It was one of those days when the beach is living cloisonne. Luminous layers of smooth gold, dappled brown, and rippling indigo. San Onofre State Beach on a bright February afternoon. To the north of …
Thursday, February 27
Thursday, February 20
Fences surrounding construction sites are rickety, and there's always something noisy on the other side. I roll into a shadow, willing the clamor to subside. A security guard stands 20 yards away watching the girls …
The recession that lingers over San Diego with more tenacity than El Nino’s storm clouds has another street-level manifestation that has P.B. residents thinking the “D” word. At the corners of Grand and Noyes, where …
I was rooming with Steve, a bartender. We had a two-bedroom in Mission Hills with a view of the airport. We had been in the place for about six weeks when I was diagnosed with lymph cancer.
Thursday, February 13
It's a peculiar setup. Strangers write strangers, attempting a mating dance despite cultural barriers so fierce that very little is communicated beyond the desire to communicate. Take Ed Burden (name pseudonymous by request), airline pilot, …
Thursday, February 6
When Dostoyevsky wrote The Gambler at the end of the 19th Century, the gambler was already a type. Highly strung, wild-eyed, given to unaccountable superstitions, he was the most engaging anti-hero of them all. But …
CAMALU, Mexico — Powdery dirt coats this tiny hamlet on the Baja California coast like a blanket of copper-colored snow. The dust pastes the sides of school buses that haul working boys and girls to …