Heavy on the Mayo

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. I guess I was naive to think things are done on the basis of merit.”

Next month the 48-year-old attorney squares off against incumbent municipal judge George G. Crawford in what promises to be one of the hardest fought battles of the primary.

— CITY LIGHTS: “HEAVY ON THE MAYO,” Paul Krueger, May 13, 1976

Thirty Years Ago

The National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA)...was signed into law by President Richard Nixon on January 1, 1970.

California led all other states that were creating “little NEPAs,” our version being the California Environmental Quality Act or CEQA.... CEQA was borrowed from NEPA, borrowing which included the Environmental Impact Report, or EIR. (The term “impact” was similarly transplanted. Though meaning the same as “effect,” “impact” is preferred, possibly because it can be both a noun and a verb.)

— “THE PAPER MOUNTAINS,” Gerry Braun, May 14, 1981

Twenty-Five Years Ago

“A Study of New Options for the San Diego Central Library” was commissioned by Home Federal Savings.... Eighty-five percent of the businesses said they didn’t use the central library on Eighth Avenue and E Street for business information; eighty-one percent said they wouldn’t use the central library for that purpose if it were located at the community concourse; and seventy-two percent said they didn’t want a new library there.

— THE INSIDE STORY, Paul Krueger, May 15, 1986

Twenty Years Ago

It’s not like I’m one of those guys who knew ever since they could think that he was “born to be a cop.” I’m not even sure why I got into it. I mean, I’ve got a list of all the standard stuff that I could rattle off: to help people, to catch bad guys, the challenge, room for advancement, the steady paycheck. They all seem superficial. Even the retired cop father figure who played a big part in raising me...too pat.

— “ADRENALIN-SPIKED BLOOD RACED THROUGH MY VEINS,” Andrew Hoffman, May 16, 1991

Fifteen Years Ago

I assume that if I leave my purse sitting on the front seat of my car when I drive, some lowlife scum at a stoplight will break my window, reach into the car, and steal the purse. I keep the purse under the front seat. I keep the doors locked. When I grocery shop...I put my diaper bag with my wallet and checkbook in the bottom of the cart. I cover the wallet with a spit rag and a Ziploc bag full or Rice Chex so no one can reach in and swipe the wallet.

— KID STUFF: “IT’S CALLED STEALING,” Anne Albright, May 16, 1996

Ten Years Ago

Phil Galloway has been a fixture at Off the Record nearly as long the bins.... “[W]e managed to pull off in-stores with Slayer, Hüsker Dü...a lot of punk groups.

Off the Record hosted Nirvana in October of 1991, at the start of their first national headline tour.

“I was in the store at 5:30 a.m., taping baby dolls and fishooks everywhere.... After the set, they hung out and signed autographs and posters for people. You could tell Kurt wasn’t into that part at all though. He wasn’t in the mood to pose for pictures...I don’t know, maybe he was coming down with something.”

— BLURT, Jay Allen Sanford, May 10, 2001

Five Years Ago

Place yourself on the high point of the San Dieguito River Park’s Piedras Pintada Interpretive Trail. Down below, where willows once swayed on the soggy banks of the river and smoke coming from cooking fires rose, a smooth sheet of water spreads wide, impounded by Lake Hodges dam a few miles to the west. Off in the distance, a muffled roar emanates from ever-wider Interstate 15, and a carpet of winding streets and homes creeps over the hills and dales of Escondido and Rancho Bernardo. Hidden above the trail, on boulder-studded slopes guarded by thickets of chaparral, the Kumeyaay pictographs slowly fade.

— ROAM-O-RAMA: Jerry Schad, May 11, 2006