Thirty Years Ago Though Carly and Richard insist that historical events have little to do with their religious experience, they explain that if the Guru's mother and brother, who have denounced the Guru [Maharaj Ji] as a playboy, were to come to San Diego, they would not accept them. Carly and Richard, "Guru Maharaj Ji says obstacles are a part of life." Comments are likewise muted about local Marilyn Johnson, the blonde stewardess who, as the Guru's wife, gives satsang. "Her parents, who live in Imperial Beach, they have come to see that she and Guru Maharaj Ji are happy.... No, the parents haven't received knowledge. They come to some of our satsang meetings, and Guru Maharaj Ji comes to visit them in San Diego."

-- "STILL BEAUTIFUL," Jean Hector, May 29, 1975

Twenty-Five Years Ago We're sitting at the bar rail in the officers' club at Twentynine Palms. It's crowded with desert-tanned Marines in camouflage utilities and combat boots. Johnny Paycheck's "Take This Job and Shove It" is playing on the juke. I'm talking with Ron Frazier, the public information officer who's been prepping me on the plan of battle for tomorrow's war game, a "combined-arms exercise." Talk naturally turns to the failed rescue mission in Iran. "If I were the President, I'd give them 48 hours to return our captives, then I'd go in and level the country," Frazier says.

-- "IF THEY WANT TO HAVE A WAR THE MARINES WANT TO FIGHT IT," David Helvarg, May 29, 1980

Twenty Years Ago I am Ninotchka Siderova, a citizen of the Soviet Union. Since I have been in your country I have witnessed many disturbing things. However, none of them could compare to my rage when I read Jonathan Saville's "review" of a recent Tchaikovsky festival ("Quarter Notes," May 23). What gives him or your paper the right to defile the name of the great Tchaikovsky? Obviously Mr. Saville is unaware of the meaning of the word "talent" if he failed to see the genius of Tchaikovsky. When you insult him, you insult Russian culture.

-- LETTERS: "THE NAME OF THE GREAT TCHAIKOVSKY," Ninotchka Siderova, May 30, 1985

Fifteen Years Ago When David Copley, the 38-year-old son of Union publisher Helen Copley, was convicted of his second drunk driving offense last month and ordered to spend two days at the county work camp in Descanso, the newspaper was silent. Even after the San Diego edition of the Los Angeles Times reported the incident two weeks ago, neither the Union nor the Tribune picked up the story, although someone reportedly posted it on the bulletin board in the Union newsroom.

-- CITY LIGHTS: "DAVID UNDER THE INFLUENCE," Matt Potter, May 31, 1990

Ten Years Ago

Once in a great, long while, the Reader hits the high mark. Judith Moore's excellent article on Jan Kerouac is a credit to the paper ("Jack's Heirs Slug It Out," May 18). We find out that the filthy faggot Allen Ginsberg is involved with NAMBLA, a pedophile group. Ginsberg belongs in a maximum-security federal prison. This beast is subhuman. We learn that Jack Kerouac was a lunatic drunk with nothing going for him. There is your cultural revolution, a bunch of weirdo shitheads, puffing on pot and screwing little boys.

-- LETTERS: "MAY THEY BURN IN HELL," Michael Praetorius, May 25, 1995

Five Years Ago During college, I was naïve enough to think that most people were atheists, only they were afraid to say so or were going through the motions of religious faith to please family. My friends, I thought, may believe in the social customs that accompany faith, but they don't believe. To me, evolution and natural law were so sensible and true that I couldn't fathom anyone relinquishing them in favor of theology. Though you'd think that I would have learned in college that something like 95 percent of the people in this country believe in a traditional God, I didn't. I learned this after I graduated, when new acquaintances, girlfriends, and coworkers rubbed against my firm skepticism.

-- SIGHTSEER: "WE LIVE, WE DIE," Justin Wolff, May 25, 2000