The bike is brown. It’s light in my hands; I can lift it over my head, which I do, just to try it, and it’s easy. Walking it out of the back door of its …
December 17, 2008
Blog Entries
- Sound Off: Final Top 10
2 comments
- Gless, Powanda Sentenced for Roles in Peregrine Systems Fraud
2 comments
- Winter Solstice, Hiking to High Places, Ripening Palm Fruit
1 comment
- Ex-Madoff Trader, Now Running Cardiff Firm, Was Asked by Hedge Firms about Those Steady Returns
8 comments
- Top 50 Movie Characters
11 comments
News & Stories
Cretins, Nutterbuckets, and Cutters host group bike rides around San Diego
We Got Nuthin'
I saw a band called the Dateless Losers at the Ould Sod on Adams Avenue in Normal Heights. I liked their songs and their sense of humor. After their set I asked Tim Curns to …
December 17, 2008
Stretch Drive
Counting down the final movies till Christmas.... Doubt, from the prize-winning stage play by John Patrick Shanley, is an ambiguous drama of possible priestly pedophilia at a Catholic school in the Bronx. The playwright, perhaps …
December 17, 2008
Up in the Air
I can’t believe this. I’m looking down — way down — at the kelp beds off La Jolla. Brown bruise on blue ocean. Jet fighter zooms out to sea — underneath us! Chopper whirrs by, …
December 17, 2008
Woe Plus Meanness
Hooo-boy… Christmas is just around the corner, yet the residents of Tuna, the third-smallest town in Texas — even counting “greater” Tuna — are so low on holiday cheer it won’t wet the dipstick. The …
December 17, 2008
Shrek You!
A nation doesn’t leap off of a cliff and fall into chaos; it slides over the course of months. In 2001, Argentina started that slide. By 2002, the price of food had rocketed 200 times …
December 17, 2008
Calcite Mine
Millennia of geological weathering and erosion have cut and polished the landscape into the striking forms you’ll discover while visiting Anza-Borrego’s Calcite Mine area. A highlight of the hike is the mine itself. During World …
December 17, 2008
Sushi for All Seasons
After looking over the interesting, many-page menu at Azuki, and after trying the miso soup and the first “test roll” (uni, of course) to the accompaniment of lilting Brazilian pop, I made a firm decision: …
December 17, 2008
Dog Days, Dog Nights
‘It’s an international organization. We promote the training and ownership of hunting dogs and hunting itself. We go out once a month and do training days and hunt tests. There are 50 members in our …
December 17, 2008
What I Did Last Summer
“I had just seen the Muslims and Wild Weekend at the Belly Up,” says Embalmers singer-guitarist Gordo about a night in late July. “I stopped at a few more bars. I got pulled over on …
December 17, 2008
Tylenol, Sweat Scents, Volcano Incinerator
Dear Matthew Alice: While I was waiting for the Tylenol to kick in and stop my headache, I decided to read the ingredient list on the bottle. Active ingredients: Acetaminophen. Inactive ingredients: carnauba wax, cellulose, …
December 17, 2008
1978, Year in Review
Thirty Years AgoReal estate has been very high for the past 28 months, but if you had bought on the coastline early this year, you would have an irreplaceable resource. Also, getting into an apartment …
December 17, 2008
Holiday Goose
We don’t argue politics at Kelly family gatherings; we argue menus. I want something exotic for Christmas dinner, something fancy. Ma Kelly insists on something traditional. Husband Patrick just wants something that tastes good, “and …
Crash and burn
Earlier this fall, Dan Schroeder and his wife Lisa gave Union-Tribune real estate writer Roger Showley a VIP tour of their extravagant new La Jolla abode. Showley’s October 30 story described “a marvel in concrete, …
December 17, 2008
Hurricane P
About four months ago I was having Mexican food at a vegan place at Sunset Cliffs — I have friends who are vegetarians, and this is one of the places that we all enjoy — …
December 17, 2008
The eyes have it
The Orange County Register has put up a new online search engine on its website, allowing lookups of the salaries of all employees of the University of California who make more than $25,000 a year. …
December 17, 2008
New Virus Killer at the Zoo
When a 12-year-old polar bear at the San Diego Zoo died of unknown causes a year ago last July, a team of investigators, led by Dr. Mark D. Schrenzel of the zoo’s Center of Research …
December 17, 2008
Twisted Sister
If you don’t understand how a woman could both love her sister dearly and want to wring her neck at the same time, then you were probably an only child. — Linda Sunshine Jenny was …
December 17, 2008
A Tone of Entitlement
We have all by now — or most of us anyway — found ourselves familiar with the phrase “random acts of kindness.” I first saw it on a bumper sticker some years ago: “Practice Random …
December 17, 2008
Bones, 1960
Anthropologists study ancient skeletal remains found at La Jolla Cove, 1960. No indexed information pertaining to this discovery is available at the downtown library, but prehistoric bones have been found “in the Cliffs at La …
December 17, 2008
Wayne Hancock
When I read Wayne “the Train” Hancock called himself “the stab wound in the fabric of country music,” I knew that I had to talk to him. What is the problem with country music? In …
December 17, 2008
Overdue
It’s a long way from swinging 1969 London, but over the past few months at Earthling studios in El Cajon, publisher/musician Mike Stax and producer Mike Kamoo have been working on an album of 12 …
December 17, 2008
Fog of war
The sentencing of Kyle “Dusty” Foggo, who loomed large in the bribery scandal that brought down GOP congressman Randy “Duke” Cunningham, has been delayed until January 29 of next year while Foggo’s lawyers fight to …
December 17, 2008
Apes of Wrath
The Grapes of Wrath, you probably remember from high school, is John Steinbeck’s classic 1939 novel of the working poor. The novel exposed some of the nightmares behind the California dream and helped win Steinbeck …
December 17, 2008
Writer
Album: Blood Drops (2008)Artist: WriterLabel: self-releasedWhere available/price: Lou’s Records in Encinitas, Off the Record in North Park, M-Theory in Mission Hills, Spin Records in Carlsbad, and live shows for $8.Songs: 1) Matthew 2) Anymore 3) …
December 17, 2008
First Congregational Church of Ramona
Ramona held its annual Christmas-tree lighting on the evening of December 13. At nine the next morning, the bell in the brown wood steeple above the First Congregational Church clanged out a summons to the …
December 17, 2008
Weekend Beer Bread
Recipe by Benjamin Moore, executive chef, Parallel 33. I like to take everyday food and pair it in unique ways people wouldn’t think of. I taste something and think, Oh my gosh, this would go …
December 17, 2008
Them Boots
“The Russians really do drink a lot of vodka,” says Carnifex drummer Shawn Cameron of the patrons at Moscow’s Tochka Club, where the band appeared December 1. “And the stuff with labels written in actual …
December 17, 2008
Bitter Candy
Notes from a local stagehand who worked on Madonna’s recent concert at Petco Park: “We were 50 feet away, in the tunnel, and they made us turn the other way, toward the loading dock, so …
December 17, 2008
San DIego State to get rid of Louie's Pub?
For the past ten years, Louie Holton has owned and operated Louie’s pub at Aztec Center at the southeastern edge of the SDSU campus. While serving beer and wine to students weekday afternoons and evenings …
December 17, 2008
San Diego restaurants giving money to hotel concierges?
When a San Diego hotel concierge recommends a restaurant, he or she may be getting a fat kickback. “It’s an extortion ring. Like the Mafia. Restaurants are bribing concierges in hotels. It’s a bidding war,” …
December 17, 2008