Guillermo Gomez-Pena gets McArthur award

Britannica comes here to digitize, I cruise with President Reagan's son, gumshoe writers Wade and Miller, novelist Kuhlken interviews self, Tony Zampella spills beans on other queers

Author

By Jeannette DeWyze, John Brizzolara (RIP), Ken Kuhlken

Publish Date

Sept. 3, 2022

A hanged chicken swings like a censer over the supposed corpse’s chest.

Just who does he think he is?

Two San Diegans won MacArthurs in 1991, Gomez-Pena and UCSD philosopher and neuroscientist Patricia Smith Churchland, and the San Diego Union-Tribune’s initial announcement of the prizes was straightforward and neutral. But that was followed a week later by a “Currents” front-page feature quoting former associates who questioned the choice of Gomez-Pena.

By Larry Siems, June 9, 1994 Read full article

In the building across from El Torito sit five black metal bookshelves with a set of every edition ever printed.

Encyclopedia Britannica tries to catch up in La Jolla

By 1778 Britannica's report on California, along with much else, had expanded. (“The Californians are well-made and very strong,” the new essay informed readers. “They are extremely pusillanimous, inconstant, stupid, and even insensible....”)

I sail in Hawaii with Michael Reagan

Word of Wednesday’s Oklahoma City bombing has filtered onto the ship. I take a deck chair nearby, careful not to interrupt Wayne’s story. He’s apparently responding to someone who can’t understand how a U.S. citizen — a former military man at that — could commit a terrorist act, predictable enough for an Iraqi. Wayne doesn’t condone the crime but tries to make it comprehensible.

By Madeline De Frees, Oct. 26, 1995 Read full article

Robert Wade today: “I got the chance to talk to Chandler a little bit and found him very quiet and shy. He let his books speak for him.” (Craig Carlson)

A raw, wild, reckless San Diego

In 1947 competitors would have included Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler.

If comparisons are to be made Wade and Miller’s crime novels are much more like Hammett’s in their almost transparent prose that calls little attention to itself. Hammett had certainly written about drunken detectives and men who might do the amoral kinds of things Max Thursday does on occasion.

By John Brizzolara, Feb. 25, 1993 Read full article

During World War II, before he got drafted, my father was a partner in a San Diego nightclub.

Reporter Ken Kuhlken interviews novelist Ken Kuhlken

In 1974 you entered the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Did you meet any famous writers there? Sure. John Irving. Kurt Vonnegut. A lot of the people I went to school with have become damned successful. Bill Kinsella’s Shoeless Joe got made into the movie Field of Dreams. John Falsey’s the producer of Northern Exposure. Sandra Cisneros wrote Woman Hollering Creek.

By Ken Kuhlken, May 27, 1993 Read full article

Queen Eddie and Nicole Murray

Queer San Diego

Dr. Brad Truax, an avid but pragmatic Democrat, had met with then-Supervisor Susan Golding to discuss bathhouses. Golding intended to author legislation to regulate the bathhouses locally. I felt angry. I liked Golding, remembering Susan Jester’s comments about her; she was a fresh change for the Republican Party, and her intelligence overrode her opportunistic tendencies.

By Tony Zampella, April 21, 1994 Read full article