How Do You Keep Warm at Night? If you think of the homeless at all — aside from how to avoid them or that daily mini-moral crisis as to whether to give them spare change …
December 16, 2023
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Stories by Sue Greenberg
San Diego sidewalk sitters keep from shivering
Tom Deméré takes us to Mission Valley of 50 million years ago
More or less sudden mountainsThe rocks in and around San Diego have composed amazing, fiery stories for a very long time. An ancient ocean once covered this county; volcanoes used to spew here; and more …
October 1, 2023
30 tugs do the pulling in San Diego Bay
Tugboats of San Diego Bay“We got a call from a friend with the Navy on a Saturday morning before Easter, and he said, ‘How fast can you get to Camp Pendleton?’ We said we could …
September 11, 2023
The Fletchers leave a cautionary tale about alcohol
What happened? A pioneer family's tragedy There was nothing to do but walk back to the house. Eric and his wife walked 10 yards, 20 yards, 30. The sky was still pink in the west. …
August 21, 2023
No more honky-tonks in Poway
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 …
August 13, 2023
Teenage personality in a San Francisco suburb
The Summer Diet of Donna Delicious He lived in the city’s “old money” neighborhood and went to a private prep school. He drove a Lotus, wore hats, and listened to Sly and the Family Stone, …
October 24, 2022
Van Dam murder divides Sabre Springs, Westerfield's jail inmates
Good Life in Sabre Springs “I think Brenda is amazing. She’s so strong. I asked her, ‘How do you get out of bed?’ She told me, ‘I do it for my boys because they don’t …
January 31, 2022
Alexander Theroux's father and brothers, Amy Chu's mother, Matt Lickona's grandparents
Decent Life Led by the Ordinary Man I will never forget the time a monsignor from our church, favoring our simple household with a visit, stopped by and in the course of dinner, sat back, …
August 21, 2021
San Diego gun slingers, secret gardens, quilters, stamp collectors, chess fiends
Arms and the Men: Shooting for Happiness These were good men, overzealous to a fault, maybe, but not killers. Hell, Rudy is of Samoan descent. Wil is a liberal Communist activist actor. It was the …
March 22, 2021
What chefs themselves eat, San Diego homeless remember their moms, roadside graves, will we be together forever?
Sweat Cuisine "Let's say you have a banquet. Chicken Kiev and vegetables and potatoes, 600 people. An hour before the banquet starts, you find out it's down to 500. You've got 100 leftover half-cooked chickens, …
January 10, 2021
Why San Diegans dress the way they do
Men's Summer Swimsuit Issue “Now, you ask me, the male physicality wasn't built for aesthetics. Those angles and edges, the purely functional proportions: men's bods are too utilitarian, at least for my taste. (I prefer …
April 26, 2020
Little Italy – will the flavor last?
Tiny rooms in Little Italy On a Little Italy plot where a Victorian house stood for more than a century, construction of tiny apartments is underway. The house, built in the 1890s at the corner …
April 6, 2020
Best Reader stories from 2002
He's sad for ships DeRosset doesn’t speak abstractly about his work. He’s a storyteller. “What’s really nice,” he told me before I’d had a chance to see the painting at the church, “is that I’ve …
February 2, 2020
Best Reader stories from 1997
Childhood's End: Dr. Spock at 94 53-year-old Morgan, Dr. Spock’s second wife, has been relentless and inventive in her search for ways to keep her husband youthful and healthy. For his 75th birthday, for example, …
January 18, 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
Best Reader Christmas stories
Sister Santa’s once-a-year smile I fell in love with America for the first time on a sweaty night in a Bangkok refugee center in March 1991. “In America people have meat with every meal,” my …
December 24, 2019
Best Reader stories from 1990
The Hale blinks Twilight has ebbed to a fringe of lapis on the western horizon, and the stars spin slowly as the dome of the 200-inch Hale telescope on Palomar Mountain blinks awake. Bob Thicksten, …
December 22, 2019
Sue Greenberg and the Reader
How Greenberg came to the Reader: I was already working for another San Diego publication when I took the 10-hour-a-week typesetting gig in the Reader’s ad department on Saturdays. When anyone asked about my day …
March 9, 2019
Reader writers' favorite drinks and where they drink them
There are times, sometimes in the midst of otherwise polite conversation, when it comes out that I make my living writing for the Reader. The follow-up to this revelation is almost never “Oh, that’s right, …
April 22, 2009
Dragon’s Blood Sangria at Laurel
12 oz. red wine-3 oz. brandy 2 oz. triple sec 2 oz. orange juice 2 oz. pineapple juice 1 oz. simple syrup 1/2 oz. anisette Top with 2 oz. Sprite and garnish with fresh fruit …
April 22, 2009
Your biggest fashion mistake? – from Chula Vista to Del Mar
“My biggest fashion faux pas was wearing gauchos to work every day.”
December 13, 2007
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
More Blood, More Pus, More Mucus
"This is horrible, this stuff about your mother. Just awful, Susie." Not since my father had someone called me Susie. And not since my father had the endearment arrived with such menace. "It's what I …
August 16, 2007
22 Reader writers on school experiences
My first day in school was really my second day — Jangchup Phelygal The Radiators That Ticked Heat into the Room — Laura Rhoton McNeal Rear Rank Rudy — Jim Morris Forget-me-nots — Rosa Colwin …
September 8, 2005
Mean Girls
'Do you think you're pretty?" A strip of tawny brown hair, chewed at the ends, dawdles by her nose. She stands at the top of the stairs and tilts her head to the side, flipping …
September 8, 2005
Neighborhood: small towns of San Diego
I see Asian gang cars some nights, in a long caravan down the Mira Mesa Boulevard. They meet at In-N-Out Burger before heading off for illegal street races on Kearny Villa Road or in Sorrento Valley.
December 24, 2003
Little Italy
Date & IndiaFriday night Tight-jeaned girl pays attendant, strolls sideways, spots her pal. Redhead descends from SUV, looks back to lock (beep-beep), and long-legs a diagonal to Princess Pub’s pint-swilling lads, who posture by stools …
December 24, 2003
Terra, Bread and Cie, Adams Avenue Grill, Wolfgang Puck, Hornblower Yachts
Also, The French Laundry Cookbook. What you learn about Tom Keller is that he does the best; it may not be something you’ll do, like make a consomme, but it does allow you to take from him the foundation.
December 18, 2003
100 grateful San Diegans
Diane Jones30Marketing DirectorMarriedCollege AreaInterviewed at the Natural History Museum, Balboa Park I’m grateful that my father — he’s 63 — is healthy and happy. He had an accident last year; he had a flesh-eating bacteria …
November 26, 2003
“Mah” means flax plant, "jongg" means sparrow
“I knew that playing mahj would be a great way to meet new people… They’re catching on and getting faster,” she says of her students. “But it’s not easy: one gal used to come with a bottle of aspirin.”
January 2, 2003
Dad's, now Poway’s famous bar, undergoes media scrutiny
“It has nothing to do with someone being a swinger. I’m a polygamist. Anyone’s beliefs have nothing to do with how well you protect your children or how well you protect your wife or husband."
August 1, 2002
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
Put Something on Those Feet
Moe: Not with the bare feet! Susie: Dad, I’m just going in the back yard. Moe: I wouldn’t go out there with the bare feet, Susie. You don’t know what’s on the ground. Those birds …
June 15, 2000
Moe Greenberg Can Still Make Me Cry
On Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, Moe Greenberg puts on his suit jacket without a word and drives to temple for the second time, this time alone. During the morning service, my father felt …
October 9, 1997
What and when San Diego chefs eat
You're out for dinner. Your waiter, hovering tableside, recites tonight's specials while you feign interest, a captive listener with a frozen smile on your face. You might wonder, as he rattles on about the wonders …
May 8, 1997
Teenage life with my sister and my dad
“Since when don’t you like attention? Didn’t you like it when the guys sang Oh, Donna, Donna Delicious to you at camp?
August 18, 1994
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
San Diegans plan their funerals
People should think about their funerals "early on," says Ken Hayes, vice dent of El Camino Memorial Park and Mortuaries, “You should think about dying as soon as you're able to reason with the rest …
September 26, 1991
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
I'm determined to pull A Christmas Carol from my bookshelf again
Dear ...I'm sure you've got snow, that your fireplace warms the living room. You can bet it's 70 here. I've just turned on the furnace for the first time, but even so, only after the …
December 20, 1990
My plan: cross street, hide in bushes, run for help, head for nearest porch, scream
It’s twilight. Walking deeper than usual into my loop of a route (no backtracking!), past the point when I’ll let myself turn around. Now I’m pumped. Now the songs on the Walkman make my gait …
July 5, 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