Florence Chadwick in and out of the water Many years earlier, on her return to San Diego from a trip abroad, Chadwick had been greeted by city officials with considerably more pomp - a jubilant …
July 1, 2023
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Stories by David Steinman
Florence Chadwick wants to lose 50 pounds
The $100,000 gamble in Mission Hills
The problem with Turkish rugs on West Lewis Street Yet it is not the artistry of many of Guzel’s rugs that makes this shop unique in San Diego, perhaps in all of western America. Guzel …
February 4, 2023
Police dogs trained in Rose Canyon
Oceanside police use tougher dogs Lang ordered the man to halt and drop the gun. He kept coming. So the officer set the dog on the man. When Fritz jumped him, the gun went flying …
October 9, 2022
Hallucinogen provides key to rock art at La Rumorosa
Editor: The following feature stories appeared in the interior pages of the Reader in the 1970s and 1980s and have just been converted to digital form. The Kumeyaay rock art at Hakwin Hakwin is an …
October 1, 2022
Bitten by rattler deep in Baja mountains
Snakebite Bob recalls, “I was getting pretty good mouthfuls of blood for a while, then everything seemed to coagulate.” Less than three minutes had elapsed since the time of the bite. He substituted the waist …
June 19, 2022
Fred Schaubelt – San Diego City Council's burr under saddle
San Diego will never see another city councilman like Fred Schnaubelt “The interesting thing about being a [government] planner is that you have to be a socialist,” Schnaubelt continued mildly. Among his audience one could …
May 28, 2022
San Diego boat Gypsy Song lost in Guatemala
Mystery of the Gypsy Song His one overriding desire is to find some shred of evidence that the Gypsy Song did in fact sink. “I just want to put that lady’s mind to rest,” he …
May 1, 2022
Windansea fun hog bails, Broderick marriage tragedy
The ultimate fun hog has bailed Windansea people say Seth became a local legend not due to his surfing skills, not like Van Artsdalen, but from the NOT WHEN THE SURF'S UP sign painted on …
March 26, 2022
San Diego's madame Karen Wilkening, Metabolife's Mike Ellis and Mike Blevins
My Own True Story One morning, Hercules had left for work around 6:30 and I was still asleep, there was a knock on the door. I opened the door only about a half an inch. …
December 20, 2021
Sole survivor of fishing accident, the bitch of being 5'5", tried Morningstar for my schizophrenia
Nightmare of the New Hope A little cry of relief burst from him, lost in the shriek of the wind. His hands scrambled, searching for the inflate cord. The sea bounced him. Spray lashed the …
October 2, 2021
Utterly alone with abortion, Father Bud Kaicher's court statement, behind Debby Fleming's suicide
Dutiful Daughter After three days, I lost all feeling that something had “happened” to my body. I realized it would be possible to deny that this had ever happened to me, if I chose to …
May 15, 2021
Best Reader stories from 1982
What on earth am I settling for “Goddamnit,” said Jane one evening about six months ago when I answered the door of our apartment in Golden Hill and found her on the stoop, Jeanne sliding …
November 24, 2019
Stories hidden inside the San Diego Reader
Editor: The following feature stories appeared in the interior pages of the Reader in the 1970s and 1980s and have just been converted to digital form. Meditations while riding San Diego Transit “Yes, these people …
January 26, 2019
A slow dirge for Steve and Susan
Sherry Richardson wanted a change in her life, wanted to get away from the States for a while. She had a woman friend in Mexico she could stay with as long as she wanted, so …
May 8, 1986
San Diego's explosives man
Terry Barrett the powder man stood on the edge of a fifty-foot cliff he was about to destroy. As he spoke he pointed downward to the pit of a granite quarry, where there sat a …
November 10, 1983
Scott Thile, San Diego's master piano tuner
There was once a fine old Sohmer grand piano that fell asleep inside a church — the Seventh-Day Adventist Church of Oceanside. For many years, the church pianist and the 1917-vintage Sohmer grand had created …
July 21, 1983
The problem with Turkish rugs on West Lewis Street
The shop’s name is Guzel, a Turkish word meaning beautiful. And inside Giizel, located at 1621 West Lewis Street in Mission Hills, are Oriental rugs that, indeed, are beautiful. They are draped upon darkly stained …
May 5, 1983
The same day Kelly had rented us a home in Cardiff, she found out she was pregnant
“I can’t afford to buy a bed and pay for an abortion too.” “Hey!” Her voice rose in pitch, tightening. “I never said I’d have an abortion.”
November 18, 1982
Tim Joe Key - San Diego's version of a Tarahumara runner
When he and his father talked after that, T.J. said. “I wouldn’t mind going to college. I wonder if you would help?” “My father never helped me go to college,” his father replied.
October 21, 1982
Del Mar's horse vet Jack Jocoy has seen it all
On the pinto that he rode, he felt the beast’s physicality, its thickness through the barrel, feeling the strong uneven lope, a muscular ripple along the horse’s glistening croup and withers, the leather saddle against …
September 9, 1982