Families gather beneath Wing Howard’s whaling murals, back on display after decades behind plaster

Whaling Bar’s failings

A lot of people who loved the old Whaling Bar (“The Whale’s Return”, Golden Dreams, April 4, 2024) for its storied history and decor of dark booths, subdued lighting, and wonderful service will be sorely disappointed by this incarnation. My expectations were lowered when I read the arrogant attitude of the head of the new hospitality group tasked with reestablishing the bar, who said that there “was no point in recreating the past,” and that “they were taking it in a new direction.”

Well, strike two (the first being the utterly lame Cafe la Rue). This incarnation completely lacks any charm - there are a few booths on the north side, and the bar itself is a joke. It is broken into three sections of two seats each. Not much of a bar. The service was much worse. Our waiter told my wife to ask the bartender what kind of mocktails they had, and when he told me that they had one beer on tap I asked the logical question: what beer did it happen to be? He did not know the single beer that they had on tap, and acted generally annoyed. My wife and I and our two friends got up and left and went to have a nice meal with friendly service at Duke’s. Sad to say, but don’t bother with the Whaling Bar.

Davis J. Gammage

La Jolla

“Humans have been here, but they were Luddites, and they wouldn’t like you. You should go now.”

Forgive us our trespasses?

I just read the story (“Joe’s Place”, Feature Story, April 4, 2024) in the Reader. I’m not sure if it’s a work of fiction or not, but for a moment assuming it is a factual account, I’d just like to say this: It seems the author is particularly tone deaf as to her own actions. I was flabbergasted to read her encounter of breaking into her neighbor’s house and stealing bike seats. Dead neighbor perhaps, but the house belonged to somebody for sure. 

Then in the exact same story to read her sense of high moral outrage and feelings of being invaded and violated over the exact same action performed against her by her neighbor. Not condoning the schmuck that broke into her house, but a religious guy once said to remove the log from your eye before you go picking splinters from other people’s eyes. In this case, metaphorically speaking, we’re discussing a pair of logs however. If it’s a fictional story, and the author wrote that to promote engagement? Well then, nevermind, and well played.

Bob Twitchin’

Imperial Beach

Our next door neighbors are quite noisy. They like rap music and smoking weed and having friends and family over. But I don’t mind them, and neither does my mom.

A little love for Luna

Enjoyed the story (“All Together at the Beautiful View Apartments”, Feature Story, April 11, 2024) on crowded one bedroom apartment and how the family of five, plus Luna the cat, survived.

And how nice it is that some organization just distributes cat food! 47th and 805 was my City Council District when I served in 1965. So was first article I read. But Bella Vista was probably not built then. And the 805 was called Wabash. So nice how well everybody gets along. Luna disappears mid-way in the story, hope she is okay.

Mike Schafer

La Jolla