Give Us Happy Hours

I am writing to make a suggestion. I think most of the restaurants Naomi reviews are too expensive for many of us, while Ed’s restaurants tend to be dives. I suggest a middle ground: do a review of good happy-hour food, which we frequent almost exclusively because of their prices.

Our favorites include Gulf Coast Grill (good clam chowder and Caesar salads with chicken or shrimp and many other good items), Roppongi (still a little high-end but more affordable than their dinner menu), Khan’s Cave (this is a great new restaurant in Kearny Mesa on Clairemont Mesa Drive at Ruffin Road, with nice atmosphere, service, food, and prices), Fish Market Express in Mission Valley, Kensington Grill, Parkhouse Eatery, and many others we have yet to try.

Reviewing them would give a boost to all the restaurants that have created these happy hours to survive hard times. People might come out if they knew how inexpensive and high-quality these happy hours are.

Janet Farrell
via email

Naomi Wise replies: Yes, Janet, we’re paying attention. Since about mid-July, the majority of my reviews have been of moderate-priced restaurants (Sea Rocket, Linkery, Royal India, Currant, Hexagone, etc.), and since the serious economic crash in September, more than half have been of restaurants with good-value happy hours, grazing menus, or just plain low prices, including Café Bleu, Tabule, Maryjane’s (not such great food, alas), Tender Greens, and Illume. Other reviews have included endnotes spotlighting the best early-bird bargain menus (e.g., Better Half, Bernard’O), something I’d like to make a regular feature — as I hear about the bargains, I’ll mention them. In fact, I’ve been trying to keep the real “high-priced spreads” down to about one per month, for the occasional splurge eats that we all need sometimes. I like your suggestions too — Roppongi, Gulf Coast, and Parkhouse were all reviewed a very long time ago and could each use a fresh look, especially at happy hour. In fact, revisiting them sounds like fun. Thanks for the ideas!

HOA OK

Re Geoff Bouvier’s cover story “It’s Getting Ugly Downtown” (December 4), some things to keep in mind about street noise and HOA dues:

1. Downtown condominiums of quality construction have double- or even triple-pane windows that mute outside noises to an amazing degree. These windows also block most of the radiant heat from the sun and keep daytime warmth in on winter nights. After living in ten different dwellings in various parts of suburban San Diego and East County, I can honestly say that my condo downtown is the quietest and most comfortable place I’ve ever lived in.

2. HOA monthly dues are high for some buildings, indeed. But you often get what you pay for, including most utility costs and contract staff who keep the premises clean, properly maintained, and secure. A significant fraction of HOA dues typically goes into a reserve account that pays for replacement of building components and exterior maintenance, such as painting. This is money set aside in advance. HOA dues that are too low may result in the underfunding of reserves, which eventually leads to special assessments when work such as roofing, painting, or replacement of mechanical equipment is needed. Prospective buyers should check the financial health of the building’s HOA, including its reserves.

Jerry Schad
Downtown

Genetic Hogwash

I’m calling regarding this letter that you printed in this week’s edition (December 4) from Pat Palmer. It’s titled “The Present Craziness.” I wonder if you check the accuracy of statements in letters before you print them, because she presents something in here as science that to me is science fiction. And that is when she says, “When we eat, we accept and integrate that genetic information via our messenger RNA into our own DNA and are so modified.” To the best of my knowledge, and I am not a genetic scientist or anything, but to the best of my knowledge, that is complete hogwash. When you eat, you break down what you eat, you derive the nutrients from it, and the rest is excreted. You do not absorb the DNA and integrate it into your own body. She’s been watching too many science fiction movies. So you really should print a correction on that, or a lot of people are going to be misguided and misled based on that letter.

Michael Donovan
Vista

Bike Swarm

What a timely article (“SDPD — Got an Attitude?” “City Lights,” December 4). The day before I read it, I chewed out one of the participants in this or another Critical Mass event for what I experienced driving home from Balboa Park one night. I was swarmed by extremely reckless bicyclists, some of whom were holding beers. There was nothing articulating what the event was, let alone how it was being conducted. The potential for an organized promotion of a cause was clearly lost in stark contrast to the approaches of the recent cancer-awareness walkers or those of typical organized civil disobedience. Worse — and I say this as a cyclist, environmentalist, and personal injury lawyer — many of them displayed a gross disregard for probability of collisions and injuries. I called the police repeatedly and was given the runaround only to find police purporting to direct traffic at the intersection of Park Boulevard and University Avenue. The hue and cry of pro-motorist bias on the part of the police is pure BS.

Robert Burns
via email

Critical Mess

I was calling in response to your article on Critical Mass (“SDPD — Got an Attitude?” “City Lights,” December 4). Actually, I had my own experience with them on Nimitz Boulevard. For them to say that the mood of their event is a party on wheels I think is somewhat disingenuous. Our car was pretty much swarmed by these people as we were driving legally in the middle of the road. Several of them put their hands on my car, hollering and ranting and raving. I was with my wife and my younger sister at the time, and having no knowledge of the Critical Mass event, it was quite a startling experience. At the time, I went ahead and called the police nonemergency number and reported where I was.

I would just like to say to Mr. Nguyen, he should acknowledge that with such a large group of people that there are going to be elements that are making a political statement and very determined to make their point of view heard, and even on unsuspecting people like myself and others. It was unfortunate to see what happened to that rider’s finger, but I would say he should have done more research — just like the police officer said — he should have known what he was getting into. Of course, that doesn’t excuse the passenger who assaulted him, but to say that anyone can come out and be a child or that law-abiding adults participate in Critical Mass isn’t exactly the safest statement.

Anthony Silva
Point Loma

Got Permits?

Your article on the Critical Mass cyclers (“SDPD — Got an Attitude?” “City Lights,” December 4) brings up an interesting point, although having a fingertip bitten off à la Mike Tyson is too much. Why is it that groups like this think they have even a marginal right to inconvenience the public? Not entirely a San Diego phenomenon, but more prevalent here. These people have no parade or event permit. They feel entitlement by numbers to block off streets, run red lights, and ignore stop signs, a typical cyclist habit, and then they want the police to validate their lawlessness. If they had the courtesy to get a permit, the police could clear a legitimate path for them. Their actions are no different than rioting thugs burning and looting after an athletic event and should be dealt with accordingly.

This attitude leads to other events such as closing the Coronado Bay Bridge and busy streets downtown for various runs and walks. And what about closing the main highways when some idiot pretends to want to jump off the Laurel Street bridge or commit suicide on the interstate during rush hour to get their names in the news. What about Street Scene, the annual fiasco that inconveniences both residents and customers necessary in the dying downtown?

This inconsiderate behavior is very closely related to shouting “fire” in a crowded theater, although the latter examples have somehow received appropriate sanctions.

When did it become a rule that minimal numbers of people (singly or in groups) have the right to inconvenience literally hundreds of thousands of others?

G.R. Morse
via email

Merciful Coffee

Re “Tin Fork,” December 4.

One day I was early for an appointment at Sharp Rees-Stealy Orthopaedic Pavilion, and I had “cawfee” at the Sharp hospital cafeteria. Absolutely foul! I didn’t drink it and never ate there. Better coffee in the orthopaedic waiting room. Mercy Hospital has the best coffee, urn-brewed Boyds Coffee.

Charlie
Downtown

Bobby, Ramona, The Pilot, The Emos

Unbeknownst to me, I was the woman in the picture that went with the article “Dog Is My Copilot” (“Crasher,” November 26). Although the article was quirky, casual, and a fun little read, I wanted to straighten out some facts because no one talked with me to confirm any information about Bobby Gordon and/or me, so let me just state the facts:

1. Bobby Gordon is a famous clarinet player who lives here in San Diego. World renowned.

2. I sing with Bobby Gordon on a regular basis, and we perform music in the classic jazz genre (jazz from teens, ’20s, and ’30s) all over San Diego.

3. I don’t know the song “My Funny Valentine.” Wrong era. I was probably singing the song “Sugar,” written in approximately 1918, during the dogfights. Real dogfights at the hangar, that was true.

4. My grandfather was a famous pilot: Max Conrad. He set many world records and was well respected among military pilots and commercial pilots. The fact that he was a famous pilot and I was performing at the hangar was merely a coincidence. And he died in 1980, so if he was at the hangar party (as noted in the article), he would be approximately 110 years old. Plus, I better let Mom know that her dad has been hiding out in a San Diego hangar all this time. Ha ha.

5. Bobby Gordon is 67 years old.

6. My name is Ramona DeRyan.

Now, if you want to do an interesting article, you should come hear Bobby and me rehearse on Wednesday evenings at Albie’s Beef Inn, one of the oldest steakhouses and piano bars in San Diego. The piano player, David Timothy Smith, lets some of San Diego’s great musicians come in and jam with him. Albie’s is what I call God’s waiting room, because the decor is exactly the same as the day it was built and the clientele have planted themselves on the barstools for at least 40 years now. But it’s also now become such a quirky place, full of characters, young and old. Oddly enough, Bobby and I have a following of the very old and the local emo scene. Seriously. You should come in and get a feel for this landmark, the characters who frequent it, and the musicians who drop in.

Ramona DeRyan
via email

The Reader And A Beer

I was pleasantly surprised today when I got off work and headed to the little market for a sixer and a sandwich — the Reader in its usual rack a day early on Thanksgiving Eve. I really look forward to Barb the Diva’s diary every week, and this latest column on her inner child was one of her best — read it twice! She and her husband live a great, interesting, and cultured lifestyle, and she expresses herself in a way that isn’t bragging or condescending. She also pokes fun at herself, her foibles and misadventures, which I think is tremendously appealing.

It’s amusing when she gets the occasional critical letters (almost always women except for that geek who I’d bet my life is a Republican — he had his own ideas a couple of weeks ago on how Barb should conform to his standards of anal-retentive, conservative values. That guy probably thinks Bush is getting a bum rap from the “liberal media.” I suggest the guy should stick to the Union-Tribune) from writers who are obviously jealous/envious of her diva’s world. Keep those delusions coming!

Also, the letter from Connor Lastowka (October 30) referring to Josh Board’s “Crasher” column as “deadening affairs of soul-crushing tedium” and “life-sapping diversions into Mr. Board’s own affairs” was truly laugh-out-loud funny, but I simply didn’t agree with his opinions (it’s weeks later and I’m still laughing!). I too was scratching my head the first few times I read Board’s column. The content didn’t seem to match the concept, but whatever limits Mr. Board might have, I came to look at the column from a true outsider’s (a party crasher’s) point of view. And I gradually started to look forward to his column as well, bad grammar and all.

Mr. Lastowka is obviously a gifted writer, and I think it would be interesting to get his perspective of some of the same parties Josh Board goes to. I bet they’d be hilarious.

P.S. Don’t let me forget Brizzolara, a gifted writer as well. His candor and insight compete with good beer for entertainment value!

Frank Waller
Mission Beach

No, No, No

Once again, I am disturbed by Mr. Bauder’s column (“Moon Dust,” “City Lights,” November 26). Is it being ghostwritten by Heidi? We can tell the difference. Please consider these corrections.

Saying that passing regulation had bad consequences. No, that’s because when you impose self-regulation this is a passive-aggressive intended consequence to squash smaller business by big business.

Saying the middle class needs a tax raise. No, all that is needed in California is for the 60 percent of corporations that pay no tax to pay their fair share and for rich individuals to pay their 2 percent income tax that Davis and Dems were looking for before Arnold and Diebold cheated the recall to oust them.

Saying that green business and jobs hurt the low income. What a bizarre idea. This will create jobs and, in any case, is necessary not to change the weather and bankrupt us all.

Saying there’s no other alternative to bailouts. That’s wrong. The Republican head of FDIC gave a modify mortgages plan that was rejected and is exactly what the people need, as opposed to the tax-stealing corporations.

Saying you have no alternatives for consumer debt. How about stopping banks from pushing credit cards, making realtors lower prices, and making corporations cut exec pay and excessive profits for starters.

Saying that the country has gone back and forth from liberals to conservatives except in Clinton. Yeah, that’s because the neocons have been cheating elections and taking over media to squash any dissent.

Anytime someone tries to make equality in America, they are punished by the corporate invisible army. Teddy Roosevelt busted the trusts, and then they threw him out of the party. Franklin Roosevelt made jobs, and they tried to assassinate him. The Kennedys they did assassinate, along with King and maybe Lennon. Clinton they impeached. Obama is walking a tightrope of concessions and appeasements that disgust the true Democrats.

Please stop writing Republican-slanted articles like this one that send all the wrong messages. Please do not add to the propaganda by giving Republican lies and letting it stand as the truth.

Valerie Sanfilippo
San Diego