Cover Stories
Seeking Tranquility in Bonita My father died on Christmas night 1961. The next day I went to Singing Hills Country Club and smashed balls until my arms, legs, brain, and the rest felt like bubble …
I’ve had an indifferent relationship to music, not nonexistent, but remote, like having lunch with a stepfather one meets at the age of 30. It’s always been that way. While other children at West University …
After almost 47 years and a few years of nagging by another old “Hump” pilot by the name of Art Wollgast, I will write the story down. The First Hump Walk Out to the India …
There were times during the White House years which were tough. The Secret Service caused all kinds of trouble in my life. There was a rift in the family, that was brought on by the Secret Service.
In San Diego, Mary apparently aggravated the situation by pointing out that some of the families who were complaining were darker-skinned than the stewardess. The townspeople in turn demanded Mary’s firing.
“They didn’t fix it, you can tell. It is all bravado. They’re hoping that when it happens the second time it’ll be in Tepic. If it doesn’t happen there, we’ll all be sleeping under the moon.”
Kroc got on the phone and in a very high-pitched voice he said, “Mommy, I bought us a baseball team today.” There was a long silence, but I imagine what she said to him.
I don’t know why we expanded like this. I guess I’m a damn fool and like to work and create things. We had to have jobs, industry. San Diego wasn’t like Pittsburgh and Pittsburgh Steel.
Navy SEALs have gotten a lot of good ink across the years since America first read about JFK’s maritime commandos during the Vietnam War. Esquire, for example, featured them in a 1974 story titled "Mean …
I robbed my first bank out of sheer fear. But once I walked in with my gun. the fear was gone and I knew just who I was. It started in the Encinitas drug scene, …
It was one of those days when the beach is living cloisonne. Luminous layers of smooth gold, dappled brown, and rippling indigo. San Onofre State Beach on a bright February afternoon. To the north of …
Fences surrounding construction sites are rickety, and there's always something noisy on the other side. I roll into a shadow, willing the clamor to subside. A security guard stands 20 yards away watching the girls …
It's a peculiar setup. Strangers write strangers, attempting a mating dance despite cultural barriers so fierce that very little is communicated beyond the desire to communicate. Take Ed Burden (name pseudonymous by request), airline pilot, …
When Dostoyevsky wrote The Gambler at the end of the 19th Century, the gambler was already a type. Highly strung, wild-eyed, given to unaccountable superstitions, he was the most engaging anti-hero of them all. But …
The thing is fear. Not repulsion or pity or outrage or sorrow — though they are all there — but fear. Not exactly fear of the other poor bastards in the Christ Missionaries dorm who, …
[Editor: this story is followed below by "Love and Debt," the saga of an L.A. real estate broker held in Tijuana on false charges.] "Suddenly a little six-year-old Indian girl decided to cross the road. …