La Jolla Stories

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Like Raw Meat

Crowds came out to enjoy the surf and sunshine at La Jolla Shores on July 14. But by the end of the day, over 38 beachgoers had felt the barbs of stingrays that were clustered ...

Torrey Pines Christian Church

Membership: 600 individuals Pastor: Michael Spitters Age: 48 Born: St. Joseph, Michigan Formation: Hope College, Holland, MI.; Texas Christian University-Brite Divinity School, Fort Worth, TX.; Chicago Theological Seminary, Chicago, IL.; missionary work in Taiwan Years ...

Whole New World

It’s summer-movie time, bringing all those boyish action flicks, indefatigable heroes with glam starlets breathing heavily all over them. This story, however, features a heroine, a dynamic brunette with more energy than Lara Cross, a ...

Tarts and torts

The wife of Bill Lerach, onetime lawyer and investor champion who did a stretch in federal prison after copping a plea to fraud charges related to a client kickback scheme, gave a cool $1000 to ...

Near Head-On

“When I do it, I do it good,” said the elderly female driver of a silver Cadillac Catera on May 18 at approximately 2:30 p.m. She had narrowly avoided a head-on collision on Cardeno Drive ...

Barack the Killer

A group of 40 to 50 protestors converged on the headquarters of General Atomics early Wednesday morning, carrying signs, waving model Predator attack drones emblazoned with slogans such as "General Atomics Makes a Killing,” and ...

Car vs. Car

An SDPD van nabbed a silver Mercedes on May 13 at the corner of Kline and Eads streets in La Jolla. My request for information resulted in one of the parking enforcement officers walking proudly ...

Newspaper Fight

At 3:40 Sunday, May 2, the following could be heard echoing through the second floor of the La Jolla Library: “I may be a nigger, but you’re a nothing…less than a nothing. Sir, sir, have ...

Romney's Road

Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, who currently serves as the chairman of the Free and Strong America PAC, spent two hours on March 22 autographing copies of his book No Apology: The Case for American ...

Big Brother will be watching

The City of San Diego has cooked up a plan to build an elaborate video spying operation around Mission Bay and Ocean Beach. According to a request for proposal issued March 5, the City wants ...

Pinniped Predicament

The issue of seals at La Jolla Children's Pool resurfaced in a March 17 agenda item on the Natural Resources and Culture Committee docket. At the committee meeting, San Diego councilmembers Donna Frye, Carl DeMaio, ...

Seal Pup in the Sand

A baby seal was born at the La Jolla Cove on Tuesday, March 2. Unfortunately, many birds kept swarming the mother and her pup to try to get the placenta that had yet to come ...

Man Attacks Puppy

San Diego County Animal Control officers arrested a 50-year-old La Jolla resident on Wednesday, February 24, in connection with animal abuse after he brought an injured ten-week-old puppy to an emergency veterinary clinic on Tuesday ...

Seal You Later

"Oh, here's the biggest seal-hater of them all," yells La Jolla seal activist MarJane Aalam. "Don't go down there, John, there are pups down there." A bright spotlight turns on. "I'll put you on YouTube, ...

Turn Off the Radio

On Wednesday, February 3, at approximately 11:00 p.m., a white BMW was driven down an embankment and overturned. The driver ran from the scene, leaving a woman trapped in the passenger seat. The accident occurred ...

Abandon Whip!

On Tuesday afternoon, when heavy rains flooded a section of North Torrey Pines Road near Torrey Pines Scenic Drive, the driver of a silver compact was left stranded, according to San Diego police Capt. Chris ...

Sorry, Citizen Journalist

Near Windansea Beach on Tuesday, January 12, at about 10:00 a.m., I spotted what appeared to be a construction project at the intersection of Neptune and Playa Del Sur. I stopped to speak with Jose ...

Underground Report

On Monday morning, January 11, I passed a project in progress on the corner of Genter and Draper in La Jolla. I approached Cody Whitters (a journeyman lineman with Henkels & McCoy, working as a ...

Jerry Don't Surf

As part of a cost-cutting effort for the new fiscal year, the San Diego City Council approved budget reductions proposed by Mayor Jerry Sanders that included changes to lifeguard operations at Black’s Beach, formally known ...

Victorious Seals

Wednesday morning, December 30, volunteers from Seal Watch (an all-volunteer, nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting harbor seals) manned their posts in the cul-de-sac above the La Jolla Children’s Pool. “The most current news is unfortunate,” ...

The Plaintiff Knew Nothing

‘If I am guilty of anything, it’s of being a good lawyer and advocating for the rights of the disabled,” proclaims Lynn Hubbard III of Chico, who has filed, by his own reckoning, 2000 lawsuits ...

The Logic of a Landslide

Brian Burke was agonizing over whether to appeal the court’s decision in the Mount Soledad landslide case. “Have you ever been too close to something to decide wisely about it?” he asked. He raised the ...

War at La Jolla Farms

Life should be peaceful at La Jolla Farms, that tony area of 100 superluxury homes adjacent to Torrey Pines State Park.But war has broken out there. One resident controls a local biotech. A former resident ...

Brothers Back and Forth

Link and younger brother Booth have virtuoso hands. To hear him tell it, Link was “the Stink,” the “be all end all,” best three-card monte hustler in town. He could “throw” the cards — two ...

Local Fish Eat Our Sunblock, Deodorant, and Valium

The dolphin skimmed down the face of a cresting wave mere feet from where I sat on my surfboard. Then, circling around, it joined up with three friends outside where the waves were breaking. The ...

Another Perfect Day

BALBOA PARK Another Perfect DayBy downtownphotoguy, June 26Today we were in Presidio Park in the morning and Balboa Park in the afternoon. We were shooting with a variety of lenses and techniques…. It seems everybody ...

Captured at Sea

According to a press release from the San Diego office of the Customs and Border Protection agency, two Mexican nationals involved in human smuggling were apprehended by CBP officers early Tuesday morning, October 13, about ...

Libelous Tell-All

Thus far, the La Jolla Playhouse’s season has been forgettable. In Terrence McNally’s slight Unusual Acts of Devotion and Claudia Shear’s not-ready-for-prime-time Restoration, the sets — for good or ill — were more memorable than ...

Checking in at Morrison Hotel

High-end music photography shop Morrison Hotel Gallery shuttered its five-year-old La Jolla location at the end of August, shifting its business to a storefront at Flower Hill Promenade in Del Mar. Though both galleries ran ...

Oxygenated Septuagenarian Robber

A man described as being 70 to 80 years old is suspected of robbing the La Jolla branch of San Diego National Bank on Saturday, September 12. Clad in a beige-and-black-checkered blazer and wearing a ...

Crab Bag

Truluck’s is a Florida-based surf-and-turf house specializing in crabs — above all, Florida stone crabs, but also Maine Jonahs, Pacific Dungeness, never-frozen (they claim) Alaskan King, and even a bit of Maine Peekytoe and blue ...

Unclear Crumple Zone

A minor traffic accident with no injuries that occurred in La Jolla left a traffic police officer working on an accident report slightly confused. On Tuesday, August 25, just before 3:45 p.m., an ambulance traveling ...

Fishlike

Todd Robinson of the La Jolla Swim Club set the men’s Catalina-to-California-mainland swim record on August 25, with a time of 8 hours, 5 minutes, and 44 seconds. Beginning from Catalina Twin Harbors at around ...

La Jolla Lutheran Church

A message was pinned to the bulletin board standing in the cozy courtyard off to the side of the trim yellow church with the red-tile roof: “If your photo is not on this board, please ...

Top of the World, Ma!

La Valencia is a sheerly gorgeous hotel. Walking through that Spanish-Moorish tiled lobby en route to the Sky Room elevator, you want to sell your shack and move right in. A small, old-timey operator-run lift, ...

More Signs

There are nearly a dozen merchants in violation of the ban on A-frame signs in Bird Rock along La Jolla Boulevard. With the recent cutbacks in code compliance officers, there is little follow-up when merchants ...

In the Realm of the Senses

Marine Room kicks off this summer’s unofficial series on “Rooms with a View — and Bargains, Too.” The small tradeoff that recession brings to visitors and staycationers alike is that some of San Diego’s most ...

Pitifully Doomed

San Diego mayor Jerry Sanders recently announced that the City has launched a new website at which people can make donations to support the fire-pit program. Despite a $259,500 donation, fire-pit funding has only been ...

A Play in Pieces

The La Jolla Playhouse’s popular Page to Stage series, which presents readings of works in progress, has an astonishing track record: Billy Crystal’s 700 Sundays was a major Broadway hit; Doug Wright’s I Am My ...

Poachers Get Shellfish

For many San Diegans, the La Jolla Underwater Park is a tranquil place to observe marine life in its natural environment. Poachers, however, seem to view the state-protected marine conservation area as their own personal ...

Tainted Catch

Divers take note — if you’re in Mission Bay, La Jolla, or anywhere else along the California coast, don’t move a mussel. Or, to be more specific, don’t harvest and eat a mussel. A quarantine ...

Torrey Pine Down

What caused a healthy 60-foot pine tree to snap at the base and crash down on Torrey Pines Road during rush hour last week? Typically, wet weather can soften areas around roots. But May 14 ...

Shy Sherri

District 1 Councilmember Sherri Lightner isn’t San Diego’s most outspoken city politician. Typically, her comments at council meetings are succinct, slightly awkward, and usually start off with a clumsy grab at the microphone. She’s not ...

Barabbas Road Church

“I met my wife in a bar in New York City,” said Barabbas Road pastor Matt Smith. “I was a rower, training for the Olympics, and I hated religion. I knew she was the girl ...

Feeling Puckish

It’s odd to think of a glitzy, Angeleno Wolfgang Puck restaurant on a bucolic, wooded college campus, but Jai (pronounced “jay,” like the bird) is no college dining hall. (The press release says the name ...

Cameras Don’t Lose or Lie

Drivers have another red light camera to watch out for as they make their way around the UCSD/Torrey Pines area. The latest one has been installed at the intersection of North Torrey Pines Road and ...

Tough Lit Guys

Author Max Miller (left) and Colonel Gregory “Pappy” Boyington, a Marine fighter ace who shot down 26 planes. In this 1952 photo, Miller prepares for the annual La Jolla Rough Water Swim with what appears ...

High and dry

Yet another local recession victim: the San Diego office of the National Marine Manufacturers Association, producer of the annual San Diego Boat Show, is being shuttered, and future shows may be canceled. “The recreational boating ...

Escorts & Engagements

I remember getting a call years ago from a girl named Caryn. She was having a birthday party, and I hadn’t been doing this column very long. The details sounded interesting. She was dating a ...

Mi Casa es Seal Casa

During the past 15 years, seals have taken over La Jolla’s Casa Beach. The beach that was established as a swimming area for children in 1930 became a hotspot for seals to “haul out” and ...

Crabby Mood

This is the winter of my discontent, following the autumn of my growing grouchiness, and the summer of my increasing reservations. It’s the economy, stupid — the stupid economy. For seven months, I’ve been trying ...

Toilet Vandals

Torrey Pines State Reserve is one of San Diego's treasures enjoyed by visitors and locals alike. Behind the scenes, the park is maintained by a dedicated crew of rangers and maintenance specialists who work year-round ...