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Stories by Mani Mir

Author of the novel that shook Mission Hills

Oakley Hll explains The Corpus of Joe Bailey In San Diego, Corpus of Joe Bailey also made a noteworthy entrance. The book was denounced from San Diego pulpits for being too sexy and provoked Mission …

Escondido 7-11 clerk writes on his experiences

A page or two out of Clifford Newman's book “Then these three guys come and I’m still on the phone with the dispatcher. And they’re standin’ there — with the gun and the burritos — …

January 7, 2023
La Jollan Andy Lakey's hyper real art

Hyper-real Artist Andy Lakey, you've seen him on TV. His original paintings can be found in collections including Ray Charles, President Carter, Lee Meriweather, Peter Jennings, the Vatican Art Collection, and museums throughout the world. …

August 7, 2022
Roommates from Hell, the outrageous Clifford Newman

Roommates from Hell Later that morning I called Carolee and described how I made love to her husband on her jungle-print sheets and gave her vivid details of our evening and our conversations. Rick and …

April 3, 2022
San Diego – city of shame, University Avenue, roommates from hell, writers write about moms

Roommates from Hell I walked outside to the storage door. I pushed on the door and opened it. I saw the rope around John’s neck and John’s face looking at me. I screamed and ran …

December 5, 2021
San Diego actors' worst stories, he guards Volcan Mountain, community college adjunct

Break a Leg In 1993, Hal Holbrook was performing King Lear in the title role. Tom Hall, a San Diego actor, likes to tell the story. Hal came on too soon and started a completely …

October 24, 2021
Thomas Mann's translator John Woods, St. Augustine High's principal John Aherne

Professor Horrdendo Discovers on Page 23 That I've Called an Orange a Tangerine “Then there were a couple of older gentlemen here in California, one an ophthalmologist in Santa Monica and the other a retired …

May 31, 2021
Beat Farmers, Norteno, Psychotic Waltz, Altamont with Lester Bangs

Birth of the Beat Farmers “Somewhere along in there, Herrera became partners with Jim Pagni, who brought in a lot of concerts in those days, and the Palace changed its name to JJ’s. Glory ended …

May 3, 2021
Mission Hills – don't be fooled

Book-lovers chew the fat at the Mission Hills Library His watch tells him 6:45. This Mission Hills branch stays open tonight — it’s Monday. He slaps the book closed, reshelves it, glances to his left. …

Mani Mir and the Reader

Mir was gifted writer invited to come from Berkeley to San Diego by Judith Moore. He wrote feature stories in the late 1980s and 1990s for the Reader. Editor's picks of stories Mir wrote for …

June 1, 2019
Marine Corps Recruit Depot in San Diego opened its Command Museum

Fighting a war must be terribly different from the act of recalling it years later. The hours, days, and weeks of anxious tedium sporadically punctuated by the brutal experience of combat are not the same …

January 28, 1998
Welcome, GOP Convention Delegates, to San Diego, City of Shame

The maid had been referred to the Wilsons by Neil Morgan’s wife. The legality of her work status was still not known, said Davies. He said Wilson’s ex-wife Betty had handled all of the other details.

August 8, 1996
President Clinton says he reads about 250 books a year

My library, which is more than a couple of thousand volumes, has been accumulated over a 35-year period. It’s the most diverse personal library that I’ve ever seen, and that includes the libraries of friends …

April 25, 1996
Loss: what San Diegans left behind In 1992

Unlike 1984, when Ronald Reagan made it a point to finish his campaign at a giant rally in the parking lot of Fashion Valley, George Bush came to see the All-Star game and was booed by the locals.

December 23, 1992
Reader writers write about first day of school

Mr. Van Winkle asked the Student Council Reps, to indicate to the classes that if they can convince him through sound logical arguments that they should ride skateboards to school that he will reconsider his position.

September 12, 1991
La Jolla artist Andy Lakey in the words of friends and famous

Andy Lakey: I was born in '59. My mother and I moved to the United States in 1963. We're from France. My mother was an artist — and her mother, and her mother's mother. Many …

April 25, 1991
You start with Childe's What Happened in History, Clark's The First Half-Million Years

They said you might get out. You had a chance. Out of this hellhole. There's a secret. It's a game. That's what you think. Books. Salvation. To know is to be able. You start with …

December 20, 1990
San Diego talk radio after dark

Night is when cold and flu gets the worst. Forget to take my Medication (stop doing that) sleep much as possible (trying trying, easier in the day Supply: corn beef — low Medication — 3 …

July 5, 1990
Books: Sandra Dijkstra, what teachers read, play scripts, baseball, airplane books

I’m Talking Monster Books Amy had a title on this book. She called it Wind and Water. She was using the theme of the I Ching. I looked at these synopses of the stories, and …

April 26, 1990
Sandra Dijkstra, literary agent, tells of her success with Amy Tan

"I think that I have a sort of natural editorial tropism; it’s sort of innate in me. I have a sort of irrepressible publicist in me. I help my authors get the word out."

April 26, 1990
A page or two out of Clifford Newman's book

“Then these three guys come and I’m still on the phone with the dispatcher. And they’re standin’ there — with the gun and the burritos — and she goes, ‘Well, do you still want us to send somebody out?’’

April 12, 1990
Book-lovers chew the fat at the Mission Hills Library

“Mysteries,” says the sign above the shelves. From rows of books below, John Parker removes one hardback, examines the cover, opens to a page, not the first page. He reads a few lines, riffles to …

September 21, 1989
Meet El Cajon garage band Psychotic Waltz

"Some people are naturally rude,” Norm says. “Being in El Cajon here, everyone’s a crystal fiend, except for us. Every day we deal with weirdos and sketchers comin’ up that we can't stand.”

August 3, 1989

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