Cover Stories
KAHLEE I rock a dark hoodie when I walk these streets. A scribe with streaks, no heat. My steps discrete. Brass knuckles for these suckas with beef. I need graffiti in cities surrounding me to ...
Forty years ago, in March 1982, I wrote a Reader cover story about the brutal rape and murder of a 20-year-old college student named Michelle Wyatt in her Santee condominium. Part of that story concerned ...
The other night at dinner, the Young People asked the Old People, “How do you know when you’re an adult?” Your humble Editor’s answer: “When you realize that life is no longer play that gets ...
Twenty-year-old Alyssa Angulo did not set out to become an influencer. Neither did 22-year-old Dax Newman. And yet, social media has afforded both of them the luxury of forgoing the traditional 9-5. “It’s kind of ...
Is San Diego finally becoming more of a breakfast taco town? Nobody’s suggesting that tacos haven’t long been a part of San Diego’s balanced breakfast. They may not be what middle America would call breakfast ...
Welcome to Mission Beach, where time has stood still — sort of. Unlike Downtown, Old Town, Little Italy, and North Park, Mission Beach hasn’t been made over or “reinvented.” Drive down Mission Boulevard, which bisects ...
On the second day of the second month of the twenty-second year of the twenty-first century, a skateboarding legend and a future skateboarding legend discussed their chosen sport within earshot of a writer old enough ...
Perhaps you know that the official beer of the National Football League is Bud Light. The NBA has Michelob ULTRA. Major League Baseball’s official beer is Budweiser, but its official cerveza is Corona. And wrestling? ...
It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a music writer isn’t going to get rich plying his trade, but at least he’ll get free stuff: albums, concert tickets, swag, perhaps even the occasional backstage pass. ...
Editor’s Note: Aphorisms be damned, we judged Adam Gnade’s book by its cover, which was designed to look like something you’d find in the dollar paperback box in a used bookstore, complete with water stains ...
The long, piercing, terrible scream that echoed through the auditorium didn’t come from the movie; it emanated from somewhere in the back of the theater, and it was alive, an entity. Here, near 37th and ...
This is a story about the summer of ‘79, but it starts a year earlier, circa mid-’78. That’s when I first drove into San Diego. Within minutes of my arrival, I was almost murdered — ...
Only 19 days into 2022, I managed both to contract Omicron and have my car stolen. When I attempted to pinpoint the origin of my terrible car-ma, the only thing I could come up with ...
We’re all lawbreakers. Each of us. Every one of us. Ever go over the speed limit on the freeway? Then you broke the law. Walk your dog on the Oceanside Pier, or let your puppy ...
First Place Winner CHANGING OF THE GUARD Unexpected violence at the San Diego Zoo When people found out I worked security at the world famous San Diego Zoo, they asked: “What’s the craziest thing you’ve ...
The Reader’s editorial staff was gratified and frequently delighted by the response we got to our writing contest: 347 non-fiction stories, 31 pieces of fiction, and no less than 199 poems. It’s good to know ...