The Only Kid at Whitebread Central Who Listened to Danzig Many people have asked me why I’m not in school, and when I explain that I am on home study, they want to know why. …
May 1, 2021
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Stories by Justin Wolff
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Wholesome and off-beat homeschooling, Helix High football, Mission Bay High reunion
Would-be feminists on sand in PB, why the Yukon is dangerous, great white sharks lurk nearby
Pretty Woman Ann, 21, who filled out her bikini in a perfectly proportionate manner, said she was satisfied with her figure. She listened serenely as I spoke with her friends, but her voice boomed with …
March 14, 2021
Trigger-happy David Medina, San Diegans on Death Row, computer hacker confab
Trigger Happy or Just Plain Happy? Who is David Medina? Dressed neatly in a white oxford cloth shirt with a blue pullover sweater, David Medina, a.k.a. “Happy,” pursed his lips and appeared to listen closely …
October 12, 2020
Southeast Locals – a well-educated, violent San Diego gang
Trigger Happy or Just Plain Happy? Who is David Medina? Dressed neatly in a white oxford cloth shirt with a blue pullover sweater, David Medina, a.k.a. “Happy,” pursed his lips and appeared to listen closely …
June 27, 2020
Mission Hills – don't be fooled
Book-lovers chew the fat at the Mission Hills Library His watch tells him 6:45. This Mission Hills branch stays open tonight — it’s Monday. He slaps the book closed, reshelves it, glances to his left. …
December 30, 2019
Rancho Santa Fe – the most luxury homes in California
San Diego Polo Club site developed by Heaven's Gate Exclusiveness breeds itself, so it’s little wonder that when the San Diego Polo Club in Rancho Santa Fe needed a Web page designed, they turned to …
December 16, 2019
Justin Wolff and the Reader
Son of Geoffrey Wolff, Justin wrote feature stories plus a weekly column on unusual websites (Sightseer) for the Reader from 1997 to 2006. Editor's picks of stories Wolff wrote for the Reader: Feature stories Does …
June 16, 2019
23 Reader writers describe the regime of editor Judith Moore
Busy Fingers Are Happy Fingers — Joe Deegan Mother Reader — Barbarella Build Your Writing Muscles — Ollie Let the Tape Recorder Do the Work — Matthew Lickona Faith — Abe Opincar Make Something Better …
August 16, 2007
She Gave More Than She Took
Judith was a ghost to me. She was present, but never corporeally. It strikes me as ironic that I never met her, considering that the body — her body — was one of her principal …
August 16, 2007
Corky's Game
McNab told me recently that he refuses to quit his crusade against the McMillin plan. “There are bodies buried everywhere when it comes to this deal, and we’re out there with shovels and we’ll keep digging.”
July 3, 2002
UCSD cum laude grad David Medina tried for Chula Vista gang murders
Dressed neatly in a white oxford cloth shirt with a blue pullover sweater, David Medina, a.k.a. “Happy,” pursed his lips and appeared to listen closely as Judge John Thompson handed down Medina’s sentence — nine …
January 17, 2002
Ridout Plastics — beyond Preisendorfer surfboards
Its influence was not as far-reaching as Oprah’s Book Club, but its consequences were likely far more devastating. Though we smirk at its mass appeal and its seeming insincerity, all Oprah’s list does is make …
November 29, 2001
A novel of Mission Hills: Oakley Hall's Corpus of Joe Bailey
A novel from Mission Hills.
November 8, 2001
Oakley Hall explains Corpus of Joe Bailey
Read first part of the novel. In 1953 Judy Garland made a splendid appearance at the opening reception for the Kentucky Derby. She was wearing a navy-blue, full-length coat; navy-blue, calfskin opera pumps with very …
November 8, 2001
Anarchy on the web
Anyone who wrote an apology for his life while in prison, as Oscar Wilde did in De Profundis, cannot properly be called an anarchist. Yet as he so often did, Wilde condensed a credo into …
October 4, 2001
San Diego home schoolers get more company
“You get to stay in your pajamas, and you get more free time. At homeschool I felt like I had more time but that I learned more. At school, you have to budget your time so much.”
September 13, 2001
Does the Yukon tempt divers to death?
Tegner was ascending from an 85-foot dive when her air apparently ran out, forcing her to surface before she could complete her final decompression stop. A companion suggested to her that she stay in the boat.
August 30, 2001
Find brides on the Volga
The FAQ page at A Volga Girl: International Bureau of Introductions (www.volgagirl.com): Umm, what? Beautiful Russian women eager to be your bride! Oh, cool. But what about that Volga thing? Isn't that a show tune …
August 23, 2001
Hunter Thompson just copied Annie Leibowitz
Despite all of his outrage and bombast. Hunter S. Thompson has always had the best gig in town. Make no mistake: gonzo journalism has been his ticket to a lush life. True, you can’t fake …
August 9, 2001
The beauty of urinals
I recently happened across the doings of a guy I knew in high school. I didn’t know him, though, as well as I knew his sister. She was in my class, and in 11th grade …
July 19, 2001
Esperanto — no irregular verbs
Se vi povus legi cition, vi komprenas Esperanton. If the degree of a manifesto’s passion and ardor were any test, the Prague Manifesto would be an important one: “Any system of communication which confers lifelong …
June 14, 2001
Traffic Spares No One
“We’re doing really good compared to other cities. We still enjoy something here in San Diego. If you travel outside peak commute times, it’s pretty much free-flowing. You can’t go to L.A. and do that.”
April 5, 2001
Already miss the 90s?
Do you already miss the ’90s? How can we direct that nostalgia? First, what shall we say most marked the decade: the Internet? Coffeehouses? Hip-hop? j Orenthal? Pulp Fiction? Lollapalooza? I think the Zeitgeist of …
March 29, 2001
Explore Lescaux caves with your mouse
It happened on Thursday, September 12, 1940. As the story goes, the “floor formed a succession of terraced basins, full of water. The uncertain light of their lamp barely pierced the darkness,” and it wasn’t …
March 22, 2001
Has Gaslamp Lived Up to Its Promise?
The Downtown Information Center, a service of the Centre City Development Corporation, occupies the ground-floor lobby at 225 Broadway. The center exhibits sketches and charts detailing the area's redevelopment. Its showpiece is a 200-square-foot model …
March 1, 2001
Big Ears for Freedom
In the hot frequencies, the 800 megahertz band, one can hear all kinds of terrible things. Good people and bad people alike victimized by neighbors, lovers, drunk drivers, dogs, drugs, alcohol. On a Monday night …
February 15, 2001
Leave me alone: San Diego's Goths
She was tall, blond, and, like almost everyone there that night, dressed in jet black. What she shouted at — to be heard over the music — hurt, but only for a second, like a …
February 8, 2001
P.B.'s Pisser Clam Club
I may have been sitting on the western rim of the continent, but for about half an hour on January 23, I thought I was back East. Pete Trabucco, co-owner of Chaz’s Sunset Cafe on …
February 8, 2001
No Place for a Beer Party
A proposal to impose a 24-hour alcohol ban on San Diego beaches hit a temporary snag on January 24 when the city's Public Safety and Neighborhood Services Committee postponed action until early April. Although the …
February 1, 2001
Something Fishy in Paranoia Bay
Despite a recent scolding, the city, some watchdogs say, continues to disrespect Mission Bay Park and those citizens who care about it. On April 18, you might remember, a San Diego County grand jury released …
January 11, 2001
Council Winks at Boy Scout Gay Ban
The Desert Pacific Council of the Boy Scouts of America forced the city's hand in November when it asked for a 50-year extension of its lease on 16 acres of land in Balboa Park, where …
December 21, 2000
Northern Light and its customized folders
I’m no economist, or so my creditors say, but long before Steve Kroft’s report on 60 Minutes on December 10 about the bust up of the dot-com industry and the billions in fool’s gold that …
December 21, 2000
State Testing Programs
The expression "high stakes" is a favorite idiom among San Diego educators these days. It doesn't matter if you're talking to people at the local, district, county, or state level -- if the subject is …
November 30, 2000
Hard Town for Activism
On the evening of October 11, George W. Bush and Al Gore were in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, being stupid on TV. Gore: "First of all, let me say that if I'm elected president..." Bush: "If …
November 9, 2000
Where to buy Russian sub
Despite the terrible fate of the 118 submariners aboard the Russian Kursk at the bottom of the Barents Sea, I’ve been in the market for ! a submarine. And I don’t mean one of those …
November 9, 2000
29 Reader writers on their fathers
To commemorate Father's Day, this issue contains a collection of reflections from Reader writers about their fathers: The Last Tag Sale — Jeanne Schinto An Air of Exoticism — Duncan Shepherd Kinder Than I Would …
June 15, 2000
Kinder Than I Would Think Possible
When I got in trouble, my father’s impulse was to hug me. He did punish me for the little things, but when I did something corrupt, committed a youthful transgression that had the potential to …
June 15, 2000
Poetic Injustices
You have to kiss a lot of toads before you find a handsome prince... Anyone can be passionate, but it takes real lovers to be silly... If a relationship is to evolve, it must go …
June 8, 2000
The Ministry of Rum
Bat Bite, Cool Carlos, Cuba Libre, and Sunny Sour. It’s summer: rum season. Time for Mojitos — dark rum, lime juice, sugar, mint leaves, and club soda — and Rum Drinks, the practical name my …
June 1, 2000
El Cajon actor wants dimes
Send me a dime and I'll entertain you for life.” This blunt supplication just about sums up the purpose of Justin Duke’s website. Justin, 21, is from El Cajon and, in his own words, “flat …
A place for Padres fans
April 3, 2000: “Your cleanup guy has a big day at the plate and your staff ace takes a shutout into the seventh inning, so you figure this should be a winning Opening Day. Well, …
April 13, 2000