STEPHEN ESMEDINAStephen EsmedinaA number of years ago, I was persuaded by a guileful siren with designs on the music biz to share my lowly downtown apartment for “a couple of days” with the great but …
March 5, 2026
Articles by Jackie McGrath
San Diego Reader writers tell their dream stories never written
Been to Guatay, Buckman Springs, La Posta, Live Oak Springs, Boulevard, Bankhead Springs?
Dots on the Map Bankhead Springs is wholly owned by Helen, an 87-year-old woman who purchased it m 1939 with her husband Alvan. (The place is named after Senator John Hollis Bankhead of Arizona, who …
May 16, 2021
Taggers spoil Buster’s work on California Street wall
From the start, Buster worked hard to prove that he's a graffiti artist, not some little hoodlum with a sneer on his face, paint stains on his fingers, and a can under his jean jacket. …
March 29, 1990
Reader writers: the story I wanted to write... but didn't
Sandy and a girlfriend had gone into a liquor store, robbed the clerk, They locked the clerk in a walk-in cooler. Sandy started feeling bad about the guy. She went back and let him out.
October 5, 1989
John Pugh busts out of El Cajon jail
Unless he absolutely cannot avoid them, John Pugh does not do windows. “Windows — they just ain’t cool,” he says. “You’re climbing through a window — I mean, how does that look? I don’t like …
September 7, 1989
If you want to sue Warner Springs' Cal Rossi, you'll have to wait in line
In spite of the bad blood, even Phillips’s detractors give him credit for making progress in ranch construction, jarring the property from its ghostly standstill when he went to work there in 1985.
May 4, 1989