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Stories by John Mann

Queen Califia's Magical Circle

Take the kids to this sculpture garden in Escondido.

Thirty miles up I-15 from San Diego, in Escondido, you’ll find Queen Califia’s Magical Circle. This is the unnatural habitat of wild animals that escaped from the imagination of Niki de Saint Phalle. She’s the ...

Vail: Not Just a Ski Town

Summertime's when the Rockies shine.

Incorporated in 1962, the five-square-mile town of Vail, Colorado, was named for Charles Vail, the engineer who, in 1940, routed the highway that eventually became I-70 through the valley. It’s 100 miles west of mile-high ...

Place Django Reinhardt, Paris

New to Paris is Place Django Reinhardt. Well, the site isn't new, but the designation is. The site is where the gypsy guitariste et compositeur lived in his caravan, in the Saint-Ouen neighborhood of Paris's ...

Edinburgh, Scotland’s Royal Mile

The prime sites to visit in Scotland's capital dot the Royal Mile from Edinburgh Castle at the west end to Holyrood Palace at the east end. The Castle is worth touring at any time, but ...

Story of a Pole

Back in October, a frequenter of the Starbucks on Linda Vista Road and Napa Street wrote to Donna Frye, city council representative for that area. He inquired about the disused 20-foot pole standing across the ...

Funny, Microtonalism

The eight members of the Hutchins Consort schlepped their fiddles to the Encinitas Public Library to give a demonstration of microtonalism. They play instruments built by the late Dr. Carleen Hutchins to cover the entire ...

Have a Seat (for $5K)

On November 30, Park and Recreation employee Jane Witzke informed me that its park-bench sponsorship program is "on moratorium" until a project manager can be found to administer it. When it reboots, you'll again be ...

Paris, France: One's Own Village

My favorite city on this planet is Paris. You can do all the things the guidebooks tell you to do. Or you can do what I do, which makes Paris one's own village. To wit: ...

Mad World

Four thousand people made their way into the Mt. Carmel High School stadium to hear American Idol contestant Adam Lambert sing on Friday, May 8. Why was Lambert there? Because a return to one's high ...