Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Letters: Porridge-pourri

Porridge Request

Re “Graveyard of the Godforsaken Gringos,” September 26 cover story. This Bukowskiesque opus is the most evocative writing the Reader has published in decades. More porridge, please.

  • Sue Garson
  • Clairemont

Kid of War

I’d like to make a small correction to page 20 of Mr. T.B. Beaudeau’s cover article, “Graveyard of the Godforsaken Gringos,” in the September 26 Reader. He mentions a ditty from his childhood, “Whistle while you work, Hitler is a jerk...” He calls it a “bit of musical doggerel from the post-war era.” That’s wrong.

Sponsored
Sponsored

I lived in the wartime era. I was 9 years old when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor and that ditty was around even before then, starting in 1938, 1939 thereabouts, whenever Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs movie came out. The dwarves had this little song, “Whistle while you work, hum a merry tune...”

So, then, what we had was “Whistle while you work, Hitler is a jerk, Mussolini eats his wienie, whistle while you work.” We were pretty innocent kids and we didn’t quite get the meaning there. It probably implied that Mussolini was performing fellatio on Hitler, but we didn’t quite understand it. All we knew was that a wienie was a hot dog, and that it rhymed with Mussolini.

Anyway, that’s the way it went and it was that way from around 1939 all the way through the end of the war in 1945. I don’t know where Beaudeau gets off calling it post-war doggerel. It was definitely a wartime ditty. If he’s that old, maybe his memory is starting to go bad. Who knows?

  • Name Withheld
  • via voicemail

Gifting Public Land

Regarding the September 19 cover story, “Did Sunroad Pay to Play?” Am I to understand that the City Council could just vote to make a gift of public land to Sunroad rather than sell them the city land they needed for setbacks?

Was the lane of C Street by City Hall that goes into C. Arnold Smith’s hotel a gift too? How about the land where Sixth Avenue joined Washington Street to University Avenue before the theater-medical-shopping mall was built in Hillcrest?

I get that the city has an increased tax base from development, but why doesn’t the developer have to buy the land from the city?

  • Name Withheld
  • Mission Hills

The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

When Rafael Payare met with Irwin Jacobs

The new Music Center is a heavenly hall
Next Article

Air toxins plague Escondido, Imperial Beach, Chula Vista, Tijuana

"The smell has improved since Mexico turned their pumps on"

Porridge Request

Re “Graveyard of the Godforsaken Gringos,” September 26 cover story. This Bukowskiesque opus is the most evocative writing the Reader has published in decades. More porridge, please.

  • Sue Garson
  • Clairemont

Kid of War

I’d like to make a small correction to page 20 of Mr. T.B. Beaudeau’s cover article, “Graveyard of the Godforsaken Gringos,” in the September 26 Reader. He mentions a ditty from his childhood, “Whistle while you work, Hitler is a jerk...” He calls it a “bit of musical doggerel from the post-war era.” That’s wrong.

Sponsored
Sponsored

I lived in the wartime era. I was 9 years old when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor and that ditty was around even before then, starting in 1938, 1939 thereabouts, whenever Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs movie came out. The dwarves had this little song, “Whistle while you work, hum a merry tune...”

So, then, what we had was “Whistle while you work, Hitler is a jerk, Mussolini eats his wienie, whistle while you work.” We were pretty innocent kids and we didn’t quite get the meaning there. It probably implied that Mussolini was performing fellatio on Hitler, but we didn’t quite understand it. All we knew was that a wienie was a hot dog, and that it rhymed with Mussolini.

Anyway, that’s the way it went and it was that way from around 1939 all the way through the end of the war in 1945. I don’t know where Beaudeau gets off calling it post-war doggerel. It was definitely a wartime ditty. If he’s that old, maybe his memory is starting to go bad. Who knows?

  • Name Withheld
  • via voicemail

Gifting Public Land

Regarding the September 19 cover story, “Did Sunroad Pay to Play?” Am I to understand that the City Council could just vote to make a gift of public land to Sunroad rather than sell them the city land they needed for setbacks?

Was the lane of C Street by City Hall that goes into C. Arnold Smith’s hotel a gift too? How about the land where Sixth Avenue joined Washington Street to University Avenue before the theater-medical-shopping mall was built in Hillcrest?

I get that the city has an increased tax base from development, but why doesn’t the developer have to buy the land from the city?

  • Name Withheld
  • Mission Hills
Comments
Sponsored

The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

The ups and downs of Cel Cerro on a bike

Best outdoors times
Next Article

Scott Peters aide gets free travel and hotel from Big Pharma

Todd Gloria sucks up money from Big Billboards
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

This Week’s Reader This Week’s Reader