Break a Leg In 1993, Hal Holbrook was performing King Lear in the title role. Tom Hall, a San Diego actor, likes to tell the story. Hal came on too soon and started a completely …
October 24, 2021
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Stories by Moss Gropen
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San Diego actors' worst stories, he guards Volcan Mountain, community college adjunct
San Diego's real census
It’s been a hell of a year, and it’s not over yet. First, in San Diego County as elsewhere in these Divided States, we’ve been treated to a masquerade ball, courtesy of a generous host. …
Cardiff-by-the-Sea
Feature Stories
La Jolla
La Mesa
Little Italy
Oceanside
Scripps Ranch
Solana Beach
November 4, 2020
Native fruits, Bread and Cie, taco extremist, pho forager, Baja cuisine
Between Slurps Hmm…menu has things like “amuse-bouches,” “tartines,” and “baguettes.” Where do I start? The tartines (“open-face toasted sandwiches with melted cheese”)? For eight bucks you get “two of your choice, served on arugula salad.” …
October 5, 2020
Must-read- San Diego food stories
Between Slurps Hmm…menu has things like “amuse-bouches,” “tartines,” and “baguettes.” Where do I start? The tartines (“open-face toasted sandwiches with melted cheese”)? For eight bucks you get “two of your choice, served on arugula salad.” …
June 14, 2020
Mission Valley – garden-land gave way to shopping centers
The never-ending fix to Hazard Center Drive Hazard Center Drive in Mission Valley East is probably the shortest road incurring the longest completion of any in San Diego. It is approximately three blocks long and …
May 11, 2020
Best Reader stories from 2016
Tijuana destroys Spanish and English “Tengo que ir hacer laundry, then I have to study en la biblioteca,” I’m paraphrasing what the Latina students in my college sounded like. My first real encounter with Spanglish …
March 22, 2020
Best Reader stories from 2012
Presidential candidate Mitt Romney roots deep and wide in San Diego It is Matt Romney who takes public credit for calling his part of the Romney clan to San Diego County. “My wife and I …
March 8, 2020
Best Reader stories from 2010
Reader writers on why Christmas is magic By Dorian Hargrove, Elizabeth Salaam, Ernie Grimm, Jay Allen Sanford, Melissa Wiley, Ollie , Walter Mencken, Dec. 22, 2010 San Diego women who have converted to Islam Over …
March 1, 2020
Best Reader stories from 2008
Tijuana is the first stop to suicide Faye Girsh, vice president of the Hemlock Society of San Diego, knows that Exit International has been publicizing the Mexico option for its members. “But we do not …
February 23, 2020
Mira Mesa – what there is to love
Mira Mesa braces for mega population growth The decades-old Vulcan mining operation on nearly 300 acres of Carroll Canyon will be a huge housing project if developers' lobbying efforts are successful. Bordered by Mira Mesa …
February 3, 2020
Poway – city in the country
I Crawled Inside Brenda van Dam's Head and Tried to Guess What Went on in There Dad’s is probably the most famous barroom in America, at least this week, and what goes on here is …
January 6, 2020
San Diego avocados – pretty much all Hass
"Find a good well.” That’s what Al Stehly, long-time North County avocado grower recommends, if you want to make a living nurturing what some folks call “green gold.” Stehly, who owns an 8-acre grove in …
October 23, 2019
Julian – chock full of history
Appellate court turns back Hosking's fake cattle ranch Inhabitants of Julian who oppose the development of 1416 acres of local back country have a newfound victory to celebrate. An appellate court has reversed the decision …
October 7, 2019
Poway – why the rodeo still does well
It’s rodeo time: seven seconds of hell on an angry bull. That’s what many San Diegans picture when they think of Poway. But times have changed in the “City in the Country,” as old-time Kiwanistas …
September 4, 2019
Joe Harper, CEO of Del Mar Thoroughbred Club, eases up on PETA
‘Well, I know the headlines won’t be about big hats.” Joe Harper, longtime CEO of the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club, is candid. It’s race time at Del Mar, where the humid days of summer usher …
August 7, 2019
The Willis way to survive rip currents
‘Look for the bubbles; it’s all in the bubbles!” That’s Milton Willis preaching at the beach, extolling his approach to avoiding rip currents and surviving those you can’t evade. He calls it the Willis Way. …
July 17, 2019
Scripps Ranch – starter homes
Good intentions behind paving of Scripps Trail Claudia Walker's family bought a home on the 10400 block of the street, a quiet, neatly manicured tract in Scripps Ranch near where the northeastern edge of the …
June 17, 2019
Del Cerro – in the shadow of Adobe Falls
Adobe Falls lovers pin hopes on Sally Roush Frost spoke of a “battle against the internet,” which continues to draw people to the area. “As of this morning, there were 7132 Instagram pictures of Adobe …
May 20, 2019
Such San Diego love stories
Gino lost and found My wife and I are sitting with Carol and Gino at Masters in Oceanside. “Upscale bar and grill,” I’d term it, with an extensive list of, as they used to say …
February 13, 2019
Why do we keep building in Mission Valley?
I’m thinking that this parking lot, when it’s submerged under three feet of storm runoff, will make a great place for pick-up truck water skiing, drunken community college guys on boogie boards, and trash can …
January 9, 2019
San Diego's new wine region
‘It’s all about the diurnal drop. It cools off a lot here at night, 30 degrees on average. That’s why we can make good whites,” says Sarah Babine, who, along with husband Grant Spotts, aims …
October 24, 2018
San Diego bars for adults
This isn’t meant to be an comprehensive, exhaustive, or even representative sampling of the options available to the (relatively) mature San Diegan who seeks a copacetic watering hole. In a city with hundreds (if not …
July 25, 2018
The voluble Carl DeMaio on his gas tax revolt
There’s a showdown looming down at the gas pump, and Carl DeMaio will be there on Election Day to confront the man he views as the chief bandit, Governor Jerry Brown. As for the preliminary …
May 30, 2018
Someone's teed off in Coronado
“Roger Miller has run roughshod, and there’s no oversight.” No, not that Roger Miller, “King of the Road,” but Roger Miller, grifter of the greens, who calls the shots at Coronado Municipal Golf Course, where …
March 28, 2018
Scripps Ranch — cows gone, rattlers remain
Nowadays, while the rattlers remain, steers have been replaced by SUVs, Bambi and his kin are in a witness protection program, and the ranchers have been plowed over by glad-handers who lasso real estate. If …
November 8, 2017
Breeders’ Cup comes to Del Mar
I’m at my usual spot in the corner next to the winner’s circle, where the yellow fire hydrant sits against the rail, right across from the finish line. If I reach out, I can pet …
October 4, 2017
San Diego's piano bars
Scott Skinner — the Godfather There’s an iron man caressing the ivories over on Clairemont Mesa Boulevard, and if you miss his act this weekend, don’t worry; he may still be playing there 40 years …
May 31, 2017
Not your dad’s youth group
Arms wave in the air, hands outstretched as if to grab something fleeting. It’s Friday night at MyCity Youth, fists and music pumping. Teenagers and preteens sway transfixed, all eyes on the stage, where a …
February 8, 2017
San Diego lifeguards in winter – what do they do?
Tanned bodies, shimmering sand, and a touch of glamour. That’s the life of the lifeguard, right? But as I stand in the lifeguard tower just south of Casa Beach in La Jolla, the images of …
November 9, 2016
I wept for the lagoon
It’s a mild, breezy afternoon at Agua Hedionda Lagoon. From the vantage of the visitors center, I can see small boats and jet-skis carving whitewater trails off to the west. Right above me are massive …
October 12, 2016
Civic San Diego and city council are so wrong about cars and bikes
Did you ride your bike to work today? If so, you’re part of the vaunted 1 percent. If, instead, you took the trolley or the bus, you’re still among the elite — the small minority …
August 24, 2016
Off-duty El Cajon cop kills beer thief in Santee
The bloodstains have long since faded, courtesy of Scram, sun, and time. More than a decade ago, in the parking lot of a Vons in Santee, Christopher St. Louis, 18, lost his life in the …
June 29, 2016
How eucalyptus has hurt San Diego
“Deport the eucalyptus back to Australia!” That’s Johnny Sevier, a certified arborist, on the tree he loves to hate but that many San Diegans revere, the ubiquitous eucalyptus. Long an arboreal staple in San Diego …
June 1, 2016
Green invasion
What exactly is an invasive plant, and why should we give a rotten rhizome if one crops up in our side yard? Dan Gluesenkamp answers: “One widely accepted definition includes two components: It’s not native …
September 30, 2015
City bites doggie daycare for $100K
Wishful doggy daycare doyennes bedeviled by details.
August 19, 2015
Casa Mira View — city of villages or mecca for crime?
Will Mira Mesa mega-development become a slum?
July 29, 2015
Triple Crown dreams from $2000 to $230,000
Triple Crown dreams begin with two-year-olds, and some of those dreams were for sale in Del Mar on May 28. If you want to buy a horse, specifically a thoroughbred, the action’s at the auction, …
July 8, 2015
Who's giving injections at Planned Parenthood?
There’s a showdown downtown scheduled for Friday, August 14, when the case of Murray v. Planned Parenthood of the Pacific Southwest goes to trial in superior court. Carla M. Murray, a nurse practitioner, had worked …
July 3, 2015
Coronado Bridge to eternity
If you want to die, the odds are in your favor if you’ve chosen the Coronado Bridge as your suicide site. And since the steel-and-concrete span opened in 1969, over 250 people have made the …
June 17, 2015
Las Colinas is something to Yelp about
“For the only jail I’ve been to, I guess it’s okay. I slept well and wasn’t disturbed. The holding cell I was confined to had a phone and I was able to make unlimited phone …
April 22, 2015