Thirty Years Ago The taste and price -- and the romance -- of kiwis have generated one of the biggest agricultural fads to strike California in years, with San Diego County moving into the forefront. [Tom] Round and his wife sank their savings into expanding their half-acre of Paradise Mountain to seven-and-a-half acres, on which they planted three acres of kiwifruit back in 1975.

Janice Weem discusses her plants. "We knew it was hard to grow, but I don't think we realized just how hard it would be to do it yourself." -- "JUICY FRUIT," Jeannette De Wyze, March 17, 1977

Twenty-Five Years Ago Newsline publisher Larry Remer last week informed his readers that "due to the exigencies of the present economy," the formerly free weekly paper will now cost twenty-five cents per copy. Those who've followed Newsline 's tortuous financial plight say Remer should have blamed the "exigencies of the real estate market," since the left-wing paper's financial angel, developer Harvey Furgatch, makes his millions building houses. -- THE INSIDE STORY, Paul Krueger, March 18, 1982

Twenty Years Ago For the last two weeks, I have had to bite my tongue as I read letters commenting on "A Deer in the Crosshairs." The letters all came from basically the same angle. "That savage murderer! How could he kill such a harmless, beautiful animal in cold blood!" Their objections are so strong for the killing of one deer, yet thousands of cattle (harmless and more sedentary than deer) are slaughtered daily to provide meat for omnivorous Americans. -- LETTERS: "MEAT FOR THOUGHT," Robert Fairfax, March 19, 1987

Fifteen Years Ago I don't know why we expanded like this. I guess I'm a damn fool and like to work and create things -- things that made the community. We had to have jobs, industry. San Diego, as a city, it wasn't like Pittsburgh and Pittsburgh Steel. In the early days, the only thing we really had here was seafood and the Navy. The rest of it had to be hustled from the outside. For instance, U.S. National Bank financed Ryan Aeronautical company. When Ryan wound up their training of aviators after the war, they didn't know what the hell to do, so they started making metal caskets. Then they bought a company called Navion that made small planes. We made a hell of a big loan to them to buy that company.

Ryan Aeronautical never would have made it except for our little bank. We started loaning to Ryan when he had nothing but a pair of pliers in his pocket. -- "MR. SAN DIEGO," C. Arnholt Smith with Neal Matthews and Linda Nevin, March 19, 1992

Ten Years Ago Three months after he cohosted a "birthday party" fundraiser for City Councilwoman Valerie Stallings's 1998 reelection campaign, veteran San Diego concert promoter Bill Silva has been given what critics are calling a sweetheart deal to produce rock shows on city-owned land in Mission Bay Park. "Bill Silva has obviously negotiated a great deal for his company," says David Swift, San Diego area manager for Avalon Attractions, the Los Angeles--based concert-promoting company that is Silva's chief rival in the local market. -- CITY LIGHTS: "WE TRY TO CREATE A HEALTHY BUSINESS CLIMATE," Thomas K. Arnold, March 13, 1997

Five Years Ago Jailed mob boss John Gotti's daughter Victoria speaks out about the Danielle Van Dam murder case in a recent column for the New York Post: "What puzzles me as a mom is how could the child's disappearance not have been discovered until the following morning. When I return home after any night out, even before I go into my own room to kick off those ankle-breaking strappy pumps I wear, I hobble into each child's room and conduct what I call a 'bed check.'" -- CITY LIGHTS: "GODMOTHER," Matt Potter, March 14, 2002