Dog days of Jack London and William A. Wellman
Put down the remote and pick up the Kleenex
Scott Marks 1 p.m., Feb. 21
Eleanor Widmer
Eleanor Widmer reviewed restaurants for the Reader from 1974 through 2000.
She wrote occasional feature stories, the most notable of which was "Slow Fall from Foxhill" (an interview with Michael Copley). Widmer was hitchhiking on Mt. Soledad and was picked up by Michael, James Copley's son from a previous marriage, who was suing Helen Copley, the current owner of the San Diego Union.
She also wrote a notable story about John Vietor, founder of San Diego Magazine: "Mr. Jello Will See You Now."
After Widmer died in 2005, fellow Reader writer Jeannette DeWyze wrote a cover story about Widmer titled The Late Long-time Queen of Cafe Critics.
Widmer's novel about an immigrant family, Up from Orchard Street
Articles by Eleanor Widmer
Best Reader stories from 1979
Ace Parking , San Diego Zoo, OMBAC, Burlingame, Carl Rogers, Hare Krishnas, Colorado River at Easter, local pelicans and DDT, Salton Sea, Maureen O'Connor, gringos who play for TJ's Potros
Park there, pay here On the afternoon of the All-Star baseball game in July, Evan Jones was standing on top of one of those pedestrian towers that corkscrew up the side of San Diego Stadium. ...
Best Reader stories from 1978
Camp Pendleton, kelp, Mike Stamm, Morey boogie boards, Michael Copley, Chris O'Rourke, bottom scratchers, Jacumba
From Spanish rancho to hard-core Marines In 1942, the Ninth Marine Division marched in and took over what had been the Santa Margarita y Las Flores Ranch. The Second World War had begun and the ...
Eleanor Widmer and the Reader
Willie Shoemaker, Carl Rogers, John Vietor, Michael Copley, Tropic of Cancer
Eleanor Widmer reviewed restaurants for the Reader from 1974 through 2000. She wrote occasional feature stories, the most notable of which was "Slow Fall from Foxhill" (an interview with Michael Copley). Widmer was hitchhiking on ...
Pot smuggler's accident, Belmont Park, Willie Shoemaker, prostitution after Stingaree, truth serum, a family's letters
Stories hidden in the back pages of the Reader
The Zipper – near death at the Del Mar Fair The Zipper was a new wrinkle on the midway: this big, gleaming apparatus that looked like a gigantic fan belt, with body-hugging cages attached along ...
Reader writers tell funny stories about dead colleague, Steve Esmedina
Blubbo's world
Esmo’s phone manner was so hugger-mugger that I could be sitting four feet away and could not make out a single word. For all I could tell, he might have been laying fifty on a pony.
Student Steve
He stood in the back of my class and followed me around UCSD campus.
During the early ’70s, the war in Vietnam created upheaval at universities across the country. ucsd, where I taught, was no exception. Dissenters organized rallies in Revelle Plaza, committees of students met with deans to ...
29 Reader writers on their fathers
Daddy
To commemorate Father's Day, this issue contains a collection of reflections from Reader writers about their fathers: The Last Tag Sale — Jeanne Schinto An Air of Exoticism — Duncan Shepherd Kinder Than I Would ...
The Man Who Loved to Dress Women
He consigned my clothes to the flames.
“Never put a rat on your back.” I was five years old, hurtling through the subway station in New York, on the way to the garment district with my father when he gave me my ...
Willie Shoemaker at Del Mar, strong in wheelchair
Reader reporter brings him chopped liver sandwich and cries
It’s Friday morning, August 19. Although I’m dressed in a Chanel-style blue-and-white suit, I’m not wearing an apron as I heap two inches of chopped liver on fresh egg bread. The sandwich is for Bill ...
