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The King's Things

'It's a Budweiser and badminton bash," Brandon said when he invited me to his son's birthday party at Balboa Park. I had plans that day but had to know what people called a "shuttlecock" after ...

Wordsmiths and Shutterbugs

Local paper Word San Diego invited me to their 3rd Annual Anti-Social Writers Party. I was told the $10 cover at the door was to keep the publication running. I threw in the cash and ...

Two For The Price Of None

I went to two parties in one day that tested my crashing ability. The first was a luncheon at Balboa Park. The ticket was $40, but I weaseled in without paying. I did feel guilty, ...

Best of 2003: Best Public Display Of Bosoms

Casa de Balboa, Balboa Park www.sandiegohistory.org/bpbuildings/casabalb.htm You can't touch them and you won't see any suckling infant, but there they are -- big, pendulous breasts -- out in the open for the whole world to ...

Best of 2003: Best Place To Learn Rose Pruning

San Diego Rose Society's Annual Hands-On Demonstration, Balboa Park www.sdrosesociety.org 619-235-0004 Come January, it's possible to find a half-dozen sources of rose-pruning instruction throughout the county. But none provide as much inspiration as the free ...

Best of 2003: Best Urban & Coastal Stargazing

Reuben H. Fleet Science Center www.sdaa.org 619-238-1233, x6 Oceanside Photo and Telescope I-5 and Mission, Oceanside www.optcorp.com 800-483-6287 On the first Wednesday of each month, the San Diego Astronomy Association sponsors free evening star parties ...

Best of 2003: Best Place To See A Double Feature

Museum of Photographic Arts (MoPA) 1649 El Prado, Balboa Park www.mopa.org/film.html 619-238-7559 Not only is MoPA the only film house in town that regularly offers double features (for a mere $7), but curator Scott Marks ...

Best of 2003: Best Mojito

Prado Restaurant House of Hospitality, Balboa Park www.pradobalboa.com 619-557-9441 There's a new drink in town, kiddies. The mojito. It's a Cuban hottie that sailed into San Diego a few years ago and is giving the ...

Best of 2003: Best Place To Buy Historical Pictures Of San Diego

San Diego Historical Society Research Archives Casa de Balboa, Balboa Park www.sandiegohistory.org 619-232-6203, x127 Hunting for an early San Diego picture of whaling ships in the bay, the neighborhood your family grew up in, or ...

Best of 2003: Best Edible Plants

Foraging in San Diego's Canyons Balboa Park Could you live off Mother Nature in San Diego? Maybe, says Jon Rebman, curator of botany at San Diego's Natural History Museum, but only if you know what ...

Best of 2003: Best Inexpensive, High-Quality Art

C Note Sale San Diego Art Institute 1439 El Prado, Balboa Park 619-236-0011 This semiannual event (June and December) features paintings, photographs, and sculptures created by local San Diego artists, many of whom are in ...

The Zoo May Seek Compromise

Believe it or not, the 800-pound gorilla may not sit down exactly where it pleases. In the middle of last week, there was a sudden consensus shift indicating that the gorilla -- the San Diego ...

The guy who designed Central Park, did he design Balboa Park?

Hey, Matt: Is it true that Balboa Park was designed by the same dude that designed Central Park in New York? -- Paul Broadway, San Diego Common misconception. Well, maybe not common, since most people ...

Best of 2001: Best Place To Get Your Groove (And Sense Of Justice) Back

WorldBeat Center 2100 Park Boulevard, Balboa Park 619-230-1190 The WorldBeat Center is shaped like a drum, which is appropriate because it uses music (lots of reggae) to advance its primary mission -- to present and ...

Best of 2001: Best Multicultural Way To Pig Out

House of Pacific Relations, Balboa Park 619-234-0739 If you've ever craved Hungarian goulash followed by Norwegian abelskiver and Ukrainian pierogi, once a year you can have that meal -- and follow it with genuine French ...

Best of 2001: Best Example Of Benevolent Government

Balboa Park Municipal Golf Course Clubhouse 2600 Golf Course Drive, East Balboa Park 619-239-1660 There are two courses at Balboa: an 18-hole course that ranks as one of the most challenging in the county and ...

Best of 2001: Best Frisbee Fun

Morley Field Disc Golf Course Corner of Pershing Drive and Redwood Street, Balboa Park 619-692-3607 It costs $1 to play here weekdays (when it's open from 8:00 a.m. to dusk); $1.50 on weekends (when it ...

Best of 2000: Best Street Performances

The Prado, Balboa Park Big Brother is everywhere, so even street performers have to be licensed by the city. On any summer day, along the walkways of Balboa Park, throngs of diverse show-biz startups compete ...

Best of 2000: Best Place To Study Graffiti

Barrio Logan Some people admire the elaborate mural-sized geometric designs of former guerrilla tagger Saki, others prefer the primitive kinetic power of a simple bathroom-wall limerick. Sponsored graffiti -- wall paintings commissioned by civic groups ...

Best of 2000: Best Place To Play Petanque

Morley Field Balboa Park (858) 488-6710 It's your call: You can play bowls the English way, on manicured greens wearing formal whites; like the Italians, with wood-hearted bocce bowls in long sand pits; or like ...

Best of 2000: Best Theater Without The Hyperbole

Cassius Carter Centre Stage Balboa Park (619) 239-2255 (Box Office) This is "theatre in the round," a sunken stage no larger than a small dance floor, ringed by a mere 225 seats. A sigh of ...

Best of 2000: Best Place To Get On Track

San Diego Model Railroad Museum Casa de Balboa, lower level, 1649 El Prado, Balboa Park (619) 696-0199 One of the world's largest running train displays is chugging along right in the middle of Balboa Park. ...

Best of 2000: Best Place To See Actors As People

Old Globe Theatre Balboa Park (619) 231-1941 The play's the thing, all right; but you want more. Intermission's discussion leads to postplay plot analysis, and it's still not enough. If you haven't the stomach to ...

Best of 2000: Best Music To Laugh Along With

San Diego Comic Opera Casa del Prado Theatre, Balboa Park (619) 239-8836 The Casa del Prado Theatre is an intimate 19-row theater housed in a mission-style building on Village Place in Balboa Park. When their ...

Best of 2000: Best Free (And Underrated) Museum

The Timken Museum of Art 1500 El Prado, Balboa Park (619) 239-5548 www.gort.ucsd.edu/sj/timken The product of the Putnam sisters' taste and generosity, the museum's works are organized by "national schools." Half the space is dedicated ...

Best of 2000: Best Tot Train

Balboa Park Railroad Balboa Park, next to the carousel and the zoo Runs weekends and holidays (619) 239-4748 Balboa Park Railroad is a fun, inexpensive cure to childhood boredom. The scaled-down version of a Santa ...

Best of 2000: Best Place To Display Your Tennis Prowess

The Challenge Court, Balboa Tennis Club 2221 Morley Field Drive, Balboa Park (619) 295-9278 This is for the brave, the blusterers, the big-mouths. Go to Balboa Tennis Club's reservations desk, hand over $5, and say ...

Balboa Go-Around

When a new cast of characters auditions next week for the Centre City Development Corp., it aims to revive San Diego's longest-running empty stage. The Balboa Theatre, a national historic landmark in downtown San Diego, ...

Can you make a list of the steepest streets in San Diego?

Matt: Would you do a favor for all us bike riders and make a list of the steepest streets in San Diego? -- A. Rider, San Diego Dear Matthew Alice: What are the steepest street ...

How did the bare busted statues get in Balboa Park?

Dear Matthew Alice: Am I the only person in Balboa Park who ever looks up? Otherwise, how is it that we have dozens of statues of bare-breasted, buxom ladies overhead and no one ever mentions ...

The Mystery of the Putnam Sisters

Amy, Anne, and Irene. “If anyone tells you they knew them, they’re lying,” one longtime San Diegan says, when asked about the late Putnam sisters. The wealthy, reclusive spinsters went to and from their Hillcrest ...