"It was an envelope from the bank, with four checks in it, and I was on my way to the bank." Maria Sandstrom gets four personal checks every week from four sets of parents for …
February 1, 2007
News & Stories
The Green Monster, Barney, and Spibs move letters at the San Diego Post Office
Lost City Radio
Lost City Radio by Daniel Alarcón. Harper Collins, 2007, 272 pages, $24.95 ABOUT THE BOOK: A nameless, timeless South American country slowly emerges from a war everyone would prefer to forget. For ten years, Norma …
February 1, 2007
When you have hardware installed in your flesh, you tend to forget about it.
One month into the New Year and already I'm striking out in the resolutions department: quit smoking; get a new battery installed in my pace- maker -- a $20,000 proposition with no insurance (my fault …
February 1, 2007
Thirteenth Month of the Year
The touches of animation are too few to have been worth the bother.
February 1, 2007
A Boost from Jocko
A couple of years ago, recent Torrey Pines High grad Michael Gallagher abandoned his acting aspirations and took a New York Film Academy summer course in L.A. Now 18, he has written, cast, and directed …
February 1, 2007
Rapp vs. Rap
Not long ago, Rosarito's big draw was hip-hop. Rappers and DJs drew weekend crowds to bars such as Iggy's and Papas and Beer. "Those places were importing these rappers from San Diego," says Adrianne Rapp, …
February 1, 2007
Happy Endings Are Extra
Gabriel and Chantelle have been affianced for a long time (too long, suggest some of their friends, who speculate about the delay). They have an "open relationship," which means, in their case, Chantelle has remained …
February 1, 2007
Flour Power
Twenty-seven years ago today (2-1-80), eccentric punk pioneer Gary Wilson played downtown's Skeleton Club along with locals Four Eyes. "Gary Wilson had tape and stuff wrapped around him and there's flour being thrown all over …
February 1, 2007
Shot Around
San Diego in the summer of 2005, The Pacific and Eddy premiered last weekend at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival. Writer and director Matthew Nourse -- a SD native, 1998 alum of Torrey Pines …
February 1, 2007
Rudies' Delight
"The Fabulous Rudies have been picked up to play the entire 2007 Vans Warped Tour," says singer Tom Voris. "We were the second band announced, right after Bad Religion, and we're already getting label and …
February 1, 2007
Where's That Twang?
Promising to be the country equivalent to what the Coachella music fest is to pop/rock fans, the Stagecoach Festival debuts May 5 and 6 at Empire Polo Field in Indio (the same venue as Coachella, …
February 1, 2007
Explore Balboa Park's wilder east side on foot or by mountain bike.
Balboa Park has plenty of "tame" places to walk, such as landscaped sidewalks on the grassy west side, paved trails inside the San Diego Zoo, and a number of semiwild trails in canyon bottoms near …
February 1, 2007
San Diego GOP congressmen's donors
Now that Congressman Duncan Hunter has entered the presidential derby, it may be instructive to take a look at just what kind of people are giving campaign cash to the county's congressional delegation, composed of …
February 1, 2007
New Hires
Picasso said once when being interviewed that one should not be one's own connoisseur. -- Kenneth Koch I rested the pen against my chin and contemplated the list before me. Below "Interests," I'd written, "dining, …
February 1, 2007
Raising chickens
Last summer, I spent a month on my brother-in-law's farm with the kids. They fed the goats, caught toads, fished and swam in the pond, and helped harvest vegetables from the garden. I picked endless …
February 1, 2007
What We're Eating
Title: What We're Eating Address: www.whatwereeating.com Author: Amanda and Tyler From: Ocean Beach Blogging since: July 2005 Post Date: January 5, 2007 Post Title: Orgasmic Mac-n-Cheese T: I gotta say, Amanda, this mac-n-cheese was out …
February 1, 2007
Somewhere in the Jungle
I'm not one of those serious shoppers who puts on their running shoes, downs a highly caffeinated beverage for extra energy, waits outside the mall until it opens, and glares at anyone ahead of me …
February 1, 2007
Plane rides and finances require trust in God
"We have a new song today," announced worship director Janet Werdowatz. "It's a new song by Chris Tomlin called, 'Made to Worship.' We were made to worship Him -- that is our first purpose of …
February 1, 2007
Medicine Soldier in Iraq
We had a long flight and went right into training to confirm the sight alignment on our weapons; we watched two mandatory training videos and then waited on logistics -- all after two hours' sleep …
February 1, 2007
Triple Word Score
'T he first year we used a Webster's dictionary," says Josephine Jones, director of literacy for the Escondido Public Library. "Everybody and their mother came up to me and said, 'Are you the director of …
February 1, 2007
Strangers in Wine Land
"But they're Mexican wines, which most people haven't heard of, and that gives them a bit of cachet."
The Reader's Eye on Television
My new best friend, a sock puppet, wrote this week's installment of "Remote Control King." I made the sock puppet's eyes with dried jalapeños from a discarded pizza, and his mouth was created by painting …
February 1, 2007
Super Bowl Alert
We'd better go over security for Sunday's big game. Emergency Management magazine tells us "more than 70 government agencies have struck alliances" in order to make a safe Super Bowl Sunday. Tens of thousands of …
February 1, 2007
Rockabilly Dreams
San Diego rockabilly guitarist Buzz Campbell and his band Hot Rod Lincoln released a CD last year called Runaway Girl (with songs titles like "Too Drunk to Drive" and "Betty Page"). Buzz also plays lead …
February 1, 2007
Hey, Sarge, What's That Noise?
Heymatt: Is there any reason why women were ever told to do pushups from the knees? Is it really just a strength issue? My daughter, who is in JROTC, was told that if she did …
February 1, 2007
A Bunch of Mugs
Ahem, Matt: The word "mug." It means so many things. Why does it mean a cup and a face and to get robbed? Where did that useful word come from? -- Jeff, Escondido Eight meanings, …
February 1, 2007
Out-Exoticked
Ever wonder what modern Japanese eat when they go out to nosh, sip, and socialize after work? Izakaya Masa gives you a taste of those dishes. After a couple of meals, I can tell you …
February 1, 2007
Curses! JFK, LBJ, Ike All Did
It's shocking to find out: political discourse is often coarse. Consider, for example, the straitlaced, rigid James Baker. In 1981, David Stockman, Ronald Reagan's budget director, told a financial journalist that supply-side economics was just …
February 1, 2007
Mexico doesn't convict under-18-year-olds of crimes
Luz María Félix Figueroa, president of the Tijuana branch of Baja California's juvenile detention agency, shakes her head. She's been asked whether she agrees with the American trend of trying as adults minors who commit …
February 1, 2007
San Diego redevelopers want sports, not arts
The arts community fervently hopes that if Mayor Jerry Sanders tries to redevelop the four-block Civic Center Plaza, as he mentioned in his state of the city speech January 11, the Civic Theatre will remain …
February 1, 2007
Aaron Feldman's largesse to San Diego politicians
The developer who's stirred controversy by building a high-rise office building smack in the flight path of Montgomery Field is a longtime veteran of local, state, and federal politics, funneling thousands of dollars to a …
February 1, 2007