Scripps Ranch Stories

Scripps Ranch Stories

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Census

In the spirit of this census year, we offer this unofficial, informal, and unscientific census of daily life in San Diego. (No census workers were lynched or faked their own lynchings while gathering the following ...

Wild Seven

"Marshall Middle School envisions a welcoming environment that promotes meaningful collaboration between parents, teachers, and other community members," reads the "About Us" section on the Scripps Ranch middle school’s website. But according to a March ...

Two on a Bench

The late Herb Gardner (he died in 2003) hand-wrote his plays on a Central Park bench. One day, the author of A Thousand Clowns watched two old men nearby, one black, one white. They would ...

An End to the Evil Euc

In 1909, newspaper magnate Edward Willis Scripps began planting eucalyptus on the San Diego ranch he’d bought 11 years earlier. Those trees and their descendents have become the signature emblem of today’s Scripps Ranch. So ...

Forward, Marchi

Fabio Marchi is not your typical politician; in fact, he's not much of a politician at all, and he's the first one to say it. In June, Marchi, a 48-year-old North County general contractor and ...

Unlicensed Parent

A Scripps Ranch man was arrested early Friday morning, June 26, at Sharp Coronado Hospital on charges of felony child endangerment and driving under the influence. San Diego police say that the man left his ...

Toy Gun, Real Crime

For the past three weeks, a lone male has been robbing stores in the Mira Mesa area. He strikes late at night, when there are no customers. He enters quickly, shows a knife, and demands ...

Upside-Down? Go Short

In San Diego’s hemorrhaging real estate industry, it’s better to be upside-down and rich than upside-down and poor. That may sound axiomatic — it’s always nicer to be rich than poor — but carriage-trade folks ...

San Diego’s Secret Missile-Testing Sites

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 SUVs, that whole lifeless suburban drone. And where the hell ...

Jesus of Carmel Mountain Ranch

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 residents are responsible for the upkeep and general maintenance of ...

Loop the loop around Lake Miramar, by foot, bike or skates.

Miramar Lake, perched halfway up the dry hills overlooking Scripps Ranch, Mira Mesa, and the distant coast, was completed in 1960 as part of the second San Diego Aqueduct project. Water flowing south to the ...

Up in Smoke

'In many things in life, we have a tendency to go one way or the other, and not much in between," says Richard Halsey, director of the California Chaparral Institute. "Once, fire was all bad. ...

Mira Mesa Bible Baptist Church, Scripps Ranch

"Each one win one" and "Go ye therefore..." read the raised foam letters on the back wall of Mira Mesa Bible Baptist Church. Below these exhortations hung rows of framed, typewritten missives from Baptist missionaries, ...

Lighthouse Bible Church

Pastor John Kim was finishing up the hour of Sunday school that preceded the service: "Why do people turn to drugs and other things? They need something to help them deal with the realities of ...

Saint Gregory the Great Catholic Church

Saint Gregory the Great might be an Arts & Crafts arboretum, with its huge slatted dome of a ceiling, its preponderance of windows framed by great beams of wood, its gray-green tile floor, its trickling ...

Baptist General Conference

In the teen section of Scripps Mesa Bible Church's library/snack room, Douglas Coupland's novel Generation X gets face-out treatment. Someone has taken a highlighter to certain passages. One such: "I wonder that all things seem ...

Mount Moriah Christian Church

"We're going to make some noise today!" proclaimed one of the choristers from the stage of the auditorium. "Oh, bless the Lord with the fruit of your lips! We serve an awesome God!" The drums ...

Canyon Springs Church

"When the music fades/ All is stripped away/ And I simply come, longing just to bring/ Something that's of worth," sang Trevor Davis. "I'll bring you more than a song..." But songs were exactly what ...

The Receptionist

The movie Wedding Crashers became number one at the box office after playing in theaters for several weeks. The word-of-mouth on this movie has made it a hit. Vince Vaughn is hysterical. (Swingers, a 1996 ...

Saint Gregory the Great

Father Edward Gallagher's homily at Saint Gregory the Great began with a story of the son of a minister who left the Protestant church to become a Catholic. After Mass, Father Gallagher said many Protestant ...

Suburban Grillmasters

"There's the sign," said my wife Grace. "No, Grace, that's the Colonel. No fried chicken tonight. Tonight is all about the grilling." "No, not that sign. The other one. Behind the Chevron." "Good gravy, you're ...

At Home in San Diego

LA COSTA When I think of La Costa, I remember the wildlife -- the skunk that lived under our house, for instance, a beautiful creature whose size would double when it puffed up its fur ...

Best of 2003: Best Pastime For Suburban Moms

Bunco If you're a bored mom in Sabre Springs, Rancho Bernardo, Scripps Ranch, or Carmel Mountain Ranch, put your ear to the ground and listen for the sound of dice rolling and blenders whirring. Bunco ...

Best of 2003: Best Wheelchair Jaunt

Miramar Reservoir 10400 Scripps Lake Drive, Scripps Ranch 619-465-3474 "It was a hot day and, ya know, I made it," recalls Vern about the last time he rolled around Lake Miramar. "I think I brought ...

Hike, bike, or skate Lake Miramar's paved perimeter path -- but not across the dam itself.

Not all San Diegans flock to the beaches on sunny summer days. Some gravitate toward inland recreational spots like Lake Miramar, which offers a spacious venue for pursuits such as walking, jogging, biking, and in-line ...

Best of 2001: Best Roller-Skating Route

San Diego Miramar Reservoir 619-668-2050 The average skater can circle the five-mile paved loop around Miramar Lake in about a half hour. Vehicles are allowed Saturday through Tuesday on fishing days, but the rest of ...

Who named the Emmy, Grammy, Tony, etc.? Who was Hendrix Pond named after?

Dear Matthew Alice: Who is the Emmy named after? And the Tony? The Grammy? Who decreed that all these major awards have to end in y? What about the Pulitzer Prize? When will you be ...