Thirty Years Ago No newspaper columnist is as carefully read or thoroughly discussed as the society editor. And because he replaced the venerable Eileen Jackson, Burl Stiff of the Union has been subject to especially close scrutiny by San Diego's elite. "He's not the social commentator that Eileen was," said Mrs. David E. Porter. -- PRESS PASSES: "IT'S MY PARTY AND I'LL WRITE WHAT I WANT TO," Paul Krueger, November 11, 1976

Twenty-Five Years Ago Bilbray owns an old blue Triumph, but to drive around the city we took a city-owned car. "I went to high school right there -- Mar Vista High School," he said as we headed down Imperial Beach Boulevard toward the beach. "I went to elementary school right behind it, at Imperial Beach Elementary, and also at Westview Elementary. I spent almost all my time at the beach. My parents were afraid I would drown. One of the reasons they built a swimming pool in our back yard was to try to keep me off the beach." -- "WHERE THE RIVER MEETS THE SEA," Gordon Smith, November 5, 1981

Twenty Years Ago When Tribune columnist Alison DaRosa called Aguirre last week to confirm that he was indeed the Los Angeles Times' source of tape recordings in which Chula Vista City Councilman and state Coastal Commissioner David Malcolm allegedly plots to blow up a Mission Hills mansion and collect on a million-dollar insurance policy, Aguirre demanded that Tribune deputy editor Robert Witty kill the DaRosa column item. -- THE INSIDE STORY, Paul Krueger, November 6, 1986

Fifteen Years Ago Gosh what a dream assignment! I mean like everybody's writin' lately about how all the fixed-income geezers've been havin' to resort to shopliftin' tins of SKINLESS & BONELESS SARDINES (IMPORTED) from the local D'Agostino's and all that Depression-nostalgia poignancy: what extravagant mere survival for cryin' out loud! I mean shit there's so much goddam grub just lyin' around that nobody's got any claim on, legal, moral (ho ho!) or otherwise: the city's GARBITCH f'chrissake! Out of which (in the name of literature, social concern and etc., of course) I will be dining "out" exclusively (nothing but!) for a whole entire week. -- "SLOPPY SECONDS," Richard Meltzer, November 7, 1991

Ten Years Ago The first Santa Ana of fall reached Los Angeles around ten o'clock last Saturday night. People eat early here. Across the West Side, dry wind guttered candle flames and rustled curtains just as unambitious dinner guests were finishing their decaf and deciding whether or not it might be fun to head over to Luna Park to catch Sweet Baby Jai. The wind blew throughout the night. On Sunday, Malibu started to burn. Neurologists say the wind, rushing southwest from the Colorado Plateau, carries a positive electrical charge that causes the brain's serotonin levels to dip and induces sadness and dread. With or without Santa Ana, autumn is edgy in Los Angeles. TV critics and viewers have passed judgment on the fall lineup. Networks are hungry for pilots. Pilots start taping in February, the pool of attractive 20- to 30-year-old actors who can carry a show is limited. -- LOST ANGELENO: "AUTUMN IS EDGY IN LOS ANGELES, Abe Opincar, October 31, 1996

Five Years Ago BOB -- Age: 35

Q. How did you meet your Internet date?

A. I met her when she responded to the ad that I placed on Love@AOL. She's the only girl who responded to me. She responded to me because under the religion section in my profile I put something like "pagan Buddhist." And she's into sort of witchcraft...Wiccan. She wrote back to me and said, "Gee, you look really cool." -- "HOW BOB AND AMY AND CHRIS AND SAMANTHA AND TED AND ROY AND KURT AND BECKY FOUND LOVE ON THE WORLD WIDE WEB," Doug DeBrul, November 1, 2001