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Stories by Robert Kumpel

Reader writers get up very close to San Diego's homeless

Blood Brothers It wasn’t long before the owner of the radiator shop discovered that Rat had been sleeping in the van. But when the man saw Rat’s beat-up face and how sick he was, he …

June 27, 2021
Padres player scandals, city council caves to John Moores, farm manager Russ Nixon tells history

The Evil I Do Not Intend Dravecky raised some eyebrows that month when he appeared with Eric Show and Mark Thurmond at a John Birch Society booth at the Del Mar Fair. Back home in …

May 8, 2021
SEALs talk war atrocities, Rolling Stone embeds at Camp Pendleton

A Soldier's Pay Bradley is an animated woman of 36, whose tousled long black hair and French accent give her an exotic cast. When I acknowledge her accent, she replies, “Yes, I’m sorry, I’m from …

February 27, 2021
Angel dust on its way to San Diego, meth heads talk, Tijuana glue sniffers

Embalmed Angel Teer says that he started smoking sherm when he was 16. "I used it a lot. I used a lot of drugs, but the older you get, the less fun it gets. Smoking …

February 1, 2021
San Diego fires: Campo Creek, Volcan Mountain, Hauser Canyon

It Would Turn You To Toast Pete Scully, a battalion chief for the California Department of Forestry's fire protection agency, stands next to his camper-shelled pickup truck at a Highway 94 turnoff east of where …

January 2, 2021
9/11 affects San Diego business, average citizens, Middle Easterners living here

Al Qaeda Effect Le Travel Store sells luggage, travel equipment, and books from its Gaslamp Quarter store on Fourth Avenue. Owner Joan Keller believes the 9/11 attack nearly destroyed the travel industry. "It was immediately …

December 21, 2020
Raise your own eggs, a prince of a cat, intimate life with a duck

The chicken or the ego? Are chickens the proper enterprise for the modern family? Let’s get real about this right now. Chickens teach us about husbandry, domesticity, and death. The sole caveat to raising your …

December 19, 2020
Bear Valley ostriches, Balboa Park squirrels, edible food of San Diego canyons

In Lakeside, Chickens Make Good Neighbors You can't use your nose to find the ranch because the sharp ammonia odor you may associate with chicken farms is absent. Harold Hilliker, second-generation owner of Hilliker's Egg …

December 7, 2020
San Diego's gay bathhouses, wild life of our foreign cabbies, best light in the city

Bathhouse Quagmire "I was in those San Francisco bathhouses in the late 1970s," says James Hartline, an HIV-positive Hillcrest man who is campaigning to get San Diego's three bathhouses shut down. "Those bathhouses were a …

November 23, 2020
Tijuana's respect for the body, goodbye Revolucion flower sellers. Frank Lloyd Wright and Tecate

Grateful to the Dead Earlier in the day I attended a one-hour lecture given by Dr. Luis Antonio Martínez, a dental surgeon who teaches anatomy to students at the university’s dentistry school. His lecture was …

November 22, 2020
Internet love, the Mitchells' 30-year marriage, mom to an unusual child

How Bob and Amy and Chris and Samantha and Ted and Roy and Kurt and Becky Found Love on the World Wide Web Passion by the gigabyte. BOB | Age: 35 Q How did you …

October 26, 2020
In vitro baby trouble, Mark Twain's daughter, after foster care

Never Die Like many newly married couples, Cristen and Jeffry Hays wanted to get pregnant soon after their wedding in 1992 but felt it best to wait. They used birth control until Jeffry finished three …

October 10, 2020
Religion in Christmas movies, Yellow Deli a cult?, San DIego Sikhs, Christmas without Jesus, Hare Krishnas

Church on Sunday? If not, did you ever wonder why people do? One man's search for Christianity's core. By Matthew Lickona, April 8, 2009 | Read the full article Joy to the Screen Isn’t the …

September 26, 2020
Little Italy landmark gets red marble and white marble

As little Italy adds condos and shops, its centerpiece, Our Lady of the Rosary Church, has undergone a restoration. On the corner of State and Date streets, the church is noted as a place guaranteed …

September 21, 2020
Afro hair, piercings, obsession with abdomens, T-shirts talk, the beauty of henna, worry about fat

Afro Puffs ’Dos that don’t. I’m overjoyed that my daughter loves her hair. I’m also afraid there will come a day when she tells me she wishes it were long, straight, and yellow. By Elizabeth …

September 21, 2020
San Diego's squirrels, ostriches, cactuses, chickens, mosquitos, apples

Contagious Buzz As the hysteria over the West Nile virus moves westward, California appears to be the inevitable destination of the mosquitoes that carry the deadly virus. David Faulkner, 51, is a forensic entomologist and …

September 6, 2020
Most notable San Diego Reader stories of the early 21st Century

Bathhouse Quagmire "I was in those San Francisco bathhouses in the late 1970s," says James Hartline, an HIV-positive Hillcrest man who is campaigning to get San Diego's three bathhouses shut down. "Those bathhouses were a …

August 23, 2020
What you'll never read in Baja tourist press

Grateful to the Dead Earlier in the day I attended a one-hour lecture given by Dr. Luis Antonio Martínez, a dental surgeon who teaches anatomy to students at the university’s dentistry school. His lecture was …

August 22, 2020
San Diegans on love, marriage, and everything in between

How Bob and Amy and Chris and Samantha and Ted and Roy and Kurt and Becky Found Love on the World Wide Web BOB | Age: 35 Q Did she send you a photograph? A. …

July 18, 2020
Poignant human drama in San Diego

Never Die They used birth control until Jeffry finished three years of chiropractic school, passed his preceptorship, and established a practice in San Diego. Then, in their mid-30s, with “it’s now or never” nagging them, …

June 20, 2020
My daughter's Afro, tongue piercing, obsession with stomach looks

Afro Puffs I’m overjoyed that my daughter loves her hair. I’m also afraid there will come a day when she tells me she wishes it were long, straight, and yellow. By Elizabeth Salaam, July 11, …

May 31, 2020
A close look at religions in San Diego

There Is One God "The equality of all people and all religions is central to our faith. We didn't want to seem as though we were saying, 'No! We're not Muslims! Don't attack us! Those …

May 2, 2020
San Diego love stories

Why Knot? Randy said that some years ago he bought a thirty-foot trimaran, intending to sail it to the South Pacific. “Now we’re going to fly to the South Pacific on our second anniversary,’’ said …

February 14, 2020
More than one point of view on Thanksgiving

The ideal hipster Thanksgiving As I’ve pointed out before, no holiday lacks the potential for a hipster makeover. Thanksgiving is no exception. Not only is it nestled comfortably between epic Halloween costumes and ugly-Christmas-sweater parties, …

November 26, 2019
Robert Kumpel and the Reader

Robert Kumpel wrote for the Reader from 1993 through 2007. He lives with his family and teaches school in Georgia. Editor's picks of stories Kumpel wrote for the Reader: She let me know what she …

April 28, 2019
Back on the street after six months in the San Diego County Jail

Michael Jackson is in a good mood. It’s a muggy Saturday afternoon downtown, and he’s just been released from jail at Front and C Street after six months inside. “I was in for narcotics. My …

September 1, 2010
What's Your News IQ?

1. Peter Barry Lawrence, 71, pleaded guilty to robbing a bank on July 26 in downtown San Diego. Lawrence is popularly known as A. The Geezer Bandit B. The Geritol Bandit C. The Rest Home …

August 18, 2010
What's Your News IQ?

1. Toyota is recalling 412,000 cars in the United States. The majority of the cars recalled are which model? A. Prius B. Camry C. FJ Cruiser D. Avalon 2. Philanthropist Donald Shiley died recently at …

August 11, 2010
What's Your News IQ?

1. Countywide consumption of what commodity decreased by 13 percent during San ­Diego’s 2010 fiscal ­year? A. Milk B. Gasoline C. Water D. Natural Gas 2. Sales of what product rose 30 percent in San …

August 4, 2010
What's Your News IQ?

1. La Jolla artist and publisher Jim Lee recently won notoriety for redesigning which comic ­hero? A. Spider Man B. Superman C. Dick Tracy D. Wonder Woman 2. Caltrans has proposed expanding Interstate 5 from …

July 28, 2010
What's Your News IQ?

1. Noted surgeon Dr. Jack Copeland has joined the staff of the UCSD Medical Center to relaunch what medical ­program? A. Nuclear medicine B. Artificial heart C. Heart transplant D. Laser oncology 2. Which city …

July 21, 2010
What's Your News IQ?

1. ­Tijuana’s new mayor, Carlos Bustamante is American-born, has a degree from USD, and speaks fluent English. In what town was Bustamante ­born? A. Chula Vista B. East Los Angeles C. Riverside D. National City …

July 14, 2010
What's Your News IQ?

1. The San Diego Padres lead all other Major League Baseball teams in which ­statistic? A. They have fired more managers mid season in the past 30 years than any other team B. They have …

July 7, 2010
Reader writers on our country this July 4th

I grew up in a religion that loved everything I would be taught to disdain in graduate school: America, authority, marriage, motherhood, and divine revelation. My father was a history-reading intellectual who treated me like …

June 30, 2010
What's Your News IQ?

1. One Southern California municipality recently offered its citizens big discounts on electric lawnmowers if they would drop off their old gasoline mowers at a local stadium parking lot. 1950 mowers were collected. What stadium …

June 30, 2010
What's Your News IQ?

1. Which of the following actors was NOT born in San ­Diego? a) Cameron Diaz b) Dennis Hopper c) Robert Duvall d) Gregory Peck 2. Many San Diegans recently observed Memorial Day by attending ceremonies …

June 9, 2010
What's Your News IQ?

1. Which of the following Republican candidates running for Barbara ­Boxer’s U.S. Senate seat has openly opposed ­Arizona’s new immigration ­laws? a) Tom Campbell b) Carly Fiorina c) Chuck De Vore d) None of the …

June 2, 2010
23 Reader writers describe the regime of editor Judith Moore

Busy Fingers Are Happy Fingers — Joe Deegan Mother Reader — Barbarella Build Your Writing Muscles — Ollie Let the Tape Recorder Do the Work — Matthew Lickona Faith — Abe Opincar Make Something Better …

She Let Me Know What She Didn't Want

Judith Moore remains an enigma to me. When first asked to write for the Reader, I was instructed to run everything by Judith. Who was this lady? Why did she live in Berkeley if she …

August 16, 2007
More From The Quizmaster

On February 2, while in sheriffs' custody at the downtown San Diego courthouse, Richard Tuite escaped for three and a half hours. Tuite is facing trial for what offense? A. grand theft B. murder C. …

March 4, 2004
Bullwhip, Bagpipes, or Cobra?

1. Lt. Governor Cruz Bustamante is facing a lawsuit alleging that he took from Indian tribes $3.8 million more than is allowed by the state's campaign limits. Who is the plaintiff in the lawsuit? A. …

February 12, 2004

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4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
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