Ship of Fools “She poured wine for all of us. I picked up a glass and raised it in a toast and said, ‘Nostrovia ... Gorbachev... Nostro-via.’ The place erupted. The damn first engineer comes …
November 28, 2021
Articles by Joe Daley
Stuck on Russian ship in Ensenada, in Baja for the eclipse
The Byronic Man of La Mesa
Robert Byron of La Mesa, who claims to be the only living direct male descendant of the poet Lord George Gordon Byron, gave us a call the other day. He sounded pleased. Although he’s known …
September 29, 2010
Gringo trapped on Russian vessel in Ensenada
I brought in the accordion from my Mitsubishi. I remembered one Russian folk song, ‘Da-da-da-da ... ’ like that. It’s a Ukrainian song. Jesus Christ, they went crazy! Everybody was clapping along, buying drinks.
March 28, 1991
I continued to read Babbitt through my four years at college
Thirteen years ago, while a freshman at a small private college in Florida, I picked up Sinclair Lewis's Babbitt. An amusing, often vicious satire of mindless conformity and middle-class morals, Babbitt plucked a chord in …
December 20, 1990
San Diego WWII-era process server: "much tougher town then"
“Everybody I know is dead. All the big shots that hung around the Grant Grill; they’re all dead now.” The liver-spotted hands of Kent Parker clench, relax. “San Diego was a much tougher town then …
March 22, 1990
Reader writers: the story I wanted to write... but didn't
Sandy and a girlfriend had gone into a liquor store, robbed the clerk, They locked the clerk in a walk-in cooler. Sandy started feeling bad about the guy. She went back and let him out.
October 5, 1989