This morning, October 14, a maintenance worker at Chollas Lake discovered a Muscovy duck clinging to life — it had been shot five times with a crossbow. One of the arrows had pierced its head. …
October 14, 2009
Blog Entries
- Food for Thought
12 comments
- Too Sweet For a Price
8 comments
- Wall Street's Party Depends on Main Street's Misery
6 comments
- Winter Shelter To Go in The East Village District in Downtown San Diego After All!
- Music Notes (Carly Simon, Paul Anka, Michael Jackson)
37 comments
- Day in the Life of the San Diego Trolley
1 comment
News & Stories
Why Someone Would Do This
Baseball anecdotes: Tony Gwynn, Fernando Valenzuela, Graig Nettles, Dave Kingman, Willie McCovey, Steve Garvey - plus Padres songs
It’s six o’clock in the evening on July 21, and the brilliant blue of the late-afternoon sky over San Diego is bleaching at the edges as the sun moseys toward the horizon, throwing the downtown …
October 14, 2009
Captured at Sea
According to a press release from the San Diego office of the Customs and Border Protection agency, two Mexican nationals involved in human smuggling were apprehended by CBP officers early Tuesday morning, October 13, about …
October 14, 2009
Estranged Tale
On Sunday afternoon, October 11, hours after a stabbing was reported to the Oceanside police, a 25-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon. On Saturday evening, the victim and the …
October 14, 2009
Exploring Unspoiled Dominica, West Indies
Enjoying the lush scenery and fair but humid weather, we rounded a tight mountainous curve on the way to Carib Territory. A small blue Toyota popped into sight coming from the opposite direction, fast. We …
Apple Days in Julian, California
Apple Days are here! Apple pie tasting is an art I could get used to, especially if the pies are baked in Julian, a historic mountain town famous for its apple orchards and home-baked pies. …
October 14, 2009
Unforgettable New Orleans
New Orleans is the most unique city in the country. Having grown up there, I may be biased when I say that, but I believe the evidence is apparent. The music — primarily jazz and …
October 14, 2009
The Economy of Rock
The troubled economy may not be affecting concert ticket sales of top-draw bands, but what about acts on the local level? When I posted the question online as to how San Diego bands were weathering …
October 14, 2009
Bedford Peak
The no-nonsense climb (2200 feet of elevation gain) to Bedford Peak, one of the principal summits along the Santa Ana Mountains’ “Main Divide,” is both physically demanding and scenically rewarding. The latter is especially true …
October 14, 2009
He Was a Man
A former executive of the Scottsdale cryonics company where baseball Hall of Famer Ted Williams’s body is frozen launched a pay-per-view website with gruesome decapitation photos to raise money for his legal defense. “To be …
October 14, 2009
Libelous Tell-All
Thus far, the La Jolla Playhouse’s season has been forgettable. In Terrence McNally’s slight Unusual Acts of Devotion and Claudia Shear’s not-ready-for-prime-time Restoration, the sets — for good or ill — were more memorable than …
October 14, 2009
When Duncan Shepherd interviewed Jean-Pierre Gorin
Thirty Years Ago Jean-Pierre Gorin first came to San Diego, and specifically to UCSD, in 1973, as a whistle stop on a college lecture tour in the company of Jean-Luc Godard, with whom he collaborated …
October 14, 2009
Monkey Babies, Grocery Express Lane, The Clap
Hi, Matt: Do baby monkeys also keep their parents up all night crying and wanting milk and stuff? What’s the deal with crying babies? Wasn’t it bad for cavemen to be super tired during the …
October 14, 2009
Something Done
The standard line on A Serious Man, and I see no reason to deviate from it, is that this is the Coen brothers’ most “personal” work to date. To be sure, the brothers have never …
October 14, 2009
Friends Are Like Jewels
I was walking my dog around University Heights and saw a party setting up at a house near Adams Avenue. I dropped my dog off and headed back over. I walked in and a few …
October 14, 2009
UCSD's Gary Jacobson frets about polarization
Everybody knows that Democrats and Republicans are barely speaking these days. But two political scientists at the University of California at San Diego are statistically quantifying this mutual contempt: “Political polarization is at a post–Civil …
October 14, 2009
Curry Pies, Coffee, Art
I’ve been called flaky. But hey, this is flaky. Who woulda thought? Eating a pastry-covered curry pie for breakfast in a converted condo in East Village? Here’s how it happened: I was wandering hopelessly around …
October 14, 2009
99 Years of Seduction
The U.S. Grant Hotel, completed in October 1910, is one of the city’s grandest old hotels. Its signature restaurant, the Grant Grill, is equally historic. For its first 90-some years, it was a clubby, old-fashioned …
October 14, 2009
"Pokémon"
Rectitude (n.), the formal, dignified demeanor assumed by a proctologist immediately before he examines you. — Unknown "Are you sure you don’t mind if I eat in front of you?” I asked, as I moved …
October 14, 2009
The Gothic M.O.
Call Me Alice is in the final stages of completing their new CD How Motivation Killed the Man, scheduled for release this fall. At least, that seems to be the plan. The San Diego techno-goth …
October 14, 2009
Thai Grilled Steak Salad
Recipe by Jack Jaroen, executive chef, Lanna Thai I grew up in Bangkok with three siblings. My mom was always in the kitchen preparing and cooking for us. At dinnertime, we all helped out in …
October 14, 2009
Death of PR
UCSD’s budget crisis has claimed the glitzy job of Stacie Spector, the school’s associate vice chancellor of university communications and public affairs. Deputy communications director in the Clinton White House and deputy campaign manager for …
October 14, 2009
No God Music
“I played a song in my after-school dance class, a job that I had for five years [and] this song mentioned the name ‘Christ,’ ” says former Lemon Grove arts teacher Kathy Villalobos. “This name…seemed …
October 14, 2009
Looks Like We Made It!
Before Barry Manilow plays the Sports Arena on Sunday, October 18, “Barry’s fan club shows up at 11 a.m. to decorate his dressing room.” Security must be manning hallway doors by 3 p.m. because “Barry …
October 14, 2009
Caught Inside
Canes is finished. After 13 years, Eric Leitstein, owner of the beachfront venue that hosted artists such as Prince, Linkin Park, Maroon Five, and Snoop Dogg, has been informed that his lease will not be …
October 14, 2009
Paycheck politics
Where do politicians turn when they need a spot of cash? In the case of the Democratic Party of San Diego County, to Advance America, “one of the nation’s leading payday loan companies” that has …
October 14, 2009
Cash prizes
Last week, controversial J. Craig Venter, millionaire, self-styled master of the human genome, and UCSD alumnus who maintains a handsome home in La Jolla, received the prestigious National Medal of Science from Barack Obama at …
October 14, 2009
Black Heart Procession
Sit down and pour yourself a big cup of melancholy, and while you’re at it, set some extra places at the table tonight for panic, desolation, and a dark and hellish nightmare or two. That …
October 14, 2009
Yo La Tengo
My wife is a practical Midwesterner and doesn’t have a lot of patience for songs that go on for more than three minutes. If we’re playing a CD in the car and a guitar solo …
October 14, 2009
Paintless Dent Repair
Crunch. Uh-oh. Patrick backed into my best friend’s car. I rang up Eddie Martin, owner and master technician at the Dent Devils (619-726-6767, thedentdevils.com), a paintless dent-removal shop. “People think of us as ‘the body-shop …
October 14, 2009
David Ross fights for downtown bathrooms to serve homeless
While San Diego’s homeless people wait for the City to provide winter shelter, they need, among other things, to go to the bathroom. And there are precious few places to do it. Anyone who meanders …
October 14, 2009
First Baptist Church of San Diego
On October 31, 1869, the First Baptist Church of San Diego dedicated its church bell, a prize awarded by city father Alonzo Horton for being the first Protestant Church to complete an edifice in the …
October 14, 2009
Tourism Snapshot
Carnival Cruise Line has opted to suspend docking the Elation in Ensenada, starting next April. The company rep stated that the cruise line “no longer felt welcome” at its longtime port of call, as communicated …
October 14, 2009