A play in multiple acts. Cast, in order of appearance: Chorus, infrequent fisher and loather of boat travel Bill Poole, 85, local fishing legend, past part-owner of Poole-Chaffee Boatyard Buck Everingham, 51, heir and part-owner …

"Fine! Do whatever you want! I'm sick of it!" She's screaming, sitting at my counter, and touching her temples. I reach for the bottle of bourbon on top of the refrigerator, unscrew the cap, and …

Halloween, Day of the Dead, and Thanksgiving have passed. Because you are reading this, you have survived. I am writing this between All Souls and Thanksgiving, so I cannot speak for Thanksgiving and myself, but …

Even the few orthodox interviews sound informal.

The One from the Other: A Bernie Gunther Novel FROM THE DUST JACKET: Fifteen years ago author Philip Kerr created the character of Bernie Gunther, a German detective in Nazi Germany. In quick succession, he …

Thirty Years Ago On Third Street in Encinitas, just up the hill from Moonlight Beach, there's a pair of low-rent triplexes facing each other. Somehow, over the years the two triplexes fell into the hands …

A trip down the San Diego River canyon during the rainy season is a true adventure. (Mind you, we are not referring to the river at its lower Mission Valley segment, or even at Mission …

Michael Ellis, cofounder of the bankrupt Metabolife International, has battled drug enforcers, the Food and Drug Administration, the Justice Department, the Internal Revenue Service, personal injury lawyers, the House Energy and Commerce Committee, bankruptcy probers …

On September 19, the unincorporated community of Campo threw a once-in-a-century party. It featured a parade, cavalry reenactors, former buffalo soldiers stationed in Campo pre-World War II, and home-baked goodies. But it wasn't the attractions …

One of San Diego's richest and most powerful players is also one of its most enigmatic. John Jay Moores -- Padres owner, downtown development magnate, University of California regent, confidante and patron of ex-president Jimmy …

In a recent report, SD police chief William Lansdowne said around 87 gangs with approximately 3500 members operate within San Diego. Many are referred to -- if not represented -- on MySpace pages. 2-11 Nayb4hood …

Today is judgment day for John D'Intino, the last remaining defendant in the long-running Cheetahs city hall bribery scandal, who on September 2, 2003, pled guilty to felony gun possession and wire fraud conspiracy charges …

Former 91X DJ Bryan Jones was found in his Fresno apartment on November 16. He had died two days earlier from a heart attack at age 49. Jones and other early-'80s 91X DJs made the …

"You have to be good to play this music," says Chris Wise of the Hi-Lites, a North County--based ska band. "Anytime you have more than five members, it's hard to get people to practice. And …

Iraqi-American rapper Timz is riding the anti-Bush wave with "Iraq," the first single off his new CD Open for Business. At this writing, the song is the number four most-added track on CMJ's College Pop …

Josh Steely played guitar for 13 years in Sandjacket, a Carlsbad trio. His last show with the band was in September at the 49-capacity Mas Fina Cantina. Now with a new band, Steely jokes that …

"Ah, NME and their hyperbole..." says a not ungrateful Kristian Dunn, bassist in the SoftLightes. The San Diego band (formerly known as the Incredible Moses Leroy) was reviewed in England's New Musical Express for their …

When Ludacris appears at the Z-90 Jingle Jam at ipayOne Center on Saturday, December 2, "at no time shall Ludacris be without his assigned ground transportation and driver." His dressing room requirements include a large-screen …

Denomination: Church of Christ Address: 5150 Jackson Drive, La Mesa, 619-465-5157 Founded locally: 1941; in current location since 1962 Senior pastor: Jim Hinton Congregation size: 150--175 Staff size: 3 Sunday school enrollment: about 80 Annual …

The U.S. Grant Hotel, under new ownership by the Sycuan Band of the Kumeyaay Nation, has finally reopened after its $52 million renovation, and it's looking magnificent. The lobby is bright and dramatic, with multicolored …

No one is more insufferable than he who lacks basic courtesy. -- Bryant H. McGill People are bothering me. I realize their antagonisms are unintentional for the most part but, nevertheless, I continue to be …

I had a laid back, uneventful summer. No big vacations or any of that, just a nice time around San Diego. I enjoyed this, although a little change of pace might have been nice. Activity-wise, …

Title: Scoobie Davis Online Address: http://scoobiedavis.blogspot.com Author: Scoobie Davis Blogging from: College Area Blogging since: February 2002 Post Date: October 31, 2006 Post Title: The Jack T. Chick Documentary [Editor's note: Jack Chick publishes tracts …

For as long as I can remember, Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners have been identical: the oven-roasted turkey in the center of the table, surrounded by mashed potatoes, creamed onions, cranberries, and Mom's yams topped with …

Does the wilderness call your name? I often hear my name. Today I am answering the call and feeling fortunate to be looking at a packed safari vehicle with open air seats and a canvas …

'Two women skaters got on a roller derby chat line and were fighting back and forth," says Dan Ferrari, owner of American Roller Skating Derby. "One was saying she was the queen of roller derby, …

'Rockaltcountryindiepopcatchycore" is the word singer/guitarist Adam Gimbel has coined to describe the music of Rookie Card. "I'd rather be unfocused than play the same song ten times in a row," he says. Despite their name, …

I think there's this kind of Puritan streak in wine writing.

I'm flipping back and forth between the Boise/Nevada game on ESPN2 and San Diego State's self-immolation in Albuquerque, which, thankfully, is only available on radio. Still, it feels like an unnatural act of media consumption, …

“Any arguments about the French roll being French?”

When I went to see the Zombies at the Belly Up Tavern, I hadn't planned on crashing a party there. But when I saw that a section of the venue was set up for a …

Heymatt: I went to a show recently, and the club had this device to check my ID. They swiped my driver's license, and my age and name were displayed. I told them I didn't want …

The Great La Costa Bumper Car Mystery Solved The research elves are out in the solarium toweling off from this marathon caper. They're beat. Grandma Alice is making a batch of Gatorade-tofu-Red Bull smoothies to …

My friend Adrian and I approached the darkened North Park apartment, and I sensed something wrong. It was and is my own apartment, one I share with my 28-year-old son, Geoffrey. The hour was early, …

My dad still calls a refrigerator an "icebox." He got it from his dad, who got it from his dad. You see , Great Granddad Olivieri delivered ice in a horse and buggy through the …

The transition between youthful cynicism and the attitude "What's to be grateful for?" was characterized by "Things could be worse" in my late 30s, when I couldn't avoid flat-out gratitude for surviving lymph cancer. Actually, …

This is a type of science fiction generally restricted to the printed page.

Life Is Meals: A Food Lover's Book of Days FROM THE DUST JACKET: "The meal is the emblem of civilization," the Salters observe. "What would one know of life as it should be lived, or …

Thirty Years Ago From the window by my desk I can see a sign advertising an auto dealership. I can also see it from the bedroom window, the kitchen window, and the rear balcony. To …

Despite all you read, San Diego is not eating humble pie. It's swilling korn likker. Last week, shortly after the Securities and Exchange Commission slapped the City with one of the most biting sanctions ever …

San Diego city water staffers have long been pushing the idea of "toilet-to-tap" water treatment, a controversial plan to convert raw sewage into drinking water using a high-tech filtering system. The program has never gotten …

Reeve Oliver's first major-label album was set for a January release, but a spokesman for band manager Dan Field says Capitol Records will now release the self-titled CD "in early summer." Capitol Records publicist Ambrosia …

Marcos Curiel, former guitarist for Chula Vista--based P.O.D., was asked to leave the Christian rap-core band in 2003. Fans bought four million copies of the first two P.O.D. albums on Atlantic (The Fundamental Elements of …

"There's no big breakup story," says singer Brandon Welchez of the soon-to-disband Plot to Blow Up the Eiffel Tower. "We're all still friends and still doing various band projects together." Recalling offbeat tour experiences, Welchez …

"It's Not Easy Being a Chick Rocker," says VV Loveland of Scary Mary. "One time at Scolari's, this guy shows me his penis while I'm onstage. He was drunk and dancing and jiggling it around …

Two weeks ago, San Diego mayor Jerry Sanders got what amounted to a public spanking from the Union-Tribune, which ran a front-page story recounting how Sanders PR minion Fred Sainz and his assistants regularly heap …

After 18 years of effort by the Fallbrook Land Conservancy, nearly a dozen small- to medium-sized parcels of property around Fallbrook have been set aside as public open space and wildlife habitat. Just north of …

One of Mayor Jerry Sanders's most faithful supporters has been Pauline Foster, widow of clothing magnate and South Bay real estate whiz Stan Foster. Ever since Sanders started running for mayor back in May 2005, …

Wikipedia defines screamo as being "...a musical genre which evolved from emo, post-hardcore, more specifically hardcore emo in the early 1990s. Characteristic of the genre are hardcore screaming vocals and harmonized guitars.... In California in …

Kyle Ponterio says he is one of about 30 professional marimba players in San Diego and the only player in a local rock band. "I was teaching percussion at a local school," says the classically …

"You should have been here last night," said Rabbi Scott Meltzer to me before the service. Last night, the Shabbat Kehilati Service & Dinner had started at 6:15 and lasted until 10 p.m. Still, the …

Past the age of four, Halloween is no longer an excuse for your mom to slap a ridiculous Tigger outfit on you and parade you around the neighborhood like a show pony. In elementary school, …

I love you not because of who you are, but because of who I am when I am with you. -- Roy Croft David is leaving me. I've seen this coming for months now -- …

Galileo 101, like all heavenly bodies, is ever in transit -- and has been since it first entered our solar system. When new, it offered "avant-garde Italian" food that has gradually evolved into adventurous Euro-Cal …

Sure seems Carlsbad is voting with its feet.

Sucks that the mix CD is going to disappear, much like the mix tape it killed before. The iPod giveth, and the iPod taketh away. Listen, it was probably the ultimate in easy "get to …

This week, I have to reckon with Gladys. Three of my dearest friends and I are gathering for a Christmas party at Chez Kelly, and the e-mails have been flying fast and furious as we …

Dear Matthew Alice: While wandering through department stores this weekend, I saw hundreds of ugly articles of clothing on sale that no one would ever buy at any price, no matter how low. With all …

While North Park's boundary lines are debated, its hub is the intersection of University Avenue and 30th Street, which is where its story begins. Just northeast of Balboa Park, North Park is an epicenter of …

It's late August, seven o'clock in the morning. I am standing on the bank of the Thamalakane River, ten kilometers upstream from Maun, waiting for my captain to pick me up in a ten-foot punt. …

"The Kumeyaay were seasonally migratory people who followed food," says Linda Hawley, volunteer trail guide for Mission Trails Regional Park. "They would summer in Point Loma for the fish and abalone, which were plentiful then, …

'I'm just trying to keep real punk alive and keep rock and roll dangerous," says Tim Raldo. "I'm doing shit a lot of people wish they had the balls to do. I've cut myself onstage, …

'I smell red fruit - red plums, red cherries, a little cranberry.'

Of the 50 or so Halloween parties I was invited to, I attended five. The fourth was at a house in Clairemont, and it was packed. Most of the people there were not in costume. …

I am acquainted with a big-city newspaper columnist who, every Thanksgiving, announces that many readers have written and e-mailed asking for his adorable, heart-tugging Thanksgiving column...the one he wrote in 1988, the one he replays …

About a minute and a half after last week's Reader hit the streets, the Alice offices were blitzed with bumper car e-mails, including confirmations of sightings: I followed one down Gopher Canyon. It was going …

Dear Matthew Alice: I've often wondered, would it be economically feasible to build an exercise machine that could generate electricity? It seems to me that if all the Exercycles, treadmills, elliptical machines, etc., at our …

Anya Marina keeps busy. Weekdays (9 a.m. to 2 p.m.), she's a DJ on 94.9 FM.; on weekends she's performing at venues from San Diego and Los Angeles to Portland. She once went to Hollywood …

"You girls ready?"I raise my head from my pillow. I am shoulder deep in industrial-grade bedding, trying to pull the last dregs from an uneasy, however jet-lagged, sleep. Light pours through my window, slicing through …

Allow me to list the many ways for which we thank the deity (or agnostics thank "goodness," a safe but pointless exercise, pretty much like being agnostic in the first place), or don't allow me …

Oh, Britney. If you weren't such a skank you might have a chance with me now that you're single. But, you are. A stupid skank, I mean. I've seen you on TV. Your hair looks …

The new Bond is not just another pretty face, in fact is a pretty craggy face.

Water for Elephants: A Novel FROM THE DUST JACKET: Ninety-three year old Jacob Jankowski remembers himself tossed by fate onto a rickety train that is the home to the Benzini Brothers circus in the early …

This year, Green Day's "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" won the Song of the Year Grammy, which may have helped push sales of their 2004 album American Idiot over the five-million mark. The song also paid …

"In the midst of setting up our equipment, [bassist] Travis [Du Bois] was being escorted outside by a campus police officer," says Suffer the Heat singer Brandon Barclay of the band's Halloween gig at MiraCosta …

Thirty Years Ago Joe Gordon, a cook at the Black Angus, is one of the customers who bought a Muntz on credit from Webb. Gordon, who lives alone, has had his giant screen for nine …

"I Hate the Government," says Aaron Ballenger, singer/guitarist with Buddah Grinder. Ballenger worked at the OBD (Ocean Beach Dispensary) until July 6, when it was raided for dispensing medical marijuana. "I'm 21 years old, and …

After becoming one of three finalists in MySpace's "Stomp the Yard" music contest, local rapper Kevin "Juice" Orange has been disqualified. "The contest rules stated, 'The song must be composed, written, and performed solely by …

Bassist Rob "Noxious" Durham of the Shitgiveits had a heart attack November 4. "His aorta blew out and collapsed all his arteries," reads a post on the band's webpage. "He went under a ten hour …

Four-time San Diego Music Award winner Earl Thomas started singing in a Pentecostal church while growing up in Pikeville, Tennessee. "They spoke in tongues and rolled on the floor," says Thomas. "We didn't handle snakes, …

Easy trail hiking, then moderate boulder hopping, and finally some strenuous, knee-deep wading will take you deep into the sublime hideaway of the Royal Gorge, a narrow, rock-walled section of the Arroyo Seco canyon that …

"In atmosphere of love divine/ We live and move and breathe/ Though mortal eyes may see it not/ 'Tis sense that would deceive./ The mortal sense we must destroy/ If we would bring to light/ …

A good scare is worth more to a man than good advice. -- Edgar Watson Howe Changing my position from right to left was a snap decision, made in the half-second between the second and …

Title: Dan Melson's San Diego Real Estate and Mortgage Website Address: www.danmelson.com Author: Dan Melson From: Rolando Blogging since: May 2006 Post Date: September 22, 2006 Post Title: Buyer's Strategy for the San Diego Housing …

My sister Meg lives in a 100-year-old drafty home in Massachusetts. Every winter she is freezing. To make matters worse, she is a string bean -- no insulation at all on her bones -- so …

Our camp the second night is more beautiful than the first. We stop midafternoon where there is a small seasonal pond in front of us. Life is all about water. Elephants, giraffe, kudu, impala, baboon, …

The election was a nasty, bitterly partisan battle pitting liberal against conservative, Republican versus Democrat, rich versus poor. The combatants screamed at each other over such issues as tax cuts for the rich and immigration. …

'You won't find [giant kelp] everywhere, for a couple of reasons," says Bruce Stewart, director of programs and exhibits for the Birch Aquarium at Scripps. "One, it needs to be in the right depth, commonly …

Greg Laswell is the latest in a string of local musicians to have a song featured on a national television show. His "High and Low" played on an October episode of CBS's crime show Without …

During the past year, about 30 transgender Tijuanenses, many of them prostitutes, left Tijuana and crossed illegally into the United States. Bypassing San Diego, they settled in Los Angeles and San Francisco. Now some of …

'If you're not here, if you're not following the format, you're sort of holding everybody up.'

The second Halloween party I went to was lame. I stayed for an hour. I was afraid that if I left sooner, people would call me and say, "Dude, you won't believe what happened right …

It's no secret that this fall's election season didn't go smoothly for San Diego Registrar of Voters Mikel Haas. First came news that some 5000 absentee ballots, ordered from controversial e-voting vendor Diebold Election Systems, …

Along for the ride on Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's VIP trade mission to Mexico last week were a gaggle of big-business types from San Diego: ex-Scripps Clinic V.P. David Gollaher, now president and CEO of California …

Human beings are hard-wired for competition, that's how we got to be the top mammal on the planet. And, I should add, whether you're keeping score by evolution or creative design, we did it in …

If it’s done right, the bubbling cheese cements the tortillas together.

Christian Graves, the new chef at J-Six, is proud to be a card-carrying Slow Foodie. If you haven't heard about it yet, "Slow Food" doesn't mean you'll have an hour's wait for your appetizers, or …

Matt: A few weeks ago, while driving along Rancho Santa Fe from San Marcos to La Costa, my wife and I encountered a number of what appeared to be street-legal, licensed bumper cars. There were …

Hey, Matt: Why "the birds and the bees"? Why not the fish and the squirrels or the rhinos and the geckos? -- Danny C., Escondido This cliché is at least a couple of hundred years …

Groucho Marx in A Night at the Opera: Do they allow tipping on the boat? Steward: Oh, yes sir! Groucho: Have you got two fives?Steward: Yes, sir. Groucho: Well then, you won't need the ten …

What really puts the God in TGIF? Crappy jobs, of course. The Lowardaah...works in the shadow of sufferngaah...and the kingdom and the glory that is Far-Ry-Dayaah...would verily be cast down among those weepingaah and them …

It's Halloween night, and I live in a residential area. I'm sitting here in the dark. I can hear the little bastards outside, clamoring for candy. I've got a party to attend, and while I …

Has his sexism perhaps crossed over from fiction into reality?

Singer/guitarist Allen Camp says Misguided Children "spent a lot of time in a van eating peanut butter" in the late '80s, early '90s. The high point for his hardcore punk band was when Eddie Vedder …

"Kids spend a lot of time listening to the radio and DJs are considered role models, so it's a major issue when DJs flat-out promote marijuana use," says Dannah Hosford of the Youth Advocacy Coalition. …

Five years ago, Camp Pendleton "E" clubs (the E stands for enlisted) hosted civilian bands for the entertainment of U.S. Marines. The manager of one of those clubs, Tracer's, would book three punk bands on …

After four decades and 20 albums, Tom Waits, a 1968 graduate of Chula Vista's Hilltop High, is arguably the most substantial music figure to emerge from the San Diego area. Ever since the Eagles made …

"Some people tell me, 'No way I'm hanging out in a fag bar to see a punk rock show,' " says Davit Buck of the Homeless Sexuals, who appear at Hillcrest's Brass Rail tonight. "I …

The FCC ruled last week that KSDS/"Jazz 88" can increase its signal from 3,000 to 22,000 watts of power. KSDS general manager Mark DeBoskey says that by March his straight-ahead jazz station will be heard …

When Aerosmith appears at Coors Amphitheatre tonight, "under no circumstances will the purchase of alcoholic beverages be allowed as a show expense." They want the hospitality room stocked with chicken tikka pieces with yogurt and …

American Vulgar: The Politics of Manipulation Versus the Culture of Awareness WHAT THE PUBLISHER SAYS: Robert Grudin is what might be called a lyrical philosopher. From Time and the Art of Living (1982) to The …

Thirty Years Ago PERSONS WITH very large or very small heads needed for alpha wave study. Contact Basic Science Building, 3045, UCSD, La Jolla, 92093. State name, phone, head size. WERE YOU IN the Mayfair …

Anza-Borrego's Cougar Canyon is a place where new worlds open up at every turn. There are more gorgeous sights to see along a half-mile of this canyon than in a full day's hiking in most …

“No questions. No sermons. Always spaghetti and meatballs.”

It wasn't so much the 22 candles being lit for the High Mass celebrating All Saints' Day at All Saints' Episcopal Church; it was the guys lighting them: two strapping young Polynesians in floor-length black …

I have no recollection of the following incident, but my mom enjoys telling me about it often: When I was about two years old, my mother's African American friend Larry came into town to visit. …

As more of us work longer hours, increasing numbers of restaurants are ready to rescue us from our T-Day time-crunch by serving Thanksgiving Day dinner, either to eat-in or take home. To snag a table, …

There is always one moment in childhood when the door opens and lets the future in. -- Deepak Chopra Five bucks an hour was big money. It was couples' Bunco night -- I stood to …

"Oh, and pumpkin pie is out. This year, I want chocolate. Nothing but chocolate." Uncle Max is at it again, ruffling feathers throughout the Kelly family chicken coop. He does love to see the older …

Maun is in the north of Botswana and is the capital of Ngamiland. The last 500 kilometers of tarred road arrived in the early 1990s. It has a reputation of a frontier town and a …

In 2003 and 2004, as Helen Copley lay gravely ill, Copley Press hired the Washington, D.C., firm of Capitol Tax Partners to lobby for lower estate taxes. According to U.S. Senate disclosure records, the newspaper …

For two years, the stock of retailer Petco Animal Supplies has been a dog because management has been screwing the pooch. Since 2000, it has piled up debt so insiders could make fat and fast …

Every election season, my father sinks a wire-framed campaign sign into the strip of grass between his sidewalk and the street. Every election season, an unseen enemy steals it. Dad replaces the sign. The enemy …

Reno wrote his newest song, “I Still Love You, Pluto,” with his six-year-old daughter Mandy.

'When I listen to music, I pray about it and ask the Lord, 'Is this something You want me to do? Give me the steps to go along with it,'" says Steve Beard, director of …

The Saturday before Halloween, I had over 50 party invitations. Folks in Murrieta said they'd prepare a guest room for me. Another invite enticed me with strippers on stripper poles. I chose five parties to …

'The trick is to get the wines before they're trophies.'

Spot quiz. How many of the following names do you recognize? Suzy Kolber, Michele Tafoya, Andrea Kramer, Lisa Guerrero, Armen Keteyian, Colleen Dominguez, Jill Arrington, and Jeanne Zelasko. If you said "zero," you're a normal, …

Hey Matt: Why does it seem that my left nostril churns out more products (boogers) than my right? I know that people can be left or right handed, and some people are right-/left-eye dominant. Is …

Hey Matt: I got to do something to postpone my least favorite chore: mowing the damn lawn. And weeding, trimming, watering. And everything else that has to do with all that miserable vegetation around my …

Sikhs don’t engage in door-to-door pamphleteering and they don’t broadcast television or radio commercials promoting their faith.

As I Lay Dying just left for a three-week tour of Germany. Longtime bassist Clint Norris, who lives in Encinitas, stayed behind and is working at Guitar Center in San Marcos. He didn't care to …

Green milk curdled: ash and smoke dumplings in ham and pea soup. Cigar and pipe smoke wafted against white fluorescence, hovered like the slow and fat flies near the entrance to the Tijuana coroner's office …

San Diego's largest concert venue, the 20,000-capacity outdoor Coors Amphitheatre, has not had a good year; 84,450 tickets were sold during the first nine months of 2006, making it the 51st-most-used amphitheater in the country. …

During a two-year period, Amy Hall, 19, promoted metal, goth, and death-metal shows at two different church facilities. All the proceeds went to charity or directly to the church. "I still want to promote but …

One time, some friends and I detonated a Volkswagen. It was a field car. When it started having problems, my friend Danny's dad would fix it a little bit, but it was getting worse, and …

Seven years after he launched www.menwholooklikekennyrogers.com, Vista's Jaimie Muehlhausen says his website of Rogers look-alike photos still gets 1500 hits a day. "This was a big year. He had a new record, and then the …

"Tribute bands like Atomic Punks [Van Halen], Super Diamond [Neil Diamond], and Dead Man's Party [Oingo Boingo] can make upwards of $5000 for a single-set show, depending on the venue," says Zippy Twombly, front man …

"I've used portions of practically every paycheck to fund my artistic adventures," says singer/songwriter Eddie Ray, whose day job is at the Ramona Kmart. He recently started a line of T-shirts. "I took phrases my …

"We were one of the first Messianic Jewish rock bands," says David Kasdan, bassist for Netzer, which formed in 2001. "All the members are Jews who believe Jesus is the Messiah, and a lot of …

Never mind how tortuous the route to a punch line.

Beyond Chinatown: The Metropolitan Water District, Growth, and the Environment in Southern California FROM THE PUBLISHER: As urban growth outstrips water supplies, how can the global challenge of providing water be met? Mixing history and …

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 …

The name Robbers Peak commemorates the notorious outlaws Joaquin Murietta, Three Finger Jack, and others of the late 1800s. Swooping down out of the hills, these bandits terrorized farmers below and preyed upon passengers traveling …

From the second song on, the band at Calvary San Diego -- drums and guitars and pop synthesizers -- had the congregation's pulse. (They had the congregation's look as well: a mix of young and …

In the teen flick Ten Things I Hate About You, Julia Stiles's character reads off a list of the things she hates about her love interest, ranging from his haircut to his behavior. In real …

My land is bare of chattering folk; the clouds are low along the ridges, and sweet's the air with curly smoke from all my burning bridges. -- Dorothy Parker Friendships can end for any number …

It's been a while since anyone in my social circle had a visit from the stork, but friend Lisa is expecting at the end of November -- her first. She's already had one baby shower, …

In France, a common mini-scandal is the ménage à trois, a person with two lovers, sometimes under the same roof. The San Diego Chargers, secretly and lustfully eyeing the Los Angeles market, may outscandalize the …

What were they thinking? Sometime in August, Omero Suarez, chancellor of the Grossmont-Cuyamaca Community College District, and Deanna Weeks, the district's governing board president, signed a secretly altered version of the chancellor's contract. The change …

Botswana is a land-locked country in Southern Africa, famous for the big game animals that roam large fenced reserves. The population of about 1.5 million is spread around the edges of the Kalahari Desert. In …

Critics of the Union-Tribune who say that the newspaper and some of its reporters are working too closely with San Diego mayor Jerry Sanders to help advance his agenda may find ammunition in an internal …

Ex-Microsoft exec Nathan Myhrvold of Seattle isn't well known outside the rarefied confines of wealthy computer techies, though he's uttered plenty of quote-worthy statements. The creator of a Windows precursor that was snapped up by …

According to an e-mail from Lorena Gonzalez, political director for the San Diego-Imperial Counties Labor Council, the council's robo-call attacking school board candidate Michael McSweeney as a right-wing extremist and touting the reelection of nominal …

Employees at Tower Records on Sports Arena Boulevard were shocked when they heard on October 6 that the new owner, Great American Group, planned to liquidate the national music retailer and lay off its approximately …

I read the news today, oh boy. Seafood is back in the headlines. A few months ago it was bad news about mercury. Now it's good news: eating fish seems to stave off heart disease, …

'People like to say that Hotel del Coronado was the inspiration for the Emerald City, but [L. Frank Baum] wrote the first Oz book before he ever stayed there," says Ellen Jarosz, special collections librarian …

“My dream is to have a line like Las Cuatro Milpas.”

When I was a kid, I saw a Shriner wearing a fez in Kearny Mesa. It reminded me of Tom Bosley's character, "Mr. C.," on Happy Days, who would sometimes wear those fuzzy hats. (And …

'The people who spend the most are the most conscious of value.'

On the phone with Charlie Sears. We met in the late '60s, at Leroy's, then a seedy sportsbook in downtown Las Vegas. We were among the few who liked to watch the early NFL line …