Content for Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Blog Entries
News & Stories
UCSD Considers Closing Four Libraries
The UCSD Library Committee has outlined a plan to close one or more libraries for the 2011–12 academic year as part of a $3 million budget cut to the libraries, reports the Guardian, UCSD's student ...
Rosarito Residents Claim Cops Abuse Authority
Two female residents of Rosarito recently filed a complaint with the City, claiming local municipal police have been abusing their authority of late. Susana Reina and Virginia Hernandez live in colonia Los Ramos. Reina’s complaint ...
The Field's Irish Coffee
The Irish are fond of their liquor and fond of it in its purest, simplest forms — a pint of Guinness, three swallows of John Powers whiskey, or even a dram of the Poteen (Eire’s ...
Aguirre Urges Redistricting Committee to Redemocratize First
The San Diego County Redistricting Advisory Committee met for the first time in county chambers on February 23. The five county supervisors appointed five committee members: Deanna Weeks, Andrea Skorepa, Bruce Reznik, Adam Day, and ...
The Salad? The Salad — Caesar's Restaurante in TJ
It’s Willy’s badge that gets everyone’s attention. The sheriff’s badge. People run for the exit. Others yell, “Sheriff! Sing us ‘La Bamba’!” Okay, nobody ran. And not everybody recognized the blue eyes, the badge, the ...
Superior Donuts at the Rep
After the world premiere of his epic A Lie of the Mind in 1985, Sam Shepard told an interviewer that no matter what he wrote next, the critics would rip it to shreds. Instead of ...
B.B. King Loved My Hat
Thirty Years AgoWas the hunt for little Jimmy Beveridge botched? Since the conclusion two weeks ago of the biggest search in San Diego County history — an effort which failed to prevent the lost boy’s ...
Indier Than Thou
Thursday 24San Diego saxman Charles McPherson will blow through Anthology Thursday night. The Missouri native’s formative years were spent with bass great Charles Mingus, whom he toured and recorded with from 1960 through the mid-’70s. ...
Cat Snip
The committee that outsmarts the average feral cat.
“Is the baby outside?” asks my wife, alarm bubbling up through her groggy vowels. It’s summer, the middle of the night. We’re sleeping with the windows open, which is why we can hear the plaintive ...
Darklight's Strife
What if you threw your own sci-fi hip-hop musical and nobody came? “The seat count was 18 out of 803,” says Keven Porter Jr., who rented the Poway Center for the Performing Arts on January ...
A Safari Experience in North County
The San Diego Zoo Safari Park (in case you didn’t know, it’s the former Wild Animal Park) in Escondido sprawls over an 1800-acre expanse chosen for its resemblance to Africa’s most productive wildlife areas. Make ...
Get Fit with Silent Comedy
On January 14, members of folk-blues troupe the Silent Comedy posted a video on youtube.com/thesilentcomedy as they prepared for their tour with country singer and Academy Award–winning songwriter Ryan Bingham and his band the Dead ...
Crystal Castles: Distorted Pop
Crystal Castles is a Toronto duo that specializes in a kind of electronic pop that has been distorted to the point that listening to it is sometimes physically painful. That’s exactly the way their fans ...
Mark Growden & the Clawhammer Banjo
When asked to name his musical influences, Mark Growden comes up with Joni Mitchell and Estonian classical-composer Arvo Pärt. Other than that, he draws a blank. “What I can tell you,” says the multi-instrumentalist by ...
Some Greed is Good in College Basketball
Most happifying. I’m talking about University of San Diego’s win over St. Mary’s in the basketball — men’s side of the ball — division. It wasn’t a squeaker, it was a 74-66 beating. At the ...
Letters
Problem Number One Thank you for the excellent cover story in this week’s issue of the Reader (Cover Story, February 17). I saw the cover leaving a local store and saw El Cajon mentioned. I ...
The Relation Chef and the Pop-Up Restaurant
Like water funneling down the tract of the Colorado River, it often takes a while for some of the nation’s culinary trends to work their way into America’s Finest City. That’s not to say we ...
Western Spaghettification
“We decided we wanted something that doesn’t exist,” Bobby Bray (the Locust), a student of interdisciplinary computing and the arts at UCSD, says at the Camel’s Breath Inn in Mission Valley. “So we rolled up ...
If It's Spring, This Must Be Rock 'n' Roll
This column will appear several weeks after the particular Friday morning on which I am working on my laptop in the sunlight, and it is nice to think that this genuinely spring-like weather might continue ...
Ski, Snowboard: Rent Locally
Rain pelted the windows for days in November and December. Snow piled up in the mountains. Hubby Pat bought lift tickets to Mount Baldy, a small ski area in the San Gabriel Mountains about 100 ...
David Elliott Guesses the Oscars
As a prophet, I am a dubious Nostradamus. But I will guess the Oscars. This is an itch that must be scratched. My regard for “the Academy” is much like that of nominee Melissa Leo ...
There's Gold in Them Thar Cuyamacas
The Life of a MinerIn August of 1870, when Louis Redman went to pick wild grapes along a creek over the mountain from Julian, he happened upon the American Dream. Something glinted in the rust-colored ...
Circus Clowns with Fire Axes at Sports Arena?
ABC promos for the new Matthew Perry sitcom Mr. Sunshine refer to his character as managing a “second-rate San Diego sports arena.” “They had a scout from the production company come down here around a ...
Reformation Lutheran Church
Membership: 300 Pastor: Pastor Kevin Schultz Age: 48 Born: Milwaukee, Wisconsin Formation: Northwestern College, Watertown, Wis. and Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary, Mequon, Wis. Years Ordained: 23 San Diego Reader: How long do you spend writing your ...
Burnt Toast Odor, Colt 45
Hey Matt: I burned toast. Pretty soon the whole house smelled like burned toast. Stronger than anything I can remember. Tell me why. — Great Gregg Cook, via email Hey, Grandma. Hey. Yo, Grandma. Here’s ...
Rehab: A Public Nightmare in Tijuana
They sell newspapers on street corners. They wander around swap meets selling candy. They offer pamphlets in restaurants, taco stands, supermarkets, parking lots, malls, and homes. They carry around little wooden penny banks and ask ...
"First TV," by Dan Gilmore
My mother took a moral stand against it, said television was the work of the devil, said my father’s wanting it showed how weak he really was. But, for once, he stood firm. It was ...
Montesquieu
Persian Letters If there is a God…he must necessarily be just; for if he were not, he would be the most wicked and imperfect of all beings…. Men commit unjust acts because it is to ...
Are Naming Rights to San Diego's Parks, Libraries, Fire Stations on the Auction Block?
As the City of San Diego scrambles for cash to fill its chronic budget hole, Mayor Jerry Sanders has put out the word that he is ready, willing, and able to become a pitchman for ...
Walmart's $20,000 Gift
Walmart spent well over a million dollars last year on its efforts to beat back big labor’s big box ordinance and has announced an ambitious plan to build new stores all over town. So it’s ...
Hot Guacamole: Avocado Theft in North County
Almost as surely as avocados grow, thieves steal them and turn the fruit into quick and untraceable cash. Over the past decade, San Diego County law enforcement agencies have stepped up patrols, pursuits, and prosecution ...
Sagging Newspapers
Daily newspapers still report titillating items regularly. Early in February, the shapely Lady Catarina Pietra Toumei was charged in Manhattan with claiming she was a representative of the storied Guggenheim family as she tried to ...
February 17 Brainstorm Contenders
Ed Barno, San Diego, 8. Tried to perform these shadows. Not so easy to do. Susan Morfey, Little Italy, 8. Love you mom, sorry about the foot. Time heals… Miyuki Passchier, Clairemont, 8. I did ...
February 17 Crossword Contenders
Mary Arana, Encinitas, 8. Happy Birthday Olive! Leslie Chase, Campo, 8. Thank you Editor. Hello from Texas. Joseph Ciprian, Little Italy, 8. Sondra and Josh own the greatest San Diego bar. Ben Cooper, Gaslamp, 8. ...
February 17 Sudoku Contenders
Evil Joe Arbusto, Rancho Penasquitos, 8. Change is coming to America, more appeasement to the rich! Carl Baltrunas, Milpitas, 8. Thank you Jeff Loeb, it's all about the sevens. Peter Bartkiewicz, Chula Vista, 8. When ...
