Gordon Menzie

PSA had gained a nickname that was at once endearing and mordant: PSA was the go-go-airline.

Mark Orwoll, international editor for Travel+Leisure magazine, wrote for the Reader in the 1970s and 1980s.

Editor's picks of stories Orwoll wrote for the Reader:

“Raoul was doing the Master Builder in the lead role. One night he came out, and it seemed symbolically correct to him not to speak his lines." Debbie Matthews, Raoul Marquis, Laura Rankin in Master Builder, 1978

• Raoul Marquis – mayor of India Street

• People criticize Raoul Marquis for many things They criticize him for being overbearing and authoritarian; for operating the Marquis Public Theater chiefly on government money; for taking advantage of his employees.... (December 11, 1980)

• How I committed my friend to mental health

• In the autumn of our senior year at the university, at the time of Kurt's delirium, we lived in a broad and ample house that was owned by rival gangsters.... (February 11, 1982)

He was Highlander. He was their Image Man.

Richard Armas

• Look familiar? He was the image of Highlander menswear

• Jim Crawford is drinking white wine as it happens again — recognition. It has gotten to the point where he is now used to it. and it no longer bothers him. (Sept. 18, 1980)

• A sad Mission Beach dog story

• Four young men lived together not long ago in Mission Beach. They were all unemployed and got by as best they could on their wits. Consequently, they were always on the verge of bankruptcy. (February 19, 1981)

I walked the two miles to the beach and slept on my blanket.

Photo by Robert Burroughs

• Writer spends time on street, in rescue mission, at Hare Krishna temple

• The challenge was simple: I would take only the clothes I wore, without a change. I would carry with me no money, nor anything that I might pawn. 1 would stay away from my home ... (August 7, 1980)

• PB's Surfer Motel attacked, guard killed

• The Surfer Motor Lodge is like any other tacky tourist motel in San Diego. It has tan stucco walls, a swimming pool, and redwood picnic furniture on tiny balconies of the motel’s fifty-two rooms. (February 12, 1981)

“Hey! Goddamn it!” shouts the inspector, pounding on the car’s trunk. “Wait a minute!”

Photo by Robert Burroughs

• There isn’t a tougher port to work at than San Ysidro

• There is a switchblade in that car — and a woman with a trembling left breast. The woman of the trembling breast and her three companions — two young men and another young woman ... (July 3, 1980)

• How PSA grew with San Diego

• “I have designed for [the stewardesses] pink micro-miniskirts to be worn with strawberry hot pants and red boots and they're darling." The color scheme caught on, and by November, PSA began changing the color of its airplanes. (October 30, 1980)

Gene Nooner saw the 200-pound steel hatch slam full force against his face and skull.

Photo by Jim Coit

• From one accident at NASSCO to another

• Gene Nooner's story is really very simple. He has been abused. During the past decade, Nooner was required to undergo thirty-five shock treatments he later discovered were probably unnecessary, became addicted to drugs. (March 20, 1980)

Chesapeake is one of Southern California's five biggest fishmongers

Nick Vitalich, Jr. scans the oyster-colored sky for rain. All he wants is a bit more time. Behind him is a pinewood crate attached to a cable and winch, which dangles about four feet off. (May 15, 1980)

Pastor Ken Pagaard (center, wearing tie)

• South Bay's Baptist Communes

• Pianist Kevin Cope knocks another tune out of the weathered Gulbransen upright piano, and again the group jumps into song unabashedly, with more hands held above heads and more upward-searching faces. (Jan. 17, 1980)

• Newsline's Larry Remer – like Jane Fonda at a Black Panther meeting

• Scene: A Friday afternoon business luncheon. Helen Copley, publisher of the San Diego Union and the Evening Tribune , is speaking to 150 members of the San Diego Chamber of Commerce. Time for questions. (April 3, 1980)