Presidents and sports. It's a strange topic in the sense that anything having to do with presidents is strange, so you start from a place that has little resemblance to ordinary life. Figure there's 300,000,000 …

After 35 years, the San Diego Padres have a home of their own. Today, the local nine will jog onto the field and play their first regular-season game in Petco Park. It’s a mighty step …

I begin, sounding very much like a ticket agent, by saying, “Let’s see, we’ve got bald men, chemo people, people who cross-dress, and transsexuals. Who else?” “Well, there are also women,” says Donna Good, “who …

There are roughly six million boys between the ages of 16 and 18 living in the United States. There are approximately 26,400 high schools and close to that number of starting centers playing on high …

"I went through the window, But anytime you do a window gag, if you have exposed skin and that skin hits the ground, you’re going to get cut My hand hit the ground and I got some cuts."

Monday, July 22, 2002, 9:38 a.m. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is down 284.52 points to 7734.74. I push on a glass door and enter into a small lobby. This is the downtown Charles Schwab …

“I wrote a note for my husband and son and left the TV on so they would see it when they came downstairs. And then I had to pack up my daughter and drop her off.”

“About the old L.A. Chargers and San Diego Chargers: We got an average of 25,000 people in the L.A. Coliseum and a little more in Balboa Stadium, but it was wide-open football — we’d throw 50 times a game.”

“There were three sisters, all of them wrestlers. Two sisters married brothers who were also wrestlers.” Speaking is a man I’ll call Earl Elkin, 53, who, in the maturity of his life, found a career …

We got the Lakers winning the NBA championship in six, De La Hoya swallowing another loss, or Tiger Woods. Which is to say, we could have Spam and cold macaroni for dinner, or duck prosciutto …

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 …

I don’t believe he liked me, but I can’t tell you that for sure. I can say I don’t think about him. Mom, I think of every day. I talk to her in my head, …

This morning’s news flash states that bridge will be a demonstration sport at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. Those pointy-headed Olympic bureaucrats obviously don’t understand that tournament bridge is a contact competition. …

If you like time travel but don't own a working time machine, try an automobile ride to the Viejas Casino and Turf Club. Travel east on I-8, past El Cajon, climb the grade to Alpine, …

'Has anybody ever given you French doors before?" The afternoon's particle-beam-intense sunlight reflects off the hood of my truck, makes my eyes squint and forehead sweat. James Perez, a 57-year-old Native American, replies, "Oh, yeah." …

To recap from last week: I wrote 108 state and federal prisoners who had posted personal ads on the World Wide Web (www.pennpals.com/, www.inmate.com/, and www.cyberspace-inmates .com/). What follows is the text of my letter. …

My computer monitor lights up with a picture of a bare-chested, buffed-up, tattooed male, maybe 30 years old, with black hair and mustache. Alongside the photo is a headline announcing "Jeff Rendall's Personal Message to …

There is something about poverty and the color brown. Go into any Goodwill, Salvation Army, or St. Vincent’s thrift store to purchase a chair or couch and you’ll find 80 percent of the offered items are brown.

'I was on the speakerphone with Ballard Smith, Ron Hahn, and one of the Shihadeh brothers. I said, 'What do you me mean, "fit the mold"? You got hot dogs, you got nachos, you got …

This is a spot quiz. Who is making the following statements? You look too much like your father to be my child. There is nothing for nice girls to do past midnight. I'm not here …

It was opening day, 1994. I was at the Murph to see if the Padres had sold the toilet seats yet. Management had been unloading players and their contracts, laying off secretaries, rationing office supplies …

After three weeks I have Baja office up and running, return to San Diego to interview several people for a story. Only motel I can find that takes pets is Motel 6 in El Cajon.

A Bell Junior High School student reports to his parents that there has been a riot at school. He further relates that he was jumped, kicked, and beaten by 20 students. The child is African …

"You're a hard man to find." Glassy red eyes regard me with fear. The stubble-haired male, somewhere between 60 and 80, is buried deep in his sleeping bag. The brown cotton bag stinks of urine …

“Have you ever heard of the Whole Earth Festival? I was going to them way back before I was a Christian." Speaking is Steve Behncke, a do-it-yourself Christian missionary, who lately has been preaching the …

You won't find them on a topological map, but these American settlements dot the coasts of Baja, from San Felipe down to Santiago, around the bend and back up to Ensenada. Their names bring to …

“What was the first thing you took off?” “Your beautiful gown. Then you had what is called a panel, something like a little teddy, and then you took off your brassiere and knit pants. On …

The year is 1949, Volkswagen is up and running, building Beetles for the amusement of the four people in America who know about them. Nineteen forty-nine was also the year Volkswagen began commercial production of …

Pulling out a chair for Peggy, I notice there is a rank smell, and it’s coming from the kitchen. “I’ll be right back,” I mumble and roll over to the doorway. THERE’S A GREASE FIRE!

I'm rolling west in my unheated van, make a right toward the ocean on prospect. It’s a crisp Monday morning and downtown La Jolla is already too crowded. I poke around Silverado and Girard seeking …

Imperial Beach was originally part of an 1846 land grant from the Spanish Crown to the benefit of one Pedro Cabrillo. Queen Victoria was on the throne and Grover Cleveland was president when the first …

“If you use eminent domain, you’re setting up people who spent life savings to live on the beach. Now, they’re going to be forced out to build a giant hotel for tourists from out of town.”

My birth certificate reads "Patrick Daugherty." When I was a child everyone called me Pat. My first love, a big-busted, traveling woman, dubbed me Patrick, gave my full name back to me, but that happened …

Some critics have been adoring: "David Baze is simply a great artist." Others complain: "David Baze's paintings reek of emotional estrangement. Men and women rarely commune in these light-infused scenes — their bodes are neighbors, …

For me, first car was my parents’ car, a 1958 Hilman Lynx. This thing was a squat, 35-horsepower English import the size of a VW bug, except square. It had the aerodynamics of a grocery …

Wood redraws the diagram, “This guy right here is the cause of the problem. He’s even making tackles on the offside play. Nobody’s blocking him so we’re far better off chop-blocking this guy.”

It’s become a bona fide good job. It starts at $18,678 U.S., then cranks in with regular 5 percent increases, You get medical, dental, and vision care benefits, two weeks’ vacation, sick pay, and retirement. …

"I know how it can be frightening to some people. It’s not frightening to me. If the sharp instruments are dealt with in the proper manner, you won’t get hurt. I’m not going to catch AIDS by touching somebody."

“We use our pen, put a little mark on the tire, and if you don’t know exactly where to look, even if you do and the sun hits that place wrong, you can’t see it.”

“Baseball in the ’50s, early ’60s.... Ted Williams was finishing and Mickey Mantle was starting and I got to see it. Willie Mays was starting, Stan Musial was finishing. Don Drysdale was pitching and Sandy Koufax was pitching."

"We were catching a Navy ship, met them off the sub base. We pelted them with water balloons as a Coast Guard cutter turned the corner. The cutter impounded us for harassing a Navy ship.”

“I got Starkist Charlie’s lunch kit and crackers.” “Do you have a sandwich?” “No, I don’t like sandwiches. Had a cantaloupe and Double-Tough Oreos.” “Double-Tough?” “Double-Tough.” “None of this Twinkie shit, just hard-ass Oreos.” “You got it.”

Vigilant readers may recall an article published in these pages last fall. It was a story about used cars and hubris — deep, seductive, mind-enchanting hubris. I still remember, precisely, making a left off Orange …

“Everybody was leaving the costume party. They were going to a packing shed and party some more. My brother George and his wife were both sleeping when they got another phone call."

Professional boxing is the steelworker, the auto manufacturer, the union man of our age. This year, in California, promoters presented roughly a third of the boxing cards fans patronized 30 years ago. There is one …

I offer a Mother’s Day proposal, to wit: Once your mom hits 70, give her a free pass. That is, she’s done it, she’s been nurturing, caring; she should get time off.

I’ve had an indifferent relationship to music, not nonexistent, but remote, like having lunch with a stepfather one meets at the age of 30. It’s always been that way. While other children at West University …

I recall setting up house with one Peggy O’Dwyer, a freckled, blonde Irish woman, full of spunk, brass, and devilment. This was a rare woman, the one in a thousand who was road-buddy material. I …

Chocolate Oblivion Truffle Torte bittersweet chocolate unsalted butter 6 large eggs 5:00 a.m. City Delicatessen, comer of University and Sixth Avenue. By Southern California standards this is an ancient restaurant site, selling victuals to the …

Fall 1961. La Mesa, California "Jeez, Pop, did you get fired or something?" The speaker is 17-year-old Patrick Daugherty. He's six feet four inches tall, lanky, slouching, already a chainsmoker, with thin, delicate hands, thick …