Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

When Josephine Scripps was curator of minerals at the Natural History Museum

Thirty Years Ago

Josephine Scripps, probably the most eccentric living member of the Scripps clan, was coming out of the Natural History Museum one night when she spotted a garbage can of seashells discarded by a museum staff member. Miss Scripps is the museum curator of minerals, and twice a week she works at the museum.

"What are you going to do with the seashells?" I asked this San Diego millionairess, born of one of the most powerful newspaper families in this country's history.

"Why, I'm going to clean 'em up and sell 'em!" she replied. "I'm sure there are people who'd pay 50 cents for a nice pink shell."

Mind you, building up the Natural History Museum's gem collection is only one of Josephine Scripps's interests. She runs a North County dairy farm that produces over 3500 pounds of milk a day, she leads rock-hunting expeditions all over Southern California and Baja, she raises cocker spaniels, and she jumps at the chance to play pinochle into the wee hours.

"JOSIE SCRIPPS," Jeannette De Wyze, August 17, 1978

Sponsored
Sponsored

Twenty-Five Years Ago

As the "county bureaucrat" who approved Jerry Leaf's flagpole ("City Lights," August 11), I think it is appropriate that I be given credit. I would like your paper to nominate me to the Guinness Book of Records in the category of the zoning administrator who approved the world's tallest American flagpole.

-- LETTERS: "CONSIDER IT DONE," Robert E. Asher, zoning administrator, County of San Diego, August 18, 1983

Twenty Years Ago

Rather than think of myself as "out of shape," I had always thought my body type best described as "relaxed." It had a comfortable, homey look -- soft, familiar, nonthreatening. True, it had been a source of scorn in junior and senior high school, but as the years passed, providence stepped in, and I saw many of those self-same mockers and bully-boys about town cast in the roles of retail shoe salesmen or supermarket bagboys. And I might add, there is more than a small measure of vindication to be gained upon reading that a fellow who had once called me a "tub of lard" had been charged with a federal crime.

-- "GUTS AND GLORY, Abe Opincar, August 18, 1988

Fifteen Years Ago

The Dale Akiki case has so far involved three months' testimony from 60 prosecutorial witnesses and 45 criminal charges whose penalties, if served consecutively, would amount to more than a century. There have been allegations that Akiki stabbed babies, giraffes, elephants with a "crocodile knife," and shot chickens in the presence of his preschool-age charges. Testimony has also included several stories involving rabbits that were beheaded or tossed in the air and impaled on knives on descent or "drowned in a baptismal font."

-- "SPEAK, MEMORY," Abe Opincar, August 19, 1993

Ten Years Ago

As the hour drew near for Bill Clinton's Monday-night mea culpa, a snazzily dressed crowd from Governor Pete Wilson's lavish birthday fundraiser made its way to the bar at the downtown Hyatt Regency to watch the historic spectacle on big-screen TV. Among the well-connected Wilson supporters were Tom Shepard, onetime Hedgecock aide now making big money from the pro-baseball stadium campaign; Padres co-owner Larry Lucchino; wealthy port commissioner David Malcolm and wife Annie; Congressman Brian Bilbray and two aides.... As might be expected of Republican partisans, the Wilson crowd booed and yelled at each Clinton utterance.

-- CITY LIGHTS: "PETE'S FRIENDS," Matt Potter, August 20, 1998

Five Years Ago

[H]ow is my family safe from terrorists when California has bare borders and friendly forgery that allows illegal entry? To California's farmers I say: Mexicans aren't the only people to pick your produce. Ask for some of the bored citizens in the prison system to help defray your costs.

-- LETTERS: "ILLEGALS DISGUST," Kim Oakley, August 14, 2003

The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Last plane out of Seoul, 1950

Memories of a daring escape at the start of a war

Thirty Years Ago

Josephine Scripps, probably the most eccentric living member of the Scripps clan, was coming out of the Natural History Museum one night when she spotted a garbage can of seashells discarded by a museum staff member. Miss Scripps is the museum curator of minerals, and twice a week she works at the museum.

"What are you going to do with the seashells?" I asked this San Diego millionairess, born of one of the most powerful newspaper families in this country's history.

"Why, I'm going to clean 'em up and sell 'em!" she replied. "I'm sure there are people who'd pay 50 cents for a nice pink shell."

Mind you, building up the Natural History Museum's gem collection is only one of Josephine Scripps's interests. She runs a North County dairy farm that produces over 3500 pounds of milk a day, she leads rock-hunting expeditions all over Southern California and Baja, she raises cocker spaniels, and she jumps at the chance to play pinochle into the wee hours.

"JOSIE SCRIPPS," Jeannette De Wyze, August 17, 1978

Sponsored
Sponsored

Twenty-Five Years Ago

As the "county bureaucrat" who approved Jerry Leaf's flagpole ("City Lights," August 11), I think it is appropriate that I be given credit. I would like your paper to nominate me to the Guinness Book of Records in the category of the zoning administrator who approved the world's tallest American flagpole.

-- LETTERS: "CONSIDER IT DONE," Robert E. Asher, zoning administrator, County of San Diego, August 18, 1983

Twenty Years Ago

Rather than think of myself as "out of shape," I had always thought my body type best described as "relaxed." It had a comfortable, homey look -- soft, familiar, nonthreatening. True, it had been a source of scorn in junior and senior high school, but as the years passed, providence stepped in, and I saw many of those self-same mockers and bully-boys about town cast in the roles of retail shoe salesmen or supermarket bagboys. And I might add, there is more than a small measure of vindication to be gained upon reading that a fellow who had once called me a "tub of lard" had been charged with a federal crime.

-- "GUTS AND GLORY, Abe Opincar, August 18, 1988

Fifteen Years Ago

The Dale Akiki case has so far involved three months' testimony from 60 prosecutorial witnesses and 45 criminal charges whose penalties, if served consecutively, would amount to more than a century. There have been allegations that Akiki stabbed babies, giraffes, elephants with a "crocodile knife," and shot chickens in the presence of his preschool-age charges. Testimony has also included several stories involving rabbits that were beheaded or tossed in the air and impaled on knives on descent or "drowned in a baptismal font."

-- "SPEAK, MEMORY," Abe Opincar, August 19, 1993

Ten Years Ago

As the hour drew near for Bill Clinton's Monday-night mea culpa, a snazzily dressed crowd from Governor Pete Wilson's lavish birthday fundraiser made its way to the bar at the downtown Hyatt Regency to watch the historic spectacle on big-screen TV. Among the well-connected Wilson supporters were Tom Shepard, onetime Hedgecock aide now making big money from the pro-baseball stadium campaign; Padres co-owner Larry Lucchino; wealthy port commissioner David Malcolm and wife Annie; Congressman Brian Bilbray and two aides.... As might be expected of Republican partisans, the Wilson crowd booed and yelled at each Clinton utterance.

-- CITY LIGHTS: "PETE'S FRIENDS," Matt Potter, August 20, 1998

Five Years Ago

[H]ow is my family safe from terrorists when California has bare borders and friendly forgery that allows illegal entry? To California's farmers I say: Mexicans aren't the only people to pick your produce. Ask for some of the bored citizens in the prison system to help defray your costs.

-- LETTERS: "ILLEGALS DISGUST," Kim Oakley, August 14, 2003

Comments
Sponsored

The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Five new golden locals

San Diego rocks the rockies
Next Article

Classical Classical at The San Diego Symphony Orchestra

A concert I didn't know I needed
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

This Week’s Reader This Week’s Reader