SD on the QT. By Walter Mencken. Subscribe to this blog.
Entries
San Diego Poetry Society announces its 2012 award for Best Local Poem
Lee "Hacksaw" Hamilton honored for "Baseball is Back: A Poem by Hacksaw Hamilton"
http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2012/dec/13/36943/ Lee "Hacksaw" Hamilton, author of "Baseball is Back: A Poem by Hacksaw Hamilton" From the judges' notes: "Brilliantly, Lee 'Hacksaw' Hamilton has written a poem explaining what baseball is about without ever mentioning what baseball is actually about: hitting …
Walter Mencken's Almost Factual Christmas gift recommendations #3
Home desalination plant! http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2012/dec/12/36894/ Hey Mom and Dad! We all know that science is important for making apps and building a better McRib, but did you know that it can also be life-saving? It's true! That's why we here at …
Ravi Shankar: George Harrison was right
http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2012/dec/12/36893/ "Life really does flow on within you and without you!" declares recently deceased sitar master, reflecting on famous song based on his own work. "Well, at least the 'without you' part is true."
Neighborhood news
In light of recently released census figures, the neighborhood of Lemon Grove (only 40.5% of females married) has invited the neighborhood of Imperial Beach (only 42.9% of males married) to a mixer at Bonita's Rohr Park on Saturday, December 8th, …
Mural furor, continued!
94 MLK mural is vandalized; police are baffled.
http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2012/dec/07/36610/ Caption contest winner: "This is why we can't have nice things." "That first symbol has us confused," says Officer Sam Keystone, head of the SDPD's Tagger Department. "I mean, 'C O King' - that much is clear, even if …
Walter Mencken's Almost Factual Christmas gift recommendations #2
Balboa Park Gingerbread Crumble-House! http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2012/dec/06/36586/ Just in time for the Christmas celebration, er, December Nights at Balboa Park, here's a wonderful, intentionally temporary structure your child can build out of flour and frosting - much like the buildings that line …
Walter Mencken's Almost Factual Christmas gift recommendations #1
First up, we have Stewin' Time! The El Pozolero Cookbook from world-famous stewmeister Santiago Meza! http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2012/dec/05/36490/ Regional cuisine is as hot as ever this Christmastime, and here is a cookbook from a local Mexican chef with a reputation that stretches …
Rewriting pop music history?
Newly discovered artifact points to alternate, original version of San Diego-scribbled song "Peaceful, Easy Feeling."
If you believe the history - and up until now, you would have had no reason to doubt it - then you think that songwriter Jack Tempchin penned the last verse of "Peaceful, Easy Feeling," which was later recorded by …
Nuclear Regulatory Commission offers public virtual tour of San Onofre plant
Virtual guide: "At the NRC, we're committed to transparency and accountability, even if weEEAAAARRRGH!"
http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2012/nov/30/36247/ Bob the Virtual Tour Guide leads visitors into the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station's main control room. RELOADING AT SONGS - Ever since the San Onofre nuclear power plant's sudden shutdown over this year, controversy and uncertainty has hung …
Dueling poop groups
Poop! RECONSIDERING OUR ORDER, BROCKTON VILLA, LA JOLLA - "It started with the seals," recalls Eloise McKinley-Braeburton, who famously spearheaded the La Jolla Women's Club effort to have Children's Beach renamed Sealshit Cove "in the interest of truth, justice, and …
En feugo? Or just blowing his own horn?
Controversy erupts over dual versions of David Copley's will
Who got the yacht? According to Hornblower Cruises owner Larry Longshore, today should be a banner day for the local cruise company, because, he says, "in a final act of Herculean charity, former Union-Tribune owner David Copley left his 160-foot …
Kickstart my heart! Also, my brain, lungs, colon, etc.
Salk Institute launches Kickstarter campaign to fund its research, offers awesome pharmacological rewards to donors
http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2012/nov/26/36011/ In what many are calling a breakthrough in the field of crowdsourced medical innovation, La Jolla's Salk Institute has turned to the popular fundraising website Kickstarter.com in its effort to secure the $300 million necessary to keep its 35 …
Classing up the joint
SeaWorld buys Knott's Soak City, plans "tasteful" renovation, "because that's what people expect from a water slide park."
Simon Blowhole, Sea World's head of aquatic aesthetics, sat down with SD on the QT to discuss some of the changes that attendees can expect to see when the Soak City re-opens as Aquatica in March of 2013. "Overall," spouted …
Koan Korner!
The Zen question for the day: How many Chargers are required to stop a Raven running back on 4th and 29 with 1:50 to go in the game?
The answer is, of course, is unknowable. Seek instead for understanding of your own desire to keep the Chargers in San Diego.
U-T San Diego scrambles to cover up Copley death story snafu
Overheard in the U-T San Diego editorial offices: "Dammit, that should read 'publisher;' do you hear me? 'Publish-ER!'" http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2012/nov/21/35823/
[Long-]Stem cells
Local biotech struggles to penetrate market via "miracle" application of stem-cell research
Ever since the passage of Proposition 71 eight years ago, California has been leading the nation in stem-cell research. And here in San Diego, the biotech industry has been at the forefront of several breakthroughs in grant-writing related to the …
Mural furor: ACLU nay-saying MLK praying
Godless atheists demand removal of Christian minister's image from embankment along 94 freeway
When San Diego State School of Art Design and Art History instructor Phillip Matzigkeit's mural honoring Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "power to move people" was unveiled in October, many San Diegans applauded the work, calling it "a fitting …
Fairy-tale ending - UPDATE
Once upon a time, there was a little girl who worked and worked and saved her money... http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2012/nov/16/35553/ She hoped that someday, she would have enough to buy a Disney Princess Kit that would transform her into a magical princess... …
Democrat Avengers Assemble!
Stronger mayor begins putting together super-team of super-governors to save city
First Up: Donna Frye, aka The Tranparency Woman, capable of making even the most smoke-filled room behind even the most closed door look like a public forum in Civic Center Plaza! "From now on, whatever hits San Diego, whether it …