Scott: The first inkling that Christmas was not a holiday for Hebrews came from a neighbor kid, the fine Aryan specimen Timothy Murphy: “My Uncle Roy says Jews celebrate Christmas by staying home and counting …

My first 2 hours on American soil — Dallas Ft. Worth airport to be exact — were spent in long lines: ‘Freedom’ lines. Because I’d complained about the wait to the person next to me, …

Title: Indestructible Ideas! Address: indestructibleideas.com Author: Gino Montessi from: Bonita Blogging since: September 2011 Post Title: Revolutionary Bitch! Post Date: October 15, 2011 I want a revolutionary bitch. Scratch that, I want a revolutionary chick. …

It’s amazing what you can learn sitting at your friendly neighborhood sushi bar. Back in 1999, when we were still living in the greater Los Angeles area, I took on a consulting gig here in …

The Death Ship Comes Alive When the crew of the San Diego heard they were finally going home, relief erupted. “They thought they might have a few more days to live,” writes Father Antonio Ascensión, …

I first came across acoustic singer/songwriter Celia St Croix on Twitter via local-bandleader and fellow-tweeter Scott West, who cowrote the four songs on her debut EP. Even though St Croix, a student at City College, …

On November 8, Cherry Bar owner James Young flew the hard-rocking San Diego band Bloody Hollies to Melbourne for two shows. Guitarist Joey Horgen describes the junket as “a test run” for an alliance between …

“I’ve worked on some heinous cases involving polygamists, murder, various detached body parts, the Mexican mafia, and Los Palillos, a kidnapping and extortion ring” says Psychosally frontman Trevor Sesma, who works as a private investigator …

Playing George Smiley in the new film of John le Carré’s most famous book, Gary Oldman is a long, gentlemanly way from his punky Sid Vicious in 1986’s Sid and Nancy. At times he is …

Mike Harris drives his blue Ford Ranger pickup south on Hollister Street, through the Tijuana River Valley, toward the border. He stops the truck on the shoulder and calls the Border Patrol to tell a …

Tracy Shedd’s “Whatever It Takes” at first sounds as if it’s going to turn into one of those über-positive “don’t let life get you down” girlpop rants, but no. It’s more about evading the suffocation …

“We believe in the Occupy movement and others like it,” says Scott Stephens, manager and vocalist of local pop-rock entourage Liquid Blue. “We’ve been an activist group for many years. We’re really hyped to support …

David Oliver, bar manager and resident mixologist at the Merk Bistro, was in a quandary: he loves gimlets, but hates the syrupy lime-juice flavoring most traditional recipes call for. His solution was to reinvent the …

Analog Bar’s slogan — “Good Food Strong Drinks” — is spot-on. The nu-retro music-themed bar’s cocktails are mixed (and priced) aggressively. The food is creative and, yeah, good, but not great, especially at prices that …

Greed until somebody makes you stop. You see it in banking, drug cartels, and politics. It’s especially raw in college football. Big-league college football has become a busy brothel. University presidents glide into the front …

Those who may have searched Bonham’s auction website in the days following November 29 for news about “sale 19037, lot 373W” found a cryptic message posted in red: “This lot has been withdrawn.” Lot 373W …

During my childhood, Christmas was, without question, my favorite holiday. The myth, the magic, the mirth: everything about it was wonderful. I was raised Catholic, but by the time my sisters and I entered adolescence, …

Heymatt: My kids love candy and anything sweet. If I put sugar on spinach, I’m sure they’d eat it. It seems to be true for most kids. I really had to be careful at Halloween …

The stock market is like Pavlov’s dogs. It starts to salivate at the thought of a juicy meal, long before it gets one. (About a century ago, Russian scientist Ivan Petrovich Pavlov found that if …

An audit by the Pentagon’s inspector general has found that the Navy, in a hurry to spend funds appropriated by Congress in February 2009’s American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, commissioned a series of expensive and …

Public budgets are said to be tight, but San Diego County is in the market for 26 new 2012 Ford Taurus SEL four-wheel-drive sedans for its general service fleet, according to a November 29 request …

The first thing you notice about TV Girl is that it sounds old-fashioned and modern at the same time. Brad Petering and Trung Ngo piece their music together from digital beats and samples of old …

Am I suddenly in the middle of a 1940s Christmas musical? I wondered. Images of Bing Crosby’s “White Christmas” danced in my head as Alexis walked around her house, dreaming up ideas for her holiday-party …

There is at least one pair in every thrift shop in America, molded in plastic or plaster of paris and glued to a plaque, or printed in church-pamphlet colors and framed under glass. Today I …

It’s Lies, All Lies! Regarding Elizabeth Salaam’s article “The Unkindest Cut” (Cover Story, December 15). She has no MD or DO interviewed, she references Drugs.com about Pitocin (all on the internet is not truth!), she …