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Deep look at Mayor Pete Wilson's aides

Editor's picks of stories Richard Louv wrote for the Reader

Larry Thomas, Otto Bos, Pete Wilson. Thomas is the perfect advance man for Wilson’s clean-cut pugnacity; he even looks like Wilson.  - Image by Robert Burroughs
Larry Thomas, Otto Bos, Pete Wilson. Thomas is the perfect advance man for Wilson’s clean-cut pugnacity; he even looks like Wilson.
  • All the mayor's men

  • White, 35, has been with Wilson longer than any of the mayor's advisors, and has made it a personal policy not to get within writing distance of reporters. He ducked back into his office, then suddenly reappeared. "Listen," White said to the reporter, "I hear you've been calling a lot of people around town about me. They're all calling me up. Look, I'm not the candidate, and I'm not very interesting." The door shut. (Written with Paul Krueger, July 14, 1977)
"When that usher walks up to the car, everybody puts something in the cup."
  • Gimme that drive-in religion

  • Rev. Paul Veenstra is wrestling with his umbrella. The wind has the umbrella and the umbrella has Veenstra and he is being pulled upward. Rain is whipping around him. He is standing on the back platform of the official red, white, and blue Harbor Drive-In Worship truck, which is parked between an empty movie screen and 50 cars. (July 28, 1977)
W. Clement Stone: “Now, everybody who grew rich, keep your hand up.”
“People keep walking up to me and looking me in the Third Eye.”
  • Take that pyramid off your head when you're talking to me

  • Reverend Douglas Sobel leans toward me and tries to figure out what I am thinking. I lean backward and try to keep him from reading my mind. Reverend Sobel, a psychic, is Assistant Pastor of San Diego’s First Spiritualist Church. He has organized “Exploring the New Dawn.” a convention of eighty-five “New Age” groups at the El Cortez this week-end in November. (Dec. 8, 1977)
"This is like Chicano Park, only nobody gets shot."
  • Where the bad boys are

  • Just as the people who live along the ocean shore are affected by the tides and the pull of the moon, the children of the street in 5- inner territories like Shell Town and Logan Heights must be charged with energy when the heat, smog, fumes, and noise drive them into the cool night, seeking rifamo—a ghetto communion. (Aug. 5, 1976)
Poet Allen Ginsburg and Leary's son, who both spoke against him, have returned to Leary's side.
Chester Hanson: “The Spanish Flu started in the winter of ’17. They were blasting graves all night long. We were quarantined for two months. Madame Curie advised drinking four ounces of brandy a day."
  • WWI veterans tell how the war really was

  • On this day, over half a century ago, Chester Hanson threw his bandolier into a camp stove and ran from the exploding bullets, while Ettore Bronte was singing in the streets of Paris, celebrating the end of the last war on earth. In San Diego, young American soldiers, wearing white masks, heard the news as they came streaming out of a quarantined Camp Kearny for the first time in weeks. (Nov. 11, 1976)
“Lee’s for carefully planned expansion, like North City West."
  • Thorn in the mayor's side

  • Hubbard hates the fact that Wilson is enthroned upstairs, and he is down here in this cavern, this dungeon, badly outnumbered by Wilsonites. And he hates that useless open space between the offices. Sometimes he gets out there with his golf clubs and putts around on the carpet. (Feb. 17, 1977)

Richard Louv wrote feature stories for the Reader in the 1970s before becoming a regular writer for the San Diego Union.

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Larry Thomas, Otto Bos, Pete Wilson. Thomas is the perfect advance man for Wilson’s clean-cut pugnacity; he even looks like Wilson.  - Image by Robert Burroughs
Larry Thomas, Otto Bos, Pete Wilson. Thomas is the perfect advance man for Wilson’s clean-cut pugnacity; he even looks like Wilson.
  • All the mayor's men

  • White, 35, has been with Wilson longer than any of the mayor's advisors, and has made it a personal policy not to get within writing distance of reporters. He ducked back into his office, then suddenly reappeared. "Listen," White said to the reporter, "I hear you've been calling a lot of people around town about me. They're all calling me up. Look, I'm not the candidate, and I'm not very interesting." The door shut. (Written with Paul Krueger, July 14, 1977)
"When that usher walks up to the car, everybody puts something in the cup."
  • Gimme that drive-in religion

  • Rev. Paul Veenstra is wrestling with his umbrella. The wind has the umbrella and the umbrella has Veenstra and he is being pulled upward. Rain is whipping around him. He is standing on the back platform of the official red, white, and blue Harbor Drive-In Worship truck, which is parked between an empty movie screen and 50 cars. (July 28, 1977)
W. Clement Stone: “Now, everybody who grew rich, keep your hand up.”
“People keep walking up to me and looking me in the Third Eye.”
  • Take that pyramid off your head when you're talking to me

  • Reverend Douglas Sobel leans toward me and tries to figure out what I am thinking. I lean backward and try to keep him from reading my mind. Reverend Sobel, a psychic, is Assistant Pastor of San Diego’s First Spiritualist Church. He has organized “Exploring the New Dawn.” a convention of eighty-five “New Age” groups at the El Cortez this week-end in November. (Dec. 8, 1977)
"This is like Chicano Park, only nobody gets shot."
  • Where the bad boys are

  • Just as the people who live along the ocean shore are affected by the tides and the pull of the moon, the children of the street in 5- inner territories like Shell Town and Logan Heights must be charged with energy when the heat, smog, fumes, and noise drive them into the cool night, seeking rifamo—a ghetto communion. (Aug. 5, 1976)
Poet Allen Ginsburg and Leary's son, who both spoke against him, have returned to Leary's side.
Chester Hanson: “The Spanish Flu started in the winter of ’17. They were blasting graves all night long. We were quarantined for two months. Madame Curie advised drinking four ounces of brandy a day."
  • WWI veterans tell how the war really was

  • On this day, over half a century ago, Chester Hanson threw his bandolier into a camp stove and ran from the exploding bullets, while Ettore Bronte was singing in the streets of Paris, celebrating the end of the last war on earth. In San Diego, young American soldiers, wearing white masks, heard the news as they came streaming out of a quarantined Camp Kearny for the first time in weeks. (Nov. 11, 1976)
“Lee’s for carefully planned expansion, like North City West."
  • Thorn in the mayor's side

  • Hubbard hates the fact that Wilson is enthroned upstairs, and he is down here in this cavern, this dungeon, badly outnumbered by Wilsonites. And he hates that useless open space between the offices. Sometimes he gets out there with his golf clubs and putts around on the carpet. (Feb. 17, 1977)

Richard Louv wrote feature stories for the Reader in the 1970s before becoming a regular writer for the San Diego Union.

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Secrets of Resilience in May's Unforgettable Memoir

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3 Tips for Creating a Cozy and Inviting Living Room in San Diego

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