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Thirty Years Ago The taxpayers of San Diego pay Mayor Pete Wilson the middlin' wage of $20,000 a year. Some say we get a lot for our money. Everybody would agree on one bargain, though: we also get the services of Mrs. Pete Wilson...for free. A year ago, she got her broker's license, not because of any immediate ambitions but because it seemed like a good time to take the exam.... She sells mostly houses now but is taking time to learn about commercial property, too.

-- "WHO IS BETTY WILSON?" Gale Fox, April 3, 1975

Twenty-Five Years Ago Scene: A Friday-afternoon business luncheon. Helen Copley, publisher of the San Diego Union and the Evening Tribune, is speaking to 150 members of the San Diego Chamber of Commerce. Time for questions. A young man in the back of the room challenges a recent Copley dictum: "Would you grant myself or any other media an interview concerning your decision not to accept abortion advertising -- pro or con -- in our local papers?" The moderator asks the questioner's identity. "Larry Remer of Newsline," is the reply. A wave of embarrassment and irritation rolls over the crowd. "I know who he is," Copley says softly. Then louder: "I don't want to talk to you."

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-- "THE MUCK STOPS HERE," Mark Orwoll, April 3, 1980

Twenty Years Ago Dupont Hoeseason Coxswain IV here, Yale, class of -- oh, never mind, it's a little embarrassing. Let's just say that when I went to the Yale Divinity School, there was only one god.... I've heard the upstarts at the [yacht] club snickering that the only scull I know anything about is the one I see in the mirror every morning, but as the progeny of aristocrats, I feel qualified to discuss the shoddy state of the sport of crew. After all, crew was once the genteel equivalent of jogging. My father, who spit out five silver spoons at birth before he found a pattern he liked, was an oarsman for the Eli of Yale, as was his father and his grandfather, who invented Connecticut.

-- "A DIPPING OF OARS," Steve Heffner, April 4, 1985

Fifteen Years Ago I have been asked to write this article about the 50th birthday celebration of Bugs Bunny because I am the author of a doctoral dissertation... Sibling Rivalry and the Sadomasochistic Project: Bugs Bunny and Mickey Mouse.

The sadistic nature of Bugs Bunny has been noted by Jacques Derrida (De la carrotolgie, p. 844). "The (ex)pression of the absent/present rabbit self takes the form of the rejection of bourgeois rules of fair play and the subjection of rivals!"

-- "PERCEPTION, REALITY, AND BUGS," Jean-Pierre Mufle, April 5, 1990

Ten Years Ago When Mayor Susan Golding went to a political fundraiser in her honor at a Gaslamp Quarter restaurant last month, she relied on the form of transportation she uses almost exclusively these days: a city-owned Lincoln Continental, chauffeured by an on-duty police detective, assigned to her "executive protection" detail. But when the well-tailored cop parked the handsome blue car in a white, three-minute-only parking zone on E Street, stuck an official "police vehicle" placard on the dash, and left to join the mayor at the party inside a posh restaurant across the street, at least one taxpayer began to see red.

"That night, the mayor's car was parked in a white zone, with expired plates, and nothing happened," Yannis Saridakis says.

-- CITY LIGHTS: "HE'S A COP, HE'S A LIMO DRIVER, HE'S ILLEGALLY PARKED," Thomas K. Arnold, March 30, 1995

Five Years Ago "Mommy," Angela began to cry, "I want to sleep in your bed."

I glanced over at the clock. "It's too early," I told Angela. "It's only 3:30. Go back to bed. When it's closer to morning, you can come in with Daddy and me."

"I can't," Angela cried harder. "I'm too scared."

"What's the problem?" Jack asked from his side of the bed.

"Angela's scared and wants to come in with us."

I heard Jack sigh. Adding another body, no matter how small, ruins Jack's sleep.

-- KID STUFF: "SLEEP-DEPRIVATION EXPERIMENT," Anne Albright, March 30, 2000

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