough to have a fox guarding the henhouse. Having a Cox guard one suggests that the corporate crook will once again be the cock of the walk, crowing as investors get skinned. Some …
June 9, 2005
Bluefin Cowboys
They are symmetrical, with pointed noses, vacuous eyes, and rigid appendages. It is the job of men like Frank Acuna to slice through them. The harvesting of pen-fattened bluefin tuna began in Australia in the …
June 9, 2005
The History of Love
The History of Love. W.W. Norton & Company, 2005; 252 pages; $23.95. FROM THE DUST JACKET: A long-lost book reappears, mysteriously connecting an old man searching for his son and a girl seeking a cure …
June 9, 2005
Racewalking
'For general-interest sports consumers, this is an esoteric activity. What is it about racewalking that captured you?" Curt Clausen says, "Random chance. It was the summer between my seventh and eighth grade. I was a …
June 9, 2005
Grape Twister
“The older clones had a lot of leaf-roll and other issues that led them to not produce as much sugar.”
Fighting Depression
Movies reviewed this week: Cinderella Man, Lords of Dogtown, Mad Hot Ballroom, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, andThe Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants
June 9, 2005
Crosswalk capers
Matt: Would you please clarify the "Pedestrian has the right of way" rule before I kill somebody? If I get to an intersection in my car and a pedestrian is waiting, I let the pedestrian …
June 9, 2005
Name that state
Hey Matt! Why are the states named as they are, i.e., Ohio, Texas, Utah, and so on? Where did these names come from? Why didn't they get simple names like Bob or George? -- Darth …
June 9, 2005
It's not logical being green
Matthew: Why does every escalator in the world have those green lights in the works under the steps at the bottom and the top? And why always the same shade of green? -- Steve, the …
June 9, 2005
Beach Breakfast Bingo
Early birds heading to the Del Mar Fair often arrive hungry, appetites aroused by the pre-festivities thrill ride through the I-5/805 Merge of Death. There's food inside the fairgrounds, but as the locals already know, …
June 9, 2005
Machete Drink
I make a pig of myself, crunching the tostada, gunging into the fish taco, and slurping coconut.
June 9, 2005