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Stories by Douglas Whyknott

San Diego's highway landscaping, how to beat avocado thieves

Ground Cover One of the Brazilian peppers, a 20-foot umbrella of lacy foliage, blocks an exit sign for Genesee Avenue. “Look at that sign. Kind of hard to see what it says, isn’t it? You’ve …

July 18, 2021
Inside the California Current, what killed San Diego's tuna, Coronado lifeguarding is like chess

Rich Sea Stew: Sampling the California CurrentOne fisherman was doing quite well. His name was Pedro, and he worked as a crew member. Pedro had a rod holster and used shrimp flies, and he was …

February 22, 2021
Oceanside Museum, Balboa Theater, bright eye of MOPA, scandal of MOCA

Pioneer in Oceanside “In San Diego, the most important piece of architecture is, of course, the Mission San Luis Rey. But I feel strongly that this [the Oceanside museum] is the next most important piece.” …

January 23, 2021
Best Reader stories from 1997

Childhood's End: Dr. Spock at 94 53-year-old Morgan, Dr. Spock’s second wife, has been relentless and inventive in her search for ways to keep her husband youthful and healthy. For his 75th birthday, for example, …

January 18, 2020
Best Reader stories from 1996

Mafia in San Diego before World War II (first in series of six stories) “The raids, all made with search warrants, started soon after noon and were not completed until early evening. All of the …

January 12, 2020
Douglas Whyknott and the Reader

Douglas Whyknott, who wrote for the Reader from 1995 throiugh 1998, is an 11th-generation Cape Codder. He played blues and jazz piano and formed the Whynott Boogie Trio after studying blues piano with Sammy Price, …

July 28, 2019
It's hard to learn about dolphin training at SeaWorld.

When Hoffman tells us it’s time to get into our wet suits I think —Did she also tell me I’d be getting into a wet suit? When I mention this, her response is, well, neutral.

February 26, 1998
A night with the astronomer monks of Palomar Mountain

A phone call came in from Rick’s wife—she wanted to say goodnight. “My beautiful wife,” he said when he hung up, smiling. He had a job in astronomy, yes, but he’d sacrificed the goodnight kiss.

December 11, 1997
Behind scenes at San Diego's Museum of Photographic Arts

1. The Vault If a photograph dies and goes to heaven, it might end up here in the breathable vault at the Museum of Photographic Arts in Balboa Park. The prospect for immortality is good, …

October 16, 1997
San Diego beekeepers know all the flowering plants

There are about 30,000 beehives in San Diego County, and just now, Alan Mikolich and I are standing amid 140 of them. Mikolich is a commercial beekeeper, one of the dozen or so in San …

May 15, 1997
Dolphins kill San Diego's tuna industry

Many of the older generation think that the dolphin activists “ruined a beautiful industry.” Some think it was a big mistake not to publicly and legally challenge Sam LaBudde and the Earth Island Institute.

Scripps scientists see cause for alarm in California Current

The blue whales and the soaring plankton bloom, along with the tapering off of water temperatures in the past four months, seemed to call into question the idea that life in the California Current might be diminishing.

November 16, 1995

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