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Encinitas bolshevik beach bum, the demise of O.B. Spaceman, Bill Gookin

The redoubtable Josie Scripps, Walter Evans-Wentz and Mt. Cuchama, the Leucadia woodswoman who hired surfers

Josie Scripps: "I had a certain number of well-to-do relatives who were always giving me girdles and gloves on the theory that I needed girdles and gloves. Well, I never wore the damn things." - Image by David Covey
Josie Scripps: "I had a certain number of well-to-do relatives who were always giving me girdles and gloves on the theory that I needed girdles and gloves. Well, I never wore the damn things."

The Man Who Broke the Rules

He worked for several months at a bakery injecting jelly into the jelly donuts. The job paid minimum wage, but it had great benefits: he could eat all the day-olds he wanted, and he got to keep the plastic five-gallon jelly buckets. “They just throw them away!" he told me, both disgusted at the needless waste and thrilled by his unbelievably good fortune. He made bed frames out of them, wash basins, storage chests, kitty litter boxes.

By Steve Sorensen, Nov. 8, 1984 | Read full article

The O.B. Spaceman, c. 1987. Cary’s friend set him up in an apartment on Bacon Street, a few doors down from Poma’s Deli. Spaceman began calling local radio stations with his stories of Elvis sightings.

Bummed Out, Spaceman Passes On

Upon his return to San Diego, Cary’s friend set him up in an apartment on Bacon Street, a few doors down from Poma’s Deli. Spaceman began calling local radio stations with his stories of Elvis sightings. KGB put him on the air. He made the local TV news. Longtime Ocean Beach residents who had purchased his paintings back in the 1960s began to look after him. And Cary even began painting again.

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By Thomas K. Arnold, Dec. 23, 1993 | Read full article

Bill Gookin at the World's Veterans Cup Championship, 1999. "The orienteer is relating to his environment and how he feels. The runner tries to blank out how he feels."

Chess at a Run

After getting sick on Gatorade during an Olympic trial marathon, Gookin invented a substitute, Gookinaid. He devised it by analyzing his own sweat to determine what was being lost through dehydration. “I had a degree in biochemistry, so I had the expertise.”

Retired now from biochemistry and from teaching, Gookin says he spends his time marketing close to a quarter of a million dollars’ worth of Gookinaid a year. He also promotes orienteering.

By Jeanne Schinto, Nov. 9, 2000 | Read full article

Josephine Scripps: “You see, we have to have fun doing this or we wouldn’t be here.”

Josie Scripps

She reports that the county, for its size, is second only to an area in Africa. Larger areas like Brazil and Ceylon contain greater quantities of gems, she says, but none has the concentration of the San Diego hills — tourmaline, garnet, blue topaz, morganite (pink) beryl, and purple spodumene (kunzite). Yet in the early Seventies, buyers from back East were gobbling up the best local specimens, which wound up in European and American museums like the Smithsonian.

By Jeannette De Wyze, Aug. 17, 1978 | Read full article

Audrey and her pet cat. She was muttering something about “luggin' these damn small saws like that.” She finished this tree, too, and handed me back the saw.

Bull o' the Woods

She gave me her best saw, a little Homelite. I cranked it up and started in putting an undercut on the first tree. I kicked out the notch with my foot. The eucalyptus smelled spicy. I went around and started on the backcut, looking up at the tree, wondering how many cords I could get out of it. I felt a tap on my shoulder, looked back, and Audrey was motioning me to shut the saw off.

By Steve Sorensen, March 4, 1976 | Read full article

Lama Kazi Dawa-Samdup and Evans-Wentz, Gangtok, Sikkim, c. 1920. Evans-Wentz spent more than twenty years between the world wars ranging around holy spots in India, mostly in mountainous areas — Kashmir, central Ceylon, and Darjeeling-Sikkim.

The Man who Bought Cuchama

Though holy people can infuse a place with their presence, it is also true their polar opposites can deplete an area of its sacredness. Drunk vandals regularly hurl their beer cans into the brush. Trash on the top is much in evidence despite a heavily locked gate. A group of businessmen, headed by former San Diego City Councilman Tom Hom, have plans for “developing” a new town just this side of the border crossing.

By Ken Winkler, June 26, 1980 | Read full article

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Josie Scripps: "I had a certain number of well-to-do relatives who were always giving me girdles and gloves on the theory that I needed girdles and gloves. Well, I never wore the damn things." - Image by David Covey
Josie Scripps: "I had a certain number of well-to-do relatives who were always giving me girdles and gloves on the theory that I needed girdles and gloves. Well, I never wore the damn things."

The Man Who Broke the Rules

He worked for several months at a bakery injecting jelly into the jelly donuts. The job paid minimum wage, but it had great benefits: he could eat all the day-olds he wanted, and he got to keep the plastic five-gallon jelly buckets. “They just throw them away!" he told me, both disgusted at the needless waste and thrilled by his unbelievably good fortune. He made bed frames out of them, wash basins, storage chests, kitty litter boxes.

By Steve Sorensen, Nov. 8, 1984 | Read full article

The O.B. Spaceman, c. 1987. Cary’s friend set him up in an apartment on Bacon Street, a few doors down from Poma’s Deli. Spaceman began calling local radio stations with his stories of Elvis sightings.

Bummed Out, Spaceman Passes On

Upon his return to San Diego, Cary’s friend set him up in an apartment on Bacon Street, a few doors down from Poma’s Deli. Spaceman began calling local radio stations with his stories of Elvis sightings. KGB put him on the air. He made the local TV news. Longtime Ocean Beach residents who had purchased his paintings back in the 1960s began to look after him. And Cary even began painting again.

Sponsored
Sponsored

By Thomas K. Arnold, Dec. 23, 1993 | Read full article

Bill Gookin at the World's Veterans Cup Championship, 1999. "The orienteer is relating to his environment and how he feels. The runner tries to blank out how he feels."

Chess at a Run

After getting sick on Gatorade during an Olympic trial marathon, Gookin invented a substitute, Gookinaid. He devised it by analyzing his own sweat to determine what was being lost through dehydration. “I had a degree in biochemistry, so I had the expertise.”

Retired now from biochemistry and from teaching, Gookin says he spends his time marketing close to a quarter of a million dollars’ worth of Gookinaid a year. He also promotes orienteering.

By Jeanne Schinto, Nov. 9, 2000 | Read full article

Josephine Scripps: “You see, we have to have fun doing this or we wouldn’t be here.”

Josie Scripps

She reports that the county, for its size, is second only to an area in Africa. Larger areas like Brazil and Ceylon contain greater quantities of gems, she says, but none has the concentration of the San Diego hills — tourmaline, garnet, blue topaz, morganite (pink) beryl, and purple spodumene (kunzite). Yet in the early Seventies, buyers from back East were gobbling up the best local specimens, which wound up in European and American museums like the Smithsonian.

By Jeannette De Wyze, Aug. 17, 1978 | Read full article

Audrey and her pet cat. She was muttering something about “luggin' these damn small saws like that.” She finished this tree, too, and handed me back the saw.

Bull o' the Woods

She gave me her best saw, a little Homelite. I cranked it up and started in putting an undercut on the first tree. I kicked out the notch with my foot. The eucalyptus smelled spicy. I went around and started on the backcut, looking up at the tree, wondering how many cords I could get out of it. I felt a tap on my shoulder, looked back, and Audrey was motioning me to shut the saw off.

By Steve Sorensen, March 4, 1976 | Read full article

Lama Kazi Dawa-Samdup and Evans-Wentz, Gangtok, Sikkim, c. 1920. Evans-Wentz spent more than twenty years between the world wars ranging around holy spots in India, mostly in mountainous areas — Kashmir, central Ceylon, and Darjeeling-Sikkim.

The Man who Bought Cuchama

Though holy people can infuse a place with their presence, it is also true their polar opposites can deplete an area of its sacredness. Drunk vandals regularly hurl their beer cans into the brush. Trash on the top is much in evidence despite a heavily locked gate. A group of businessmen, headed by former San Diego City Councilman Tom Hom, have plans for “developing” a new town just this side of the border crossing.

By Ken Winkler, June 26, 1980 | Read full article

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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.

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Pie pleasure at Queenstown Public House

A taste of New Zealand brings back happy memories
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Now what can they do with Encinitas unstable cliffs?

Make the cliffs fall, put up more warnings, fine beachgoers?
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