The Little World That Almost Was“I was dressed in my ‘Little Lord Fauntleroy’ suit, and playing with K.T.’s dog (Theosophists are fond of using their leader’s initials). Suddenly, I looked up and said ‘I know …
October 6, 2025
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Stories by Merton Gaudette
San Diego wasn't so bad in the 1800s
Everything outside of South Mission Beach was hickville
End of the cool life in South Mission The mudflats sometimes stank at low tide; it wasn’t really a bad smell, but a grassy, muddy smell that could be pleasant if you associated it with …
June 4, 2023
Hotel San Diego's gay owner Vince Miranda, the Midway comes to town
Old Haunt “They tore down the original hotel and put the facade in crates. Then they tore down another building and put that façade in crates. Then they built a new building, stuck the old …
January 1, 2022
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
San Diego's weasels, squirrels, worms, rats
I Wanted to Own Him Until He Opened His Mouth Six days later, on a morning when the air was light blue, the weasel left his kill on the driveway, a young opossum so dead …
August 14, 2021
Driving a plane on Interstate 5, buying liquor in Tijuana
Cardiff man builds DC-3 to drive on freeway After six months his scavenger hunt came to an end in Tucson, Arizona. There, he paid $1500 for the GMC bus chassis and another $9000 for the …
April 17, 2021
Best Reader stories from 1974
Monument Road The peaceful atmosphere along Monument Road is astonishing. Only 15 or 20 minutes from downtown, a ride along southernmost San Diego's Monument Road is like flipping through a book of Dorothea Lange photographs. …
October 27, 2019
Katherine Tingley’s utopian vision in Pt. Loma
Six young women, taking advantage of Katherine Tingley’s absence, staged a small revolt and left en masse. The rebellion was a response to the lifestyle, which many students – especially those in their late teens – thought was anachronistic.
April 20, 1978
Cardiff man builds DC-3 to drive on freeway
The freeways are crawling with animals. Colts, Stingrays and even Cougars abound. Pintos vie with Mustangs; Skylarks make way for Thunderbirds; and Rabbits hop from cloverleaf to underpass. Even the insect world is represented; German …
February 23, 1978
Come Back Miss Muffet Spiders Aren't All That Bad
Though not a picky creature, the tarantula likes to eat crickets, especially Jerusalem crickets. Once it has captured its dinner, it will take a long time to feed. “What they do is excrete a digestive enzyme….”
January 26, 1978
That part of San Diego that rests its bleary head at Horton Plaza
A commotion at the entrance of the Can-Can Club. Heads turn as the vibrations spread. Two men are ejected from said topless go-go bar. One of them is on crutches, his right leg in a full-length cast.
January 12, 1978
What to expect inside San Diego jail
The County Jail facility squats like a sad green hulk between “C" and "B" streets in San Diego. It is surrounded by the offices of the San Diego County Sheriffs Department: a parking lot full …
August 15, 1974