Stories | Cover Story
If I Did That Over There, They'd Cut My Hands Off
By Bill Manson, Published May 14, 2008
What’s it like, being Muslim in San Diego? The question arose for me earlier this year when I decided to hit Ocean Beach on maybe the worst night of the winter. It was Wednesday, the end ...
Confessions of a Phony Navy Wife
By Maggie Young, Published May 7, 2008
Being in the Navy seems like the perfect time to be single. Sailors are young, many just out of high school. They’re always traveling the world. Reaching a foreign port is one of the craziest ...
How UCSD Spent Over $500,000 on a Home Remodel That Never Happened
By Thomas Larson, Published April 30, 2008
Perhaps the most prized piece of real estate throughout the University of California, San Diego, is the seven-acre site of University House, home to the UCSD chancellor. The rambling adobe home, with its row of ...
No One’s Ever Told Me That I Look Like a Fish By Geoff Bouvier, Published April 23, 2008
“First of all,” says Dave Huie, “it should really be called the exotic fish hobby, not the tropical fish hobby.” Beneath his glasses, Huie’s face ... More Post a comment
We Could End Up Looking Like Phoenix By Larry Harmon, Published April 16, 2008
The two small Victorian homes on 20th Street in Sherman Heights that Louise Torio and her husband Steve Veach have restored are examples of how ... More Comments (15)
If There Are Families Here in San Diego, I'd Like to Find One By Michael Hemmingson, Published April 9, 2008
People Buy You Booze D. is dressed as if he is off to the ComicCon or a Clockwork Orange theme party: boots laced up to ... More Comments (2)
San Diego’s Secret Missile-Testing Sites By Moss Gropen, Published April 2, 2008
I never wanted to move to Scripps Ranch — not with its swarming real-estate agents and white-bread, attend-the-church-of-your-choice ethos, its compliant shrubs, its matrons in ... More Comments (16)
Chivalry Is Not Dead By Geoff Bouvier, Published March 26, 2008
Seemingly everything has been called a “lost art.” Spelling, conversation, keeping a secret, note taking, listening, and even (why not?) hollering. One string of online ... More Post a comment
The Rocket Pop Street Artist By The Rocket Pop Street Artist, Published March 19, 2008
I have not yet vandalized. I made wheat-paste posters. They’re not wheat-pasted anywhere, yet, but I made them. The pieces of paper sit in my ... More Comments (4)
Tie This Guy Up, Make Sure He Stays at SDSU By Thomas Lux, Published March 12, 2008
Odessa: it doesn’t sound like a particularly Russian word. Maybe Spanish, or Italian. Actually, it was named after Odysseus, the hero of Homer’s (if Homer ... More Comment (1)
So Long, Pals By Stephen Dobyns, Published March 5, 2008
Maybe it’s my age — the dark side of my sixties, an elder proto-baby boomer, those 78 million Americans born between 1946 and 1964. Maybe ... More Comments (3)
The Rise and Fall of the Copley Press By Matt Potter, Published Feb. 27, 2008
When Ira Clifton Copley of Aurora, Illinois, first saw San Diego on a trip with his ailing brother to the Hotel del Coronado in 1891, ... More Comments (8)
To Live and Die in Oceanside By Geoff Bouvier, Published Feb. 20, 2008
The Back Gate The area around the Oceanside pier and boardwalk glistens, picture perfect: palm trees, silver sand, blue water, and crowds of people. It’s ... More Comments (13)
Wingwomen By Barbarella , Published Feb. 13, 2008
There didn’t seem to be anything wrong with the man sitting across from me. I had yet to detect a single flaw in his appearance, ... More Comments (4)
Ollie's Big Bike Ride By Ollie, Published Feb. 6, 2008
There’s no outfit so fantastically ridiculous as the too-tight, brazenly colored, and obnoxiously patterned ensemble for riding a long distance on a bicycle. It’s too ... More Comments (14)
I'm as Big as a Vons By Geoff Bouvier, Published Jan. 30, 2008
Near the lifeguard station in Ocean Beach, nine homeless people have gathered. One lies in the grass of Saratoga Park, legs crossed and hat tilted ... More Comments (4)
Tacos Are a Tiny Taste of Temptation By Ed Bedford, Published Jan. 23, 2008
Fancy wimmen are okay, but there's nuttin' like the real thing: a nice warm adobada taco on a nice cold night beside a nice hot ... More Comments (7)
Rockin' Baby Boomers By Pamela Hunt-Cloyd, Published Jan. 16, 2008
By half past nine, all of the pool tables at Bar Leucadian are taken, and fortysomething couples line the bar like birds on a wire. ... More Post a comment
Soccer Moms Are the Absolute Worst By Josh Board, Published Jan. 9, 2008
At the Mira Mesa Recreation Center, playing for my fifth-grade youth basketball team, I watched as my coach threw a chair onto the court in ... More Comment (1)
I Would Rather Be In Here Than Standing in the Fast Lane on the Freeway with Cars Coming at 80 Miles an Hour Published Jan. 2, 2008
In Kearny Mesa, on a road called Opportunity, people in the Transportation Management Center watch over us. The operations room looks like a set from ... More Post a comment
San Diego's Highest Paid Executives By Thomas Larson, Published Dec. 27, 2007
San Diego is home to 35 rich executives, almost all white men, who receive millions in compensation for running our community's largest publicly traded companies. ... More Post a comment
Does Christmas Offend You? By Matthew Lickona, Published Dec. 20, 2007
Matthew: The last time my father visited, I learned what seemed a remarkable thing: all three of his best friends in high school were Jewish. ... More Post a comment
Tell me What You're Wearing By Sue Greenberg, Published Dec. 13, 2007
I stopped folks from Chula Vista to Del Mar, at the malls and on the street, to ask them about their clothes. Questions ranged from ... More Post a comment
Night is My Day Published Dec. 6, 2007
Though flanked by Jack in the Box and, farther up the street, a Denny's, the diner stands out as being a good after-party, post-drinking weekend ... More Post a comment
He Should Have Known Better By Various Authors, Published Nov. 29, 2007
It had been another sleepless night for Chris Squire, pedaling around San Diego delivering drugs. When the sun rolled into the sky on August 14, ... More Post a comment
The Second Lives of San Diegans By Geoff Bouvier, Published Nov. 21, 2007
As you read this, 40,000 people in the world are "in-world." This doesn't mean that these people have left our world, the real world. It ... More Post a comment
Why Tijuana? By Bob McPhail, Published Nov. 15, 2007
Deep-Fried Quesadillas Everything was just out of reach as I lay on my left side in a bed at Tijuana's newest and most modern hospital. ... More Post a comment
We've Grown Up in Paradise By Geoff Bouvier, Published Nov. 8, 2007
I don't envy the native San Diegan. Being born and raised in paradise must be difficult. How do you avoid becoming hopelessly spoiled? How do ... More Post a comment
A Yearlong Trip Down Crack Street By Jay Allen Sanford, Published Nov. 1, 2007
I was homeless exactly one year, from March 2001 to March 2002. I'd known it was coming, and I even sort of welcomed the impending ... More Post a comment
All That's Left By Rosa Jurjevics, Published Oct. 25, 2007
1982. Israel and Lebanon were at war. England and Argentina were at war. In Hollywood, the Red Hot Chili Peppers were formed. Navy beat Army ... More Post a comment
Perfect Drought By Bill Manson, Published Oct. 18, 2007
"It's catastrophic!" Duncan McFetridge flings his arms out. "Look, can't you see the change?" Several years ago, when I last came here to the Cleveland ... More Post a comment
Angel in the Rubble By Chi Varnado, Published Oct. 11, 2007
On October 25, 2003, I go outside to touch base with the night sky and feel the air before retiring to bed. Tonight feels different. ... More Post a comment
Best San Diego Jams By Jay Allen Sanford, Published Oct. 4, 2007
Both shows at the San Diego Arena on Eighth and Harbor Drive (aka Glacier Garden skating rink) for Presley's first full-length California concerts were sold ... More Post a comment
Being Fat Sucks By Barbarella , Published Sept. 27, 2007
Oprah calls it an "Aha! moment," as if a single occurrence, like waking up, can impel someone to change. A sinner is usually caught in ... More Post a comment
Jesus of Carmel Mountain Ranch By Various Authors, Published Sept. 20, 2007
A note is taped to our front door. It says something about a community-standards violation and cites section 2B from the HOA policies handbook: All ... More Post a comment
La Jolla Liberal Learns Tolerance from Clairemont Republicans By Various Authors, Published Sept. 13, 2007
Editor's note: More than 600 San Diegans submitted stories for the Reader "My Neighborhood" writing contest. Ocean Beach led all communities with over 20 entries. ... More Post a comment
Of Course You Qualify! By Thomas Larson, Published Sept. 6, 2007
Mario is a recent immigrant from Mexico, and he's typical of homeowners facing foreclosure. He doesn't want me to use his surname; he's ashamed of ... More Post a comment
Do You Feel Safe At School? By Geoff Bouvier, Published Aug. 30, 2007
On April 16, 2007, on the campus of Virginia Tech University in Blacksburg, Virginia, a sullen, troubled, twisted young man killed 32 people, injured 25 ... More Post a comment
Is Everybody Too Tired? By Bill Manson, Published Aug. 23, 2007
Our future began on Wednesday, February 5, 2003, when a UCLA doctor announced that for the first time since the late 1850s, Hispanic births accounted ... More Post a comment
She Hated Adverbs By Barbarella , Published Aug. 16, 2007
My long conversation with Judith Moore about writing began in 1980. We first met at a monthly campus ministry shindig for the faculty of Central ... More Post a comment
Man Brings Lover Roses Then Shoots Her By Michael Hemmingson, Published Aug. 9, 2007
Shocked shoppers see a woman fall to her death from a parking structure at Parkway Plaza in El Cajon. Was she pushed? In Chollas View, ... More Post a comment
The Sarcastic Killer By Michael Hemmingson, Published Aug. 2, 2007
A boy 3 1/2 months old was the youngest homicide victim in San Diego County during the first half of 2007. The oldest was a ... More Post a comment
Plugged In By Jay Allen Sanford, Published July 26, 2007
Now you'll be as plugged in and up to date as all those insiders scarfing up the invite to private KPRI listener parties, drinking free ... More Post a comment
Plenty of Booze By Geoff Bouvier, Published July 19, 2007
Pacific Beach. 2:00 p.m. A typical, sunny summer Saturday. The smell of spilled beer mingles with sea mist and wet wood. I'm bar-hopping, and not ... More Post a comment
The Answer Man By Matthew Alice, Published July 12, 2007
Yeah, it really has been 20 years -- 20 years of you Alicelanders bugging us with pointless questions; 20 years of Grandma Alice bugging us ... More Post a comment
Confessions of a Bootlegger By Jay Allen Sanford, Published July 5, 2007
At first, Tracey thought I was an FBI agent. I'd been bidding on his eBay auctions for weeks, purchasing CD recordings of local concerts that ... More Post a comment
How to Paint a Portrait By Geoff Bouvier, Published June 28, 2007
The first time I chat with painter David Darrow on the telephone, I ask him how I might pose. I tell him that I like ... More Post a comment
Before It Was the Gaslamp By Jay Allen Sanford, Published June 21, 2007
One day, he's a lauded real-estate visionary being handed the key to the city by Mayor Frank Curran. Then, he's battling city officials as they ... More Post a comment
Philosophy Majors Sit Around and Think About Things By Matthew Lickona, Published June 14, 2007
Sentence one: Lois Lane believes that Superman can fly. Sentence two: Lois Lane believes that Clark Kent can fly. Sentence one is true. Sentence two ... More Post a comment
Faster Is Better By Geoff Bouvier, Published June 6, 2007
What do certain animals, computers, drivers, drummers, surfers, skaters, railways, and runners have in common? They all have a need. The need for speed. We ... More Post a comment
When You Play Chess, You Can't Hide Who You Are By Geoff Bouvier, Published May 31, 2007
"I played Nakamura. He was 18 years old at the time, at the 2005 U.S. Championship. His name is Hikaru Nakamura. And he's the top ... More Post a comment
The Fall of King Eucalyptus By Jeannette De Wyze, Published May 24, 2007
On the morning after one of those record-breaking cold nights this past January, Mike Rasmusson checked on his charges. Rasmusson supervises the Kate O. Sessions ... More Post a comment
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