Quality Social bartender Noelle Phares is fast. The Chico native holds regional high school records in the 300- and 100-meter hurdles. That speed translates into something sweet to see and refreshing to taste whenever Phares …

TAKING A LONG WALK OFF A SHORT PIER, POINT LOMA — It wasn’t supposed to go down like this. When San Diego’s High Tech High International was named as one of six candidates nationwide to …

During the first week of May, the U.S. Postal Service delivered notices informing La Mesa residents that the retail portion of the La Mesa Carrier Annex at 6055 Lake Murray Boulevard was “being considered for …

6:29 p.m., May 11 — A fire is currently consuming the Peace Pies building and Terra Rhythm Bike shop in Ocean Beach. I saw smoke billowing out the back of Terra, and I called 911. …

Bernard Delacruz Poet-Scientist The West Wing was my favorite TV show at the time and remains a favorite. I can pop in any DVD and know I am going to watch a quality TV episode. …

Watching the Manny Pacquiao/Shane Mosley fight on Showtime. Venue is the MGM Grand in Vegas. The camera pans the crowd and then there’s an outdoor shot of the strip. This always gets me. I lived …

It’s not the windy city, the motor city, least of all the center city. It’s not Linda Vista, City Heights, or Convoy Street. It’s La Jolla, right? So the chic, newish Thai restaurant that’s been …

“I’m not gonna kick somebody out because they’re selling something other than punk,” says Josh Barnes, “but that’s kind of it,” he says about the Shakedown’s punk-record swap meets. “But punk,” he says, “covers a …

"Please send some more tourists. The last ones were delicious.” This motto is on an Aussie license plate, one of their crocodiles smiling out from it. Shane is up on a stepladder, screwing in another …

Hey: Why are underwear and pants always referred to as a pair? Yes, there are two pant legs, but a shirt has two sleeves and nobody calls it a pair of shirts. — Apparelly Challenged, …

"But this really is Cailles en Sarcophage!” — General Lorens Lowenhielm, Babette’s Feast The general is shocked when he says this. He is shocked because he has just finished describing a dish he once enjoyed …

Everything Must Go As authors go, Raymond Carver is not a golden boy of Hollywood — more a precious gem popping up here and there in the work of directors with a particular itch to …

Multitasking arises out of distraction itself. — Marilyn vos Savant I tried my best to tune her out, though I knew my efforts were futile — my sister’s voice screeches skyward every time she’s on …

Having held residency at the late Radio Room, the Flame, and Tijuana’s La Mezcalera, Club Purple recently put on their first night at Bodega Aragon a few blocks from the heart of Tijuana’s happening Sixth …

Mission Trails Regional Park’s 1291-foot-high South Fortuna Mountain is one of several summits of similar stature stretching from Cowles Mountain in the south to North Fortuna Mountain in the north. It’s easy to understand why …

In honor of her late brother Michael “Stimy” Steinman, Jennifer Oliveira of Rancho Peñasquitos organized a donation fund that will provide scholarships for five students aged 8–15 to spend a week at DayJams, a rock-and-roll …

A personal tragedy suffered by Celia Brewer, assistant port attorney for the Port of San Diego, has prompted the state’s Fair Political Practices Commission to conduct a review of whether public officials should be required …

With the price of gas the way it is, maybe a little uranium in the drinking water isn’t such a bad thing. Such is the situation facing residents of Campo Hills, a rustic community about …

Thursday 12 “The fate of the world is safe in Crystal Castles,” so says “Alice Practice,” the accidental mic-check track that went viral and made Ethan Kath and Alice Glass of Canadian electro duo Crystal …

"Root, root, root for the home team.” It’s a tuneful ditty to sing during the seventh inning stretch, but it won’t help Padres fans. They should really sing, “Pray, pray, pray for the umpires to …

Peter Corona, a veteran superintendent of numerous school districts in California, was born in 1928 in San Diego’s “Italian Colony,” as Little Italy was first known. He grew up during the Depression and World War …

“The City of Escondido had their concerns, but I got verbal blessing from the city council and we’ll start with live music as soon as we finish work on the building,” says promoter Joe Troutman, …

Belongs In The Senior Lounge Re Moss Gropen’s article on wandering oils (“The Case of the Wandering Oils,” “City Lights,” May 5). Where the painting of senior citizens belongs is in the senior lounge in …

Last week, the California Public Utilities Commission approved the plan for an underground pedestrian tunnel at the western end of Santa Fe Drive at San Elijo Avenue/Vulcan Avenue. The $4.5 million project would allow foot …

Membership: 125 Pastor: Mark McElwee Age: 51 Born: Groton, Conn. Formation: Southwest Bible College, Gainesville, Ga.; Logos International Bible College, England; Vision International Education Network, Ramona. Years Ordained: 12 years San Diego Reader: How long …

Last week, I was putting together a playlist of post-’60s psychedelic songs from the likes of Apples in Stereo, Kelley Stoltz, Young Prisms, and the Lumerians. I wanted droning, distorted organ sounds, primitive drums and …

Are the majority of country-western songs built on heartache and misery? “I would say it drives a lot of the genre, for sure,” says Bob Ryan. “Just like blues. A lot of times you get …

The atrium at the Museum of Photographic Arts offers an essay on what we thought we were as a people during the ’50s and ’60s. Constellated images by several photographers tell us that, before anything …

It all started in Mission Beach, where so many of us got stuck back in the Roaring ’90s. The place sucked us in like the rip current; and now, 20 years and a million beers …

The rope is purple. It stretches long and low between two palm trees, two of many that line the grassy portion of La Jolla Shores. It is attached to said trees — their trunks carefully …

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. I love thee to the depth and breadth and height My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight For the ends of Being and …

This must certainly be the first time that the closing of a branch of some corporate empire affected me with a kind of disappointment bordering on sadness. Many bookstores have closed, independent enterprises that have …

So vast, our Goddess Night, she rises, Star-eyes gazing everywhere; All her finery of dress displayed. Space high and low she fills, Eternal Night, Her beauty driving out the dark. Close on the heels of …

Thirty-Five Years Ago “I’ve always wanted to be a judge,” confided attorney Ronald Mayo. “So I sent the governor a letter listing my qualifications and waited for the announcement of my appointment to the bench. …

The chinaberry tree and rock roses are in full bloom. The spring breeze carries the aroma of sage and honeysuckle. Orange-and-yellow western tanagers fly through the yard daily. Spring is in the air, summer on …