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Ernie Grimm and the Reader

Mailman's job, all kinds of balls, UCSD transgenderism, Baja surfing guide, Tijuana suicide meds, Gompers

I meet John Knowles at 10:00 a.m. at a liquor store on the corner of University Avenue and 36th Street “I always come here for coffee before I start my route. They give me a deal on it.” - Image by Dave Allen
I meet John Knowles at 10:00 a.m. at a liquor store on the corner of University Avenue and 36th Street “I always come here for coffee before I start my route. They give me a deal on it.”

Grimm was recruited by editor Judith Moore when he was a recent graduates from Thomas Aquinas College in 1995. Moore felt that he "would have learned humility" from reading the great books.

After Moore died in 2006, Grimm took over the job of editing news and feature stories.

Excerpts of stories Grimm wrote for the Reader:

Geoff Griffin "People don't ever come in asking for anything other than Penns or Wilsons... Tennis balls' lives are short. You play three sets and you've usually used up a can of balls."
  • Balls

  • The last 4 of my parents' 17 children are boys. I am the second to last. Being boys, we loved sports and we did little else but play them. My younger brother Peter and I challenged the older two, James and Leon, to games of basketball, baseball, football, kickball, mushball (baseball with any old, flat ball we could find in the bushes), broomball (field hockey with brooms and flat balls), anything involving a ball. (Dec. 18, 1997)
  • I feel like I'm trapped

  • So what is it like to be part of the largest civilian work force in the United States? A newspaper ad invited postal workers to talk about their jobs, and from the many who replied, 15 agreed to be interviewed, all of them either letter carriers or clerks, none in management. A few requested anonymity. (July 13, 1995)
The road south of the first toll booth runs two lanes in each direction divided by a grass median.
  • Waves bigger than your house

  • We are on the road to Playas de Tijuana, the stretch where the border fence acts as guardrail on the right. Jeff has agreed to tutor me in the ways of surfing Baja California. A San Diego native, Jeff surfed Baja once a week in his late-’70s high school days. Now in his 30s, he doesn’t come down as often, and he’s noticeably nervous about driving in Mexico. “This is always the scary part of the drive.” (Sept. 2, 1999)
  • Tijuana is the first stop to suicide

  • Tijuana has long attracted people seeking medicine and medical procedures unavailable or unaffordable in their home countries. They've been joined recently by people seeking the means to kill themselves. And some of them are coming from 8000 miles away. It’s being called suicide tourism, and Tijuana is one of its hottest destinations.(Aug. 20, 2008)
  • Gompers takes a bow

  • "I remember my first encounter with a student here. I was wearing a suit, and a student comes up to me at lunch with a crowbar in his hand. Tapping it against his leg, he said, ‘Why are you wearing a suit? It is just going to get ripped when you break up a fight.’ That was my very first contact with a Gompers student.” (Dec. 9, 2009)
Cárdenas isn’t sure what form of body hacking he may perform on himself or what the end of his transsexuality will be. “I’m still a work in progress.”
  • My gender Is bunny

  • I’m sitting on a leather couch in the middle of a darkened black-walled, black-ceilinged room talking to a man who, at taxpayer expense, takes hormones to become more like a woman yet is in the middle of an experimental performance in which he seeks to become a dragon. (March 25, 2009)
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I meet John Knowles at 10:00 a.m. at a liquor store on the corner of University Avenue and 36th Street “I always come here for coffee before I start my route. They give me a deal on it.” - Image by Dave Allen
I meet John Knowles at 10:00 a.m. at a liquor store on the corner of University Avenue and 36th Street “I always come here for coffee before I start my route. They give me a deal on it.”

Grimm was recruited by editor Judith Moore when he was a recent graduates from Thomas Aquinas College in 1995. Moore felt that he "would have learned humility" from reading the great books.

After Moore died in 2006, Grimm took over the job of editing news and feature stories.

Excerpts of stories Grimm wrote for the Reader:

Geoff Griffin "People don't ever come in asking for anything other than Penns or Wilsons... Tennis balls' lives are short. You play three sets and you've usually used up a can of balls."
  • Balls

  • The last 4 of my parents' 17 children are boys. I am the second to last. Being boys, we loved sports and we did little else but play them. My younger brother Peter and I challenged the older two, James and Leon, to games of basketball, baseball, football, kickball, mushball (baseball with any old, flat ball we could find in the bushes), broomball (field hockey with brooms and flat balls), anything involving a ball. (Dec. 18, 1997)
  • I feel like I'm trapped

  • So what is it like to be part of the largest civilian work force in the United States? A newspaper ad invited postal workers to talk about their jobs, and from the many who replied, 15 agreed to be interviewed, all of them either letter carriers or clerks, none in management. A few requested anonymity. (July 13, 1995)
The road south of the first toll booth runs two lanes in each direction divided by a grass median.
  • Waves bigger than your house

  • We are on the road to Playas de Tijuana, the stretch where the border fence acts as guardrail on the right. Jeff has agreed to tutor me in the ways of surfing Baja California. A San Diego native, Jeff surfed Baja once a week in his late-’70s high school days. Now in his 30s, he doesn’t come down as often, and he’s noticeably nervous about driving in Mexico. “This is always the scary part of the drive.” (Sept. 2, 1999)
  • Tijuana is the first stop to suicide

  • Tijuana has long attracted people seeking medicine and medical procedures unavailable or unaffordable in their home countries. They've been joined recently by people seeking the means to kill themselves. And some of them are coming from 8000 miles away. It’s being called suicide tourism, and Tijuana is one of its hottest destinations.(Aug. 20, 2008)
  • Gompers takes a bow

  • "I remember my first encounter with a student here. I was wearing a suit, and a student comes up to me at lunch with a crowbar in his hand. Tapping it against his leg, he said, ‘Why are you wearing a suit? It is just going to get ripped when you break up a fight.’ That was my very first contact with a Gompers student.” (Dec. 9, 2009)
Cárdenas isn’t sure what form of body hacking he may perform on himself or what the end of his transsexuality will be. “I’m still a work in progress.”
  • My gender Is bunny

  • I’m sitting on a leather couch in the middle of a darkened black-walled, black-ceilinged room talking to a man who, at taxpayer expense, takes hormones to become more like a woman yet is in the middle of an experimental performance in which he seeks to become a dragon. (March 25, 2009)
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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
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