Mir was gifted writer invited to come from Berkeley to San Diego by Judith Moore. He wrote feature stories in the late 1980s and 1990s for the Reader. Editor's picks of stories Mir wrote for …
June 1, 2019
Back to profile
Stories by Mani Mir
Mani Mir and the Reader
Marine Corps Recruit Depot in San Diego opened its Command Museum
Fighting a war must be terribly different from the act of recalling it years later. The hours, days, and weeks of anxious tedium sporadically punctuated by the brutal experience of combat are not the same …
January 28, 1998
Welcome, GOP Convention Delegates, to San Diego, City of Shame
The maid had been referred to the Wilsons by Neil Morgan’s wife. The legality of her work status was still not known, said Davies. He said Wilson’s ex-wife Betty had handled all of the other details.
August 8, 1996
President Clinton says he reads about 250 books a year
My library, which is more than a couple of thousand volumes, has been accumulated over a 35-year period. It’s the most diverse personal library that I’ve ever seen, and that includes the libraries of friends …
April 25, 1996
Loss: what San Diegans left behind In 1992
Unlike 1984, when Ronald Reagan made it a point to finish his campaign at a giant rally in the parking lot of Fashion Valley, George Bush came to see the All-Star game and was booed by the locals.
December 23, 1992
Reader writers write about first day of school
Mr. Van Winkle asked the Student Council Reps, to indicate to the classes that if they can convince him through sound logical arguments that they should ride skateboards to school that he will reconsider his position.
September 12, 1991
La Jolla artist Andy Lakey in the words of friends and famous
Andy Lakey: I was born in '59. My mother and I moved to the United States in 1963. We're from France. My mother was an artist — and her mother, and her mother's mother. Many …
April 25, 1991
You start with Childe's What Happened in History, Clark's The First Half-Million Years
They said you might get out. You had a chance. Out of this hellhole. There's a secret. It's a game. That's what you think. Books. Salvation. To know is to be able. You start with …
December 20, 1990
San Diego talk radio after dark
Night is when cold and flu gets the worst. Forget to take my Medication (stop doing that) sleep much as possible (trying trying, easier in the day Supply: corn beef — low Medication — 3 …
July 5, 1990
Books: Sandra Dijkstra, what teachers read, play scripts, baseball, airplane books
I’m Talking Monster Books Amy had a title on this book. She called it Wind and Water. She was using the theme of the I Ching. I looked at these synopses of the stories, and …
April 26, 1990
Sandra Dijkstra, literary agent, tells of her success with Amy Tan
"I think that I have a sort of natural editorial tropism; it’s sort of innate in me. I have a sort of irrepressible publicist in me. I help my authors get the word out."
April 26, 1990
A page or two out of Clifford Newman's book
“Then these three guys come and I’m still on the phone with the dispatcher. And they’re standin’ there — with the gun and the burritos — and she goes, ‘Well, do you still want us to send somebody out?’’
April 12, 1990
Book-lovers chew the fat at the Mission Hills Library
“Mysteries,” says the sign above the shelves. From rows of books below, John Parker removes one hardback, examines the cover, opens to a page, not the first page. He reads a few lines, riffles to …
September 21, 1989
Meet El Cajon garage band Psychotic Waltz
"Some people are naturally rude,” Norm says. “Being in El Cajon here, everyone’s a crystal fiend, except for us. Every day we deal with weirdos and sketchers comin’ up that we can't stand.”
August 3, 1989