Winter Solstice, the moment when the sun reaches its southernmost point on the celestial sphere, occurs this year at 2:02 a.m., Monday, December 21. This event signals the beginning of winter in the Northern Hemisphere …
December 14, 2020
Latest News & Stories
San Diego's darkest nights, clearest air
Tijuana's wax museum, cheap Chinese motorcycles, Luis Urrea on both sides of border
Lifelike Tijuana "This is Tia Juana," Parra says, "the founder of the city. The historical society of Baja doesn't want to certify it. They say she was a legend." The other legendary figure is Juan …
December 14, 2020
San Diego by the alphabet, letters from Jim Jones victims, local criminals who lift weights
ABCs of SD AIRPORT Drive the 5 from downtown and — boom! — just overhead, an aircraft with a bloated belly screams. Wheels down, tilting for landing, 50 yards between plane and road. Or how …
December 13, 2020
Nick Mason just released the best Pink Floyd solo album you never heard
When I first bought my tickets to see Nick Mason’s Saucerful of Secrets last year, I admit my expectations were low. I’ve seen Pink Floyd’s 75 year-old drummer in his prime, first on opening night …
December 12, 2020
Why to write Christmas letters, Catholic newlywed confesses, Truman Capote
Christmas Letters The letters sent during her children's early years offered tales of Bud's rise through academia, each new pregnancy, larger home, additions to those homes, children's grade-school successes, vacations. When the boys began to …
December 12, 2020
When you can't stop eating Fredcel Lumpia
Nobody’s out to bad-mouth underperforming restaurants during a pandemic, shutdown or otherwise, so I’m not here to name names. But I will say that we took the family out to try out a new to …
December 11, 2020
USS Bonhomme Richard to be repurposed as dive-in museum of recent Naval history
“People love visiting the Midway Museum, and why not?” asks Navy spokeswab James Portside. “It rightly celebrates our Navy’s great achievements. But as the recent burning of the Bonhomme Richard makes clear, our recent past …
December 11, 2020
The best of Mae West
This week we go West, Mae West, for a pair of saucy comedies: one’s pre-code, the other isn’t. She Done Him Wrong (1933) Across town at 20th Century Fox, it was child superstar Shirley Temple …
December 11, 2020
Confirmed report of Mayor Faulconer eating solitary Thanksgiving meal propels him to front-runner status for California governor
“Honestly, it started as a joke,” says Mayor Faulconer of his solitary, microwaved repast on Thanksgiving day. “After Governor Newsom went to that big party at the French Laundry, then fudged about it being an …
December 11, 2020
Bishop McElroy stresses need for cooperation with Catholic president-elect, despite differences
The Catholic Church teaches that abortion is “gravely contrary to the moral law,” that formal cooperation in an abortion results in excommunication, and that “the law must provide appropriate penal sanctions for every deliberate violation …
December 11, 2020
Mongaku: strident defender of Esoteric Shingon Buddhism
Mongaku Needless to say, Buddhism, like other religions, helps to extirpate evil and to bring good fortune. Throughout its history in three countries, there are records of answers to prayer and of benefits received. If …
December 11, 2020
Barbara Guest: New York School of poetry member and Hilda Doolittle biographer
The Past The form of the poem subsided, it enters another poem. A witness was found for the markings inscribed upside-down. It might have been a celebration, so strong the presence of the poem. The …
December 10, 2020
Señor Snoop Dogg
Ven aquí, ay, mami /Holla at me. So begins Snoop Dogg’s verse in “Qué Maldición,” a banda-rap meld that Banda MS and the Long Beach rapper dropped in May. “Snoop Dogg loves corridos, güey, especially …
December 10, 2020
Burgers Bait and Beer: Eat the Kraken!
“Let’s go fishing! I’m at the South Embarcadero. You can rent poles for $5 and buy bait and eat hot dogs and watch Huey sink into the West, all at the same time!” “Where are …
December 10, 2020
Was Mank shanked?
No matter how lofty one’s stature as an artist or how impeccable one’s list of accomplishments, there will always be someone out there sporting a pair of steel-toed loafers for the soul (and sole) purpose …
December 10, 2020