Did Bin Laden's Brother Live a Secret Life in San Diego?What was Binladen, now 35, heir to a multibillion-dollar Middle Eastern fortune based on construction and Saudi oil, doing in San Diego? And why would …
September 10, 2023
Barbara Palmer helped with the indexing of much of the Reader archives. She wrote history features for the paper.
Articles by Barbara Palmer
Bin Laden brother runs tulip business from San Diego
Spreckels and the train over Carrizo Gorge, Ike and S.D. Country Club
140-Mile Mistake Ritz calls the Chinese the railroad’s “unsung heroes,” but new evidence suggests that labor problems were perhaps the major reason why the railroad took so long to be built. The route of the …
January 17, 2022
Santee's Creation Museum, the nuns behind Mercy Hospital
A Little Bit East of Eden There are also sharp disputes about Noah's Ark within the Creationist movement. Some years ago, in the ICR museum, I helped John Morris, their principal ark investigator, look for …
December 26, 2021
San Diego's madame Karen Wilkening, Metabolife's Mike Ellis and Mike Blevins
My Own True Story One morning, Hercules had left for work around 6:30 and I was still asleep, there was a knock on the door. I opened the door only about a half an inch. …
December 20, 2021
Digging up your San Diego family Who was Pio Pico? Life at the Presidio
How to Do Genealogical Research in SD “On July 1, 1769, soon after the arrival of Father Serra, burials began in consecrated ground on Presidio Hill.... Even though people began moving off Presidio Hill and …
November 22, 2021
Stingaree's red-light rules, early Horton Plaza, Lomaland
Murder in Mission Valley There was a history of immigrants to the area penning Indians up in reservations after throwing them off Mission lands. Indians tried to regain their lands, but they were often unable …
October 23, 2021
Early blacks in San Diego, African-Americans on whites, 60s black power activists
None Darker Than Me “Another fact concerning the woman that occasioned surprise yesterday was the appearance at the undertaking parlors where her dead body lies of H. Milne, a colored blacksmith who lives on K …
January 18, 2021
Race in 19th century San Diego, Marilyn Monroe in Coronado, early drive-in theaters
None Darker Than Me Racial obsession in 19th-century San Diego People of color were beginning to move into Sherman Heights and Golden Hill. There were colored Civil War veterans who lived in Golden Hill — …
October 31, 2020
A select view of San Diego history
My Highschool Days With Lester Bangs When Lester Bangs moved to Detroit to join the staff of Creem magazine, we kept in touch with letters and phone calls that came less and less often. The …
July 19, 2020