Thirty Years Ago Needle's Eye. The secret about Needle's Eye is why more surfers don't get their lunch there. Located below Sunset Cliffs Boulevard on the north side of Luscomb's Point and breaking into No …

Thirty Years Ago SALLY, why keep kissing frogs when there's a prince standing behind you? Turn around. It's the magic frog you kissed long ago. You're loved. Prince. BWANA. Crystal Pier is a beautiful idea. …

Thirty Years Ago Dole is related to pineapples, though he's supposed to have the personality of a radish. Ford is a dependable, unexciting four-door. Somewhere maybe there's a vacuum cleaner or a pipe joint called …

Thirty Years Ago From deep within a mountain tunnel a light is visible. Suddenly the tunnel is filled with a fierce metal beast, charging at breakneck speed toward the station. It careens around a corner …

'All my favorite bands keep putting out albums that I can barely listen to," says Russell Logan, singer for San Diego band Sliver. "It feels like a sad market where one-hit wonders exist because of …

Thirty Years Ago THANK YOU, Ricky, for being yourself in a world lacking spontaneous, natural love. Please never lose my number, or my love. Earl. ROGER BOWMAN, the Renee Richards of the water polo world: …

Liberal Inferno I've wondered numerous times when America will elect a woman president. Will the tradition of electing male presidents be broken in my lifetime? Women are capable of completing the job, but no opportunity …

Thirty Years Ago The calls for unity that abounded at last month's Democratic convention in New York seem to be spreading, as local party stalwarts lined up dutifully behind Jimmy Carter. Former county Democratic chairwoman …

No Control Perhaps the biggest event of my upbringing that affected who I am today was my move from North Carolina to California when I was 11 years old. Previously shy, comfortable with my several …

Thirty Years Ago WANTED: Names and addresses of persons or groups who have been harmed or threatened by Interpol, the private French-based police organization. Contact immediately National Commission on Law Enforcement and Social Justice, 926 …

Golden Seat 'I want to ride my bicycle/ I want to ride my bike/ I want to ride my bicycle/ I want to ride it where I like." Queen expressed the joy and freedom that …

Thirty Years Ago Entire sections of the [Comedy Store]audience were on their way out, disgusted by the preceding scene. I wonder to this day whether anyone could have made them laugh at that point. Not …

Last night I woke up to find my cat Zorro hogging the bed next to me...and not just lying on the bed, he was under the covers! As I went to move him so that …

Thirty Years Ago On separate nights 16-year-old Danny stole a Mercury in Logan Heights and zigzagged down the street, ricocheting off parked cars; Jimmy, 17, beat up "some white cat," robbed him, and rode off …

My mother's alter ego is the Queen of Clean. She runs our household with an iron fist (usually covered by a yellow rubber glove), ready for battle with a Clorox Toilet Wand in one hand …

Thirty Years Ago "What's the matter, darling, you don't like New York? Listen, you came to the best, the very best, and after the sandwich, after the pickle, you know how you'll feel? 100 percent …

Birdland and the Banana Belt I worked for 16 hours at San Francisco General Hospital yesterday. The final 8 hours was spent on 6B, where I worked with Trent. Trent is an erstwhile Marinite-turned-realtor who …

Thirty Years Ago Just when the Padres get close to a pennant, just when Al Couppee looks like he might beat Assemblyman Larry Kapiloff, you have to print that nonsense by sore loser sportscaster Jerry …

Lifelong Following a brief illness, Grant Barba passed away peacefully in his hometown of San Diego on July 7, 2086. He was 97 years old. Born on June 3, 1989, he attended college in the …

Shopocalypse I went to see Reverend Billy in Petaluma. At the start of the day, I was going to go to an antiwar march in San Francisco, but then when I saw that Reverend Billy …

Thirty Years Ago The bare bottom of San Diego sport is epitomized by the face of Canadian entrepreneur and Sports Arena operator Peter Graham. This contemptuous double-dealer is the best case yet for confiscatory inheritance …

Elective Maturity I can't remember the last time I shaved my legs. Wait -- yes I can -- it was the day of prom. So, I shaved my legs most recently on May 13, about …

Down The Street from the Death House The last time I had to look for a place to live, I looked outside of Marin County, where I've lived for 30 years. I moved to Marin …

Thirty Years Ago Writer Jane Stein will tell you that Golden Hills is the first place where she has ever wanted to live permanently. "I grew up in housing developments and shopping centers. This is …

Thirty Years Ago In San Diego, even the big agencies are having their share of troubles. The local Pinkerton Agency hires only two full-time detectives, while Wackenhut supplements investigative work with security guard service and …

Crystal called and invited me to come over because she had marijuana. Knowing that my grandparents would not let me out of the house, I snuck downstairs in my pajamas, avoiding all the creaks in …

You're not having an LSD flashback. The psychedelic sounds of Silver Sunshine come courtesy of guitarist Richard Vaughan, bassist Stuart Sclater, and guitarist/organist Conor Riley, who frequently whips out a vintage Mellotron, just in case …

Thirty Years Ago The Grossmont commencement ceremony was punctuated by water balloons. The seniors were christened with bottled water stolen from the science labs.... "Five years ago the valedictorians would get up and blast the …

Thirty Years Ago When tickets for David Bowie's San Diego concert went on sale, a first-year law student from Pacific Beach bought 240 tickets -- all were in the choicest sections of the Sports Arena …

Gladness Blooms Hmmm...the happiest and saddest I've been in my life... Seems simple enough, but it's not. I was having trouble coming up with answers, so I asked around. If you're married, your wedding is …

Thirty Years Ago The recent swell of Letters to the Editor on the subject of my sourness, or sore-headedness, or however it's diagnosed, has reached a point where it seems advisable for me to step …

Thirty Years Ago ALL ANIMOSITIES aside, I would like to organize a party for people who regularly place Reader personals. Interested "regulars" reply through the Reader. The Ad Tracer. -- CLASSIFIEDS, June 3, 1976 Twenty-Five …

Thirty Years Ago "I don't believe in the cult of personality, having my portrait hung all over the place like Ronald Reagan or Mao Tse Tung" is a quote from the little red book of …

Thirty Years Ago "Hell, you want to know what flat broke is? Flat broke is when I had to walk seven miles home because I didn't have a penny left. Lost every cent. There was …

Strange and Amazing 'If I leave, they're going to come get me. They're going to kill me. They want me dead." "Do you at least want your curtains open?" I asked. "No," he said. "They'll …

Thirty Years Ago These are the best cars the English ever made, no matter what anyone may say about how much that is saying. (Some would have you believe that England could have won the …

Thirty Years Ago Victor laughs to himself thinking about how easy it is to bunk honkies. Anyone who is a transient is sure to get his ass kicked in a dope deal because, as Victor …

Growing up as the daughter of an environmental health specialist, I have a deep respect for all things recyclable. It hurts me to watch people litter, and I've been known to chase down offenders and …

Thirty Years Ago Helen Copley, lauded by Newsweek and New West for improving employee relations, has pulled in the reins a bit. Union-Tribune staffers, all 1200 of them, will be paying a dime a day …

Thirty Years Ago COME TO SEE the real men. Come to the Mission Beach Plunge. EILEEN AT Halcyon: When I said you were "homely," I only meant you look good enough to take home. Honest, …

Shady Alleys I once knew a woman who grew marijuana in a small pot next to her kitchen sink. She was going through chemotherapy for breast cancer and smoked cannabis to ease the nausea, vomiting, …

Thirty Years Ago In what could have passed as a dress rehearsal for this summer's Democratic national convention, some 325 voters jammed a Clairemont junior high school to pick a slate of 10 potential delegates …

It was 12 o'clock in the morning and I was lying in my bed, half asleep. The moon was shining so brightly through the blinds that I could see almost everything in my bedroom. All …

Thirty Years Ago San Diego's University Hospital cafeteria is similar to an army mess hall. Costumes point up rank. Nurses are all in white -- either pant suits or dresses -- while female physicians wear …

Thirty Years Ago "Most of the bites are from German shepherds. Next, from poodles. Of course, people start shaking when you mention Dobermans, but there aren't enough around to make a big percentage of bites. …

This patch of earth, longitude 117 degrees west, latitude 33 degrees 2 minutes north, passes away from the sun. The sun's light, leaning in from the west, reaches us through denser and denser layers of …

'It was a very depressing scene," blogs Wasting June's keyboard player Jeff Domitrz about a summer gig at 'Canes (found on the band's myspace.com page). "A friend of mine described it as 'drinking beer at …

Thirty Years Ago County tax assessors assess boats as personal property, unless they are a taxpayer's principal residence, and then the boat owner can file for a homeowner's exemption. If taxes are unbearable, you can …

A wild tangle of curls ran all over my head like jungle vines. I looked in the mirror and realized what I'd been depriving myself of for so long. Since that day, I have become …

Thirty Years Ago Five years ago, with the depot looking more like a white elephant, talk began about what to do with it. The Santa Fe Railroad unveiled plans for twin office towers on the …