It's not even noon and already I'm closing the blinds on the south-facing windows of my home office. That pesky natural light is overrunning the glow of the lamp by which I work. Too much …
October 7, 2004
News & Stories
San Diego's most beautiful light
Augusten Burroughs' Magical Thinking
"When my mother is in a Newport, Rhode Island, hotel room, I never would have forgotten that. Never. With her in her black sweater with baby powder all over her, looking crazy. She had that little poodle sweater."
October 7, 2004
Poke around the ruins of old mines along Old Banner Grade east of Julian
The shape of Banner Canyon is due to ruptures along the Elsinore Fault. This splinter fault of the San Andreas is the most extensive fault system in San Diego County and is believed capable of a major earthquake.
October 7, 2004
Frye Attacks Secrecy Culture
Two essential elements of financial fraud are secrecy and contrived complexity. And one driving force of the criminal mind is to continue doing what you have been doing, because if you stop, someone will get …
October 7, 2004
Over Mom's Dead Body
Sunday's startling endorsement by the Union-Tribune of Democrat Mike Aguirre for San Diego city attorney seems to have turned conventional wisdom on its head. But there is a big reason behind the U-T's seeming madness, …
October 7, 2004
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 Campo Creek turns south into Mexico, …
October 7, 2004
Dog spit
Dear M.A.: I give my dinner plate to Queenie the Loveable Lab every night, and will lick it clean (except when we have broccoli). But why when she's through is the plate so slimy? It's …
October 7, 2004
Friends don't let friends smoke clove cigarettes
Smoking Mattster: Tell my friend that clove cigarettes are worse for you than regular cigarettes. Thank you. -- A Friend, Chula Vista Dear Your Friend: Clove cigarettes are worse for you than regular cigarettes. Best …
October 7, 2004
Earthquake kitty
Hey, Matt: How is it going? How was summer vacation? Here's my question. Can cats and dogs really feel the vibrations of a pending earthquake? The reason I ask is, this morning the cat was …
October 7, 2004
Rich and Brooke Toscano
Just last week, Mr. and Mrs. Toscano celebrated their first anniversary. “Rich took me salsa dancing at Café Sevilla,” Mrs. Toscano says. “I had been browbeating him for a year to take me dancing."
October 7, 2004