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Mananimalmananimal You tell me why, what, keeps my stub-toed Frye boot from kicking, jabbing the open-toed lavender sandals, nylon-encased toes; what stays the hand from grabbing the gray-suit lapels, from turning that wood-laminate table over; …
Gimme that drive-in religion “One of the greatest things is you get more offerings than you do in regular church. When that usher walks up to the car, everybody puts something in the cup. It’s …
The beginnings of San Diego libertarians Libertarian writers such as H.L. Mencken and Ayn Rand are scattered throughout this century, but the fact remains that until the late 1960’s, libertarianism remained little more than one …
The poor man's country club It is hard not to get swept up in the romanticism of the place. The wooden floors, the knotty pine walls, the wooden lockers next to the gym room. The …
Suburbanizing San Diego's downtown Tom Hom says that his Gaslamp District will avoid the problems of a similar district in St. Louis that has now deteriorated because San Diego’s will be locally governed, where St.Louis’s …
San Diego's Top Ten High Schools “My sister had gone to Bishop’s in seventh and eighth grade, and she liked it. She told me that the friendships are great, there’s a lot of support, there’s …
Eight Ball in the Corner Pocket You could smoke a joint so long as you kept it at a respectable distance from Mrs. Yamada. You could do most anything you wanted except fight, which brought …
Valley Love The Lower Sweetwater Valley has served as a recreational and inspirational resource. One morning I looked up on the levee and saw a colorful line of kindergartners singing to the ducks in the …
Stucco Reigns Cunningham’s opinions on stucco range from passion — over buildings like the San Diego Museum of Fine Art in Balboa Park, “all the old theaters,” and Requa’s A.H. Sweet House at 435 West …
The Simple Magic of Being Pushed Forward By Wind Norm was still alive. From photographs Annie had sent, he identified the skiff as his own creation by the unique placement of ribs just aft of …
A Long Shelf Life Valverde unburdens a perspiring white-haired man loaded from waist to double chin with titles about World War II. He says to Valverde, I'm just kinda reminiscing about my war.” Waiting in …
Class Struggle “We had a lot of cliques at my school. There were the drama kids, and we had a group we actually called the Clique. It was just the people that seemed to party …
The Silk Road Ends in San Diego “One of the Russians said, ‘Treat these [Russians] and kill these [Afghans].’ The other doctor said, 'How can I do that?’ The Russian said, 'Like this!’ and he …
Where Sweet Peace and Love Abidith During school vacations, Carl and I hopped the freight train that chugged through twice a week. It stopped in La Mesa to unload flatbeds of planks to the lumberyard. …
Good Life in Sabre Springs “I think Brenda is amazing. She’s so strong. I asked her, ‘How do you get out of bed?’ She told me, ‘I do it for my boys because they don’t …
Lines of Love, Lines of Pain We lived by the hospital. I heard sirens every day. When both girls were with me in the house, I felt a smug assurance when I heard the sirens …
Not So Stoopid "What do indie musicians and Tupperware have in common?" That's what an article in the June 20 issue of Newsweek ponders as it suggests local O.B. reggae-rockers Slightly Stoopid have tapped into …
Traffic spares no one “People say, ‘You got a real transportation problem on the 15.’ Well, it’s less a transportation problem than it is a land-use problem. A lot of the people, because they can’t …
Sweet-and-Sour Pork-u-Pines When you got a new desk calendar in December, by which time ground was frozen and trees leafless, you marked down third Thursday afternoons for guild and fourth Sundays for potlucks. You X-ed …
Bushwhacked We look at a Wieghorst painting called Spring Rain, a dark, impressionistic work, one of about a dozen Wieghorsts on the walls. Thackeray can remember when Wieghorst painted it. “It was raining cats and …