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Is Ailing Union-Tribune Crossing News/Advertising Line in the Sand?
We all know what professional writers want and need to motivate them... Cash. Just like the X-Prize brought us to new heights in space travel, so I propose the Bauder Prize. This prestigious award will be presented, at the end of this year, live on youtube. It will go to the former UT employee who tells the citizens of San Diego the information most pertinent to deciding the 2008 elections. This information does not have to be published in the Reader, this blog, or any other specific place...yet it must be widely and easily accessible to the voters of San Diego, and available in the future for verification of its long term impact. The award ceremony shall be held after the November 2008 election. If you have ever worked for the UT, please feel free to enter. (Don't worry Don, I think we can hold a fund raiser to come up with nice a pot of money for this prize. Oh, by the way, you're disqualified from competing, okay?) Former UT staffers, ladies and gentlemen, start your computers... Ready? Set? ...TYPE!!! (yet another immodest proposal from yet another sdblogger)— February 16, 2008 2:01 p.m.
San Diego's Police State: Blogger Flannery Booted Out of Dumanis Press Conference
Everybody together now, video cameras at the ready. Time to tape every moment of these (soon to be) miserable people's lives. If you don't have a video camera handy, use your camera phone. Quality doesn't matter so much as catching these people in the act, regularly, routinely, every day, every moment. They work for us. They are our employees. We have a right, actually a responsibility, to monitor their job performance. This is clear since it's our duty to hire and fire them through the election process. I look forward to many enjoyable evenings with youtube, watching the zany antics of our elected "leaders". Bonnie... This is to you personally. I knew you. I respected you. I worked with you and supported you when you were first starting out, just as you worked with and supported me. What happened to you? What would your mom say now? (yet another sdblogger)— February 16, 2008 1:43 p.m.
San Diego future without water
Scientists have calculated that there are more H2O molecules in a single glass of water, than there are glasses of water in all the world's oceans. Further, it is certain that at least one of those water molecules once passed through the bladder of George Washington. I, for one, am proud to have been drinking the same water as George Washington my whole life. Let's put his face on "toilet to tap". (yet another sdblogger)— February 16, 2008 12:51 p.m.
Is Ailing Union-Tribune Crossing News/Advertising Line in the Sand?
Back on a serious note, now is a great time for former UT writers and other staff to come forward and tell their stories. It ought to liven up the elections a bit, eh? Just what did advertising head Gary Moore do when he "sat in on news meetings"? Seems to me that the separation of advertising and reporting was not much honored at the UT. Thank you, (yet another sdblogger)— February 16, 2008 12:35 p.m.
Is Ailing Union-Tribune Crossing News/Advertising Line in the Sand?
For all the UT admirers out there, a bit of history: From the inimitable Burl (yes that's really my name) Stiff, and his inside account of King David's 2006 trip to Europe... "They stayed at Hotel Baur au Lac in Zurich, and had a late supper in Rive Gauche there after the Christo show. (Singer Tina Turner was another patron of the restaurant that night.)" Fellow San Diegans, everybody, please join me in a moment of visualization of what actually happened that night...(*cue creepy music) You're in a swanky Zurich restaurant. It's opulent beyond your imagination. Try a imagining just a bit harder. I'm talking super duper extra special uber-opulent here, got it? Okay. Tables filled with gorgeous discerning people, glasses tinkling, all but a single back corner lit brightly. Although there are strange grunts and squishy noises now and then from the patrons in that dark corner, few notice because they are watching to see who arrives this special evening. In struts the one and only Tina Turner, owner and occupant of the most fabulous legs in world history. It's reverent and hushed, except for the noises in the corner. Tina is beaming and in her natural element, greeting the diners with a quiet nod and a smile. As she scans the room, acknowledging her many admirers, you see her clearly enjoying the adulation that she so richly earned. Then it happens. There's a tic...then a tremor...she cannot look away...her face freezes. Her lip curls down, eyes open, nostrils flare, she's staring. Is it a multi-car pile-up, combined with a helicopter crash, complete with a decapitated baby that has thuded into the dark corner of this Zurich restaurant? What does Tina see? She has transformed, in an instant, from a chirpy leggy knockout, to a gruesome zombie, jaw quivering. It's clear to everyone in the restaurant, that she is far too scared to scream. Your eyes turn, slowly, reluctantly, to the previously unnoticed back corner. A shocked gasp fills the room. Chairs scrape and fall over. Glasses are knocked to the floor, shattering. Nobody minds the broken glass in their haste to escape. Coats are abandoned. Tina Turner's security team, shaking loose their own stupification and horror, hustle her away to a bullet proof limousine and squeal away into the night. I cannot go on, my friends. It's too gross and disgusting to continue, even for me. It is simply not possible to describe the horror of what Tina Turner saw that night. Leave it to say, that only a man of the gastronomical fortitude of Burl Stiff could endure such an encounter, possibly even sitting at the same table, and survive to tell the world about it. You'll simply have to ask him for any further details. Please, you must excuse me now...I'm not feeling so well. (yet another sdblogger)— February 16, 2008 12:32 p.m.
Is Ailing Union-Tribune Crossing News/Advertising Line in the Sand?
HELP WANTED Systems Integration Specialist Our client, a large San Diego publishing and online media company, requires Systems Integration and Content Management System (CMS) experts. The client requires the integration of legacy systems to bring its print and online operations into harmony. This is an extended contract, and only qualified applicants shall be considered. Do not apply if you do not meet the following requirements: 1. You must be able to bedazzle technically unsophisticated executives with incomprehensible jargon and exaggerated promises. (Note: They have never heard of XML.) 2. You shall be expected to participate in a public announcement of the beginning of the project. 3. All your efforts shall be doomed to failure due to a lack of executive understanding, resistance from the many employees you must make redundant, and an overwhelming cultural bias against change and innovation. After six months to a year, you are to announce success and then slink away. 4. Although you shall be paid handsomely, it will all eventually end in extended lawsuits that we project shall outlive the client. (Note: If you are a young, fit, outgoing male with a prep school background and an "open mind", you may be particularly well suited to proposing your services to senior decision makers in this organization, and may extend this contract into a semi-permanent relationship -- please attach a photo with your application.) Please apply online at www.signonsandiego.com, at our convenient mobile recruitment office on board the yacht "Happy Days", or in person at the Union Tribune. Good luck! (yet another sdblogger)— February 16, 2008 11:39 a.m.
Is Ailing Union-Tribune Crossing News/Advertising Line in the Sand?
So Lavin, like newslady Winner, reports to Bellboy. Does that make them co-equals? Back in '99 I-Dream-of-Genie Bell brought in a guy named Rich Peterson to oversee new products (such as SignOn). Peterson had been editor at the North County Times and was blessed with an office on the UT's majestic and mysterious Fifth Floor, home of Helen, Gene and Herb Klein. Peterson came to the UT with the understanding that he would have equal power as Winner to shape editorial content. He soon found out otherwise. Lavin beware. Peterson's tenure came to an end shortly after he announced at the quarterly "Manager's Dialog" that the UT would open an office just outside Horton Plaza ... and a TV station grabbed that particular real estate days later.— February 16, 2008 6:44 a.m.
Who Has VD Fever?
Next holiday: BJ & Steak Day.— February 15, 2008 7:52 p.m.
Who Has VD Fever?
I am one of those girls who said I didn't want anything and meant it. This is the first year I actually emphasized to my husband that I didn't want anything and it wasn't a test. I agree about the gimmick. I would rather my husband save his money on the ridiculously marked up flowers and use it to buy me 2 or 3 sets of flowers(even just 1 stem of any flower will do) and pick any non-holiday to give them to me. Not on V-day when you are expected to. (Of course I will do the same for him.)— February 15, 2008 2:33 p.m.
Who Has VD Fever?
I got a heart shaped Chia Pet.— February 15, 2008 12:58 p.m.