"It was an envelope from the bank, with four checks in it, and I was on my way to the bank." Maria Sandstrom gets four personal checks every week from four sets of parents for …

Lost City Radio by Daniel Alarcón. Harper Collins, 2007, 272 pages, $24.95 ABOUT THE BOOK: A nameless, timeless South American country slowly emerges from a war everyone would prefer to forget. For ten years, Norma …

One month into the New Year and already I'm striking out in the resolutions department: quit smoking; get a new battery installed in my pace- maker -- a $20,000 proposition with no insurance (my fault …

The touches of animation are too few to have been worth the bother.

Thirty Years Ago As Tom Warren, the owner of Tugs in Mission Beach, said, "Everybody who lives around here who's a native probably learned how to swim at the [Mission Beach] Plunge." Warren, who has …

A couple of years ago, recent Torrey Pines High grad Michael Gallagher abandoned his acting aspirations and took a New York Film Academy summer course in L.A. Now 18, he has written, cast, and directed …

Not long ago, Rosarito's big draw was hip-hop. Rappers and DJs drew weekend crowds to bars such as Iggy's and Papas and Beer. "Those places were importing these rappers from San Diego," says Adrianne Rapp, …

Twenty-seven years ago today (2-1-80), eccentric punk pioneer Gary Wilson played downtown's Skeleton Club along with locals Four Eyes. "Gary Wilson had tape and stuff wrapped around him and there's flour being thrown all over …

Gabriel and Chantelle have been affianced for a long time (too long, suggest some of their friends, who speculate about the delay). They have an "open relationship," which means, in their case, Chantelle has remained …

San Diego in the summer of 2005, The Pacific and Eddy premiered last weekend at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival. Writer and director Matthew Nourse -- a SD native, 1998 alum of Torrey Pines …

"The Fabulous Rudies have been picked up to play the entire 2007 Vans Warped Tour," says singer Tom Voris. "We were the second band announced, right after Bad Religion, and we're already getting label and …

Promising to be the country equivalent to what the Coachella music fest is to pop/rock fans, the Stagecoach Festival debuts May 5 and 6 at Empire Polo Field in Indio (the same venue as Coachella, …

Balboa Park has plenty of "tame" places to walk, such as landscaped sidewalks on the grassy west side, paved trails inside the San Diego Zoo, and a number of semiwild trails in canyon bottoms near …

Now that Congressman Duncan Hunter has entered the presidential derby, it may be instructive to take a look at just what kind of people are giving campaign cash to the county's congressional delegation, composed of …

Picasso said once when being interviewed that one should not be one's own connoisseur. -- Kenneth Koch I rested the pen against my chin and contemplated the list before me. Below "Interests," I'd written, "dining, …

Last summer, I spent a month on my brother-in-law's farm with the kids. They fed the goats, caught toads, fished and swam in the pond, and helped harvest vegetables from the garden. I picked endless …

Title: What We're Eating Address: www.whatwereeating.com Author: Amanda and Tyler From: Ocean Beach Blogging since: July 2005 Post Date: January 5, 2007 Post Title: Orgasmic Mac-n-Cheese T: I gotta say, Amanda, this mac-n-cheese was out …

I'm not one of those serious shoppers who puts on their running shoes, downs a highly caffeinated beverage for extra energy, waits outside the mall until it opens, and glares at anyone ahead of me …

We had a long flight and went right into training to confirm the sight alignment on our weapons; we watched two mandatory training videos and then waited on logistics -- all after two hours' sleep …

"We have a new song today," announced worship director Janet Werdowatz. "It's a new song by Chris Tomlin called, 'Made to Worship.' We were made to worship Him -- that is our first purpose of …

"Wanna bet? First bar we come to, bet we get food."

'T he first year we used a Webster's dictionary," says Josephine Jones, director of literacy for the Escondido Public Library. "Everybody and their mother came up to me and said, 'Are you the director of …

"But they're Mexican wines, which most people haven't heard of, and that gives them a bit of cachet."

My new best friend, a sock puppet, wrote this week's installment of "Remote Control King." I made the sock puppet's eyes with dried jalapeños from a discarded pizza, and his mouth was created by painting …

We'd better go over security for Sunday's big game. Emergency Management magazine tells us "more than 70 government agencies have struck alliances" in order to make a safe Super Bowl Sunday. Tens of thousands of …

San Diego rockabilly guitarist Buzz Campbell and his band Hot Rod Lincoln released a CD last year called Runaway Girl (with songs titles like "Too Drunk to Drive" and "Betty Page"). Buzz also plays lead …

Heymatt: Is there any reason why women were ever told to do pushups from the knees? Is it really just a strength issue? My daughter, who is in JROTC, was told that if she did …

Ahem, Matt: The word "mug." It means so many things. Why does it mean a cup and a face and to get robbed? Where did that useful word come from? -- Jeff, Escondido Eight meanings, …

Ever wonder what modern Japanese eat when they go out to nosh, sip, and socialize after work? Izakaya Masa gives you a taste of those dishes. After a couple of meals, I can tell you …

It's shocking to find out: political discourse is often coarse. Consider, for example, the straitlaced, rigid James Baker. In 1981, David Stockman, Ronald Reagan's budget director, told a financial journalist that supply-side economics was just …

Luz María Félix Figueroa, president of the Tijuana branch of Baja California's juvenile detention agency, shakes her head. She's been asked whether she agrees with the American trend of trying as adults minors who commit …

The arts community fervently hopes that if Mayor Jerry Sanders tries to redevelop the four-block Civic Center Plaza, as he mentioned in his state of the city speech January 11, the Civic Theatre will remain …

The developer who's stirred controversy by building a high-rise office building smack in the flight path of Montgomery Field is a longtime veteran of local, state, and federal politics, funneling thousands of dollars to a …