Just Desserts

Thirty Years Ago
I couldn’t help but smirk when reading about the Second Annual Eleanor’s Edibles Contest. If the first prize is dinner with Eleanor Widmer (Reader food critic), then is the second prize two dinners with Ms. Widmer?
— LETTERS: “JUST DESSERTS,” Chuck Torres, La Mesa, November 22, 1978

Twenty-Five Years Ago
It is [Councilman Dick] Murphy whom developers and businessmen have talked about as a political safety valve in the event that Hedgecock’s growth-management sentiments tilt wildly out of control. Murphy — young, bright, reasonable — could always be drafted to oppose the mayor’s reelection next fall. But while development advocates lament the timing of Murphy’s defection to the Hedgecock camp, they admit that they were not utterly surprised. “He’s disappointed us for the past three years,” construction lobbyist Williams says of Murphy.
— THE INSIDE STORY, Paul Krueger, November 23, 1983

Twenty Years Ago
In the east Clairemont area near the intersection of Interstate 805 and Highway 163, Democrats hold a 45 to 43 percent edge, but Bush won by an 11 percent margin on November 8. A north Clairemont precinct near Tecolote Canyon Natural Park is split evenly between Republicans and Democrats, but 55 percent of those voters sided with Bush, just 41 percent with Dukakis. (In 1984 Ronald Reagan captured 58 percent of the vote there, while Walter Mondale won 39 percent.)
— THE INSIDE STORY, Paul Krueger, November 23, 1988

Fifteen Years Ago
After much thought, I think I’ve figured out why Depeche Mode is more beloved than other bands of its ilk (OMD, Human League, or New Order). Depeche Mode has succeeded because its core audience is black-clad boys and girls who think of themselves as alienated because they, as so many adolescents before them, have begun to doubt the precepts of Christianity. Adolescents like Depeche’s heavy, remote lyrics and the way they are set in a mechanized beat, because you know what? The world’s a really cold, cold place.
— “I’M SICK OF BEING A EURO-WEENIE,” Gina Arnold, November 24, 1993

Ten Years Ago
“For four long years,” Weberman explains at his garbology website (garbology.com), “I had been studying Dylan’s poetry, trying to crack the code of his symbolism. As I eyed the home of the reclusive poet I wondered what went down behind the door that Dylan had slammed in my face when I had tried to discuss my work with him. Just then I noticed Dylan’s shiny new steel garbage can.”

Dylan’s garbage can turned out to be a “Pandora’s can” for Weberman; ever since rifling through the reclusive singer’s garbage, he has been obsessed with refuse, with both the objects and papers people trash and with their function as cultural signifiers. And no wonder, considering that the first thing — “THE FIRST THING,” he emphasizes — that Weberman retrieved from Dylan’s garbage can was a half-finished letter Dylan had written to Johnny Cash. “At that moment,” according to this somewhat lunatic fan, “the clandestine trade craft of nongovernmental garbology was founded.”
— SIGHTSEER: “STINKY SECRETS,” Justin Wolff, November 25, 1998

Five Years Ago
But what am I really thankful for?… Number one would have to be Starbucks’ drive-thru.… In the past three years, two Starbucks drive-thrus have been built within a few miles of our home in San Marcos. Now, I can indulge my coffee Jones anytime I want.

Second thing I’m most thankful for: Costco. Oh, how I love Costco.… I buy Bisquick in boxes the size of medium-large stereo speakers.… I toss blocks of cheese as big as bricks into my giant cart.… I know people who have the Costco disease worse than I do, people who have packages of paper towels and toilet paper stacked in their garage like cord wood. That’ll be me someday.
— KID STUFF: “I LOVE HOWARD,” Anne Albright, November 26, 2003