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Thirty Years Ago Unlike Eastern Seaboard communities who live in fear of a sludge monster arising from the depths, San Diegans can be free from such anxieties thanks to a steep topography and a hand from Mother Nature. Because the sewage outfall is far below the surface, the wastewater is much warmer than the ambient ocean. The warmer effluent tends to rise, resulting in a dispersal of materials harmful in concentration, such as heavy metals or pathogenic organisms.

Twice a week the surface scum, comprising grease, soap suds, and anything else that won't sink to the bottom, is picked up by a Los Angeles firm and shipped to Japan, where it is essential in the manufacture of perfume. -- "CLEANLINESS IS NEXT TO GODLINESS. WHAT IS SEWAGE NEXT TO?" Jon Simon, January 15, 1976

Twenty-Five Years Ago I'm staying in a one-room cabin in the hills outside the Barona Indian Reservation, northeast of Lakeside. The furnishings include a brass feather bed, a wood-burning stove, a table, a chair, and a sink. It's mid-December and I blow on my hands while waiting for the fire to take. I put bathwater on and step outside on the porch to check the woodbox and chop some of the big hunks of wood into pieces that will fit into the stove. -- "TO WANDER NO MORE," Joan Bradley, January 22, 1981

Twenty Years Ago INCARCERATED MALE seeks correspondence, Charles A. Wright, CMF-South, P.O. Box 4000, Building 7, 146, Vacaville, CA 95696-4000.

INCARCERATED MALE seeks correspondence, Allen E. Brown, #C-50230, Briggs 125, P.O. Box 107, Tehachapi, CA 93561.

INCARCERATED MALE seeks correspondence, Mike Harwell, C-69459, Box 3535 0778, Norco, CA 91760.

INCARCERATED MALE seeks correspondence, Chuck Stevens, Room 7368, P.O. Box 8101, C10796, San Luis Obispo, CA 93409-0001. -- CLASSIFIEDS, January 23, 1986

Fifteen Years Ago There is an underground music scene in San Diego. It's a small one for such a large metropolitan area. Such as it is, it begins along a stretch of the Pacific Coast Highway in Encinitas that mimics Haight Street or the hipper end of Melrose, or Second Avenue near the Bowery. On it there are used-clothing stores; a shop where you can get leather studs, Doc Martens, and lace tights; and two independent record stores, Off the Record and Lou's. Go into one of them on a Saturday afternoon and you'd be surprised how packed they are with big-haired kids intent on finding the new Bad Religion or Jack Officers tape. That's where the underground begins; where it ends is at Iguanas, an underage hard-rock palace just across the border, which fills to the brim with a thousand fans of Bad Religion and Soul Asylum. -- "NO FUN AT ALL," Gina Arnold, January 24, 1991

Ten Years Ago A month after the city selected Nielsen-Dillingham to build the addition to San Diego Stadium, top executives with the local builder pumped at least $1500 into the mayor's reelection campaign. Early last month, vice presidents Tim Kelly, Dennis Walter, and George Moreau each gave $250, the maximum amount allowable under local campaign laws, as did director Larry M. Geiser. Kelly says he and his fellow execs gave money to Golding "because we support the candidate. The stadium has nothing to do with it." -- CITY LIGHTS: "GOLDING'S MONEY IS IN THE BALLPARK," Thomas K. Arnold, January 18, 1996

Five Years Ago On the odd occasions when I force myself into a gym, I'll notice the flat-board, six-pack abs on younger guys and a few in my age range. I overheard a couple of men talking about how women love that V-shaped torso: broad shoulders, flat stomach, no love handles to interrupt the eye's flow to narrow hips. I remember thinking, These guys sound like a couple of chicks. -- "MY BELLY," John Brizzolara, January 18, 2001