The Reader gets snarky

La Jolla's Bohemian rhapsody

Isn’t that a little-known Renoir sitting there coyly in a comer all by itself? An unfamiliar one to be sure. but. well, there is the poppy field, and there is the little girl in a straw boater with a sky-blue silk band ...and there is the unmistakably French woman, in bouffon sleeves and crepe de chine, holding a parasol. There is no question about it. Even the flowering grass is indisputably Renoir.

By Lawrence Osborne, Jan. 16, 1992 Read full article

An alien's adventures in Bingoland

Has he come all the way from the Soviet Union with that horrible accent to play bingo here in El Cajon? An intense maternal generosity now animates them, and they spontaneously confess that they play it at Dehesa just about every minute they have free. The flap their hands. Is he a novice? He doesn’t even realize how much fun he’s going to have out there in Dehesa.

By Lawrence Osborne, Feb. 6, 1992 Read full article

Too Carlsbad for words

Time’s a-wasting, better eat quick, soon, go to that eyesorish fake? restored? neo-Victorian uggle at Elm and Carlsbad with one, two, three flags (U.S., Canada, Calif.; no Mexico), get there so early, so quick, they have no other choice but to turn you away — no dinner till five. Twelve minutes to kill, walk, keep walking, admire the kittens, piggies and puppies in antique-store windows, ceramic mini-mammals, metal mammals — the town’s lousy with ’em.

By Richard Meltzer, July 12, 1990 Read full article

Roommates from Hell

Later that morning I called Carolee and described how I made love to her husband on her jungle-print sheets and gave her vivid details of our evening and our conversations. Rick and Carolee deserved each other. Then I made arrangements to move to California and put those two far from my life.

By various authors, June 16, 1994 Read full article

You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll wonder, what the Hell is this?

He placed flyers advertising One Night... ($7.11 per copy by mail) in several North County retail stores, restaurants, and gas stations. (Clifford weighs about 300 pounds, and under his signature on the flyers, he had typed, “Your little fat buddy.”) Last June, he publicized the book in a National Enquirer classified ad.

By Mani Mir, April 12, 1990 Read full article

Peter Navarro fights Lynn Schenk, Susan Golding, Nancy Casady

Let me first confess that throughout the campaign, I had a mole working in the Bilbray camp, and please don’t give me a hard time about that either because it’s also a standard campaign practice. In fact, when C-Span broadcast a feature on our race, we saw at least five people in Bilbray’s headquarters who, at one time or another, had successfully infiltrated our volunteer network on behalf of Bilbray.

By Peter Navarro (first of four in series), April 23, 1998 Read full article