Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed
Big Screen — Movie commentary
Blurt — Music's inside track
Booze News — San Diego spirits
Classical Music — Immortal beauty
Classifieds — Free and easy
Close to Home — What it’s like on the street where you live
Cover Stories — Front-page features
Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes
Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts
Feast! — Food & drink reviews
Feature Stories — Local news & stories
Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore
From the Archives — Spotlight on the past
Golden Dreams — Talk of the town
The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it
Letters — Our inbox
Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites
Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans
Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists
Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news
News Ticker — News & politics
Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated
Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna
Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated
Poetry — The old and the new
Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers
Reading — The hunt for intellectuals
Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails
San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds
SD on the QT — Almost factual news
Sheep and Goats — Places of worship
Special Issues — The best of
Street Style — San Diego streets have style
Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves
Theater — On stage in San Diego this week
Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative
Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work
Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego
Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads
Your Week — Daily event picks
Cheap Trick and The Roots
That Nine Inch Nails thing has to be a joke. A good one, though. I went into Tower Records in La Jolla, about 4 months before it closed down. Comedian Jim Gaffigan was doing a bit on his website where you had to take a clever photo of yourself with his new DVD. The winners would get some prize or another. I'm a huge fan of his, and I thought of something that was kind of clever. He does a bit about how horrible Hot Pockets are. How hot they are inside, how disgusting they taste, and how that song sticks in your head. So I went into the DVD section, and told the guy behind the counter I wanted to pretend to rob him. I put a bandana over my face, and was robbing him using a Hot Pocket, with the caption that it was so hot, if he didn't hand over the Gaffigan CD, I'd use the Hot Pocket to scald his face. Well, the first funny thing is that he kept saying "I don't know who this Jim Gaffigan comedian is. Why don't you use a George Lopez or George Carlin DVD? Those guys are funny." (not sure why he stuck with two "George" comedians...and not sure why he didn't get that it had to be Gaffigan, as it was for HIS website). Then, as my friend is taking this great photo of me "robbing the place" with a Hot Pocket...the guy says, "I'm not going to put my hands in the air. Because, I don't condone robbery." So, he let me wear a bandana, point something at him, while holding a big bag to stash my loot, but he refuses to raise his hands. It still worked, but geeeeeez.— March 6, 2009 10:39 a.m.
B.B. King vs BB Guns
Closer to Hogs is certainly a funnier title than Country Closer. Hopefully that's the song and you'll be able to eventually download it. Thanks for the link. Now...what about that other story, with the dad shooting his son????— March 6, 2009 10:34 a.m.
Fast Food Wrappers vs Gangsta Rappers
touche— March 6, 2009 2:34 a.m.
Cheap Trick and The Roots
Hahahaha...thank you, anti. I was just thinking about other Cheap Trick lyrics. What is with the line "I'm begging you to beg me"?— March 5, 2009 4:26 p.m.
Fast Food Wrappers vs Gangsta Rappers
I heard about the first story, but no the second. I've also heard about people calling 911 acting like it's 411. They want to know why Dominoes isn't there yet, or directions somewhere they're headed. I want to know what the law is regarding 911 calls. We always seem to get the tapes released. And, it can be embarassing to all parties involved. I hate to think that if Angelina Jolie or someone famous, had a horrible crime occur, and Pitt is on the phone to 911...that we automatically get to hear that. Sure, the idiots that are complaining about not knowing the ingredients of the Big Mac secret sauce or KFCs chicken...release those calls, ticket those people. There's at least the argument that you can learn from that. But how horrible is it when some tragedy happens, and we hear the calls, and it's some child talking about his parents being dead. That's awful.— March 5, 2009 4:14 p.m.
Letters
tiki...thanks, but I think my editor and I (mostly I), kinda muffed this one up no matter how you look at it. first, in all kinds of studies/surveys or whatever, they always do it per capita, otherwise California would always be first, just by volume of the population (KGBs morning show just messed up similarly, when talking about the states with the highest number of people that subscribe to porn sites). And, even if it was meant per car...the wording on my part was horribly done. What had happened was, initially I couldn't find the stat for California. When I did more research, I found it wasn't in the top 10. The editor asked me where California ranked, a few months later when she got the story. When I researched it that time, I found the stat about California being 22nd, and that percentage. Yet, I didn't go back and look at what I originally wrote. I should've just re-written that entire paragraph. Lazy journalism on my part.— March 5, 2009 4:10 p.m.
Coffee From Heaven
I think I told this story here before...but when I worked overnights at the post office, this guy named Riley was major cheap. We'd go to Denny's, and he'd bring his own tea bag and just ask for hot water. Well, he'd drive to Phoenix every few weeks, to buy these Super Lotto tickets, that all the states did, which made for $100 million winner each time. I told him the odds of winning that are a lot harder than the 13 million for just California. He didn't see it that way (and he'd be as confused by this as Fred is by the Starbucks scenario). Anywhooooo....some people started asking him to buy lotto tickets, but he wanted $5 extra, for the gas. Some would pay, others bitched. I said "Riley, you're going there anyway. Just buy their damn tickets." He wouldn't budge. Then I said, "Riley...just tell them, you won't charge $5 extra, but if they win, they owe you $25,000." He'd respond, "But they won't win, the odds are so astronomical." I then said "Well, why are you wasting gas driving there then?" Well, he always wanted me to save the newspaper for him, after i finished reading it. And I always did. But...I started saying, "Hey..these papers are 35 cents each. So, you can give me $.35." He said, "No way! You already finished reading it, and are just going to throw it away." I said, "Just like you're already going to drive to Phoenix. But...if you buy them their lotto tickets, I'll let you read the paper for free." He didn't want to do that, so I'd throw the paper away. Once, he grabbed it out of the trash can as I threw it in there....so, I'd sometimes spill my left over apple juice on it, just for kicks. I'm a pr**k, I know.— March 4, 2009 8:39 p.m.
Coffee From Heaven
Okay...a bunch of things here. First, when someone suggests just "splitting the bill" and they ordered a few bottles of wine, an appetizer, etc, you should never have a problem saying "Well, my girlfriend and I just ordered a salad and sandwich we split." Because, if they have the nerve to do that. I wrote about an Obama party recently. Well, the artist that had this, I bought a piece of jewelry from. She told me she hates asking friends for payment on jewelry she makes, and I went on and on about how she shouldn't, it's her business, blah blah blah. So, the necklace I bought from her, for my mom, I think was $38 or something. She said, "I don't want money. Just pay for my dinner Saturday." A bunch of us were going to Pizza Fushion in Hillcrest, then some burlesque/art show thingy. Well...my girlfriend and I weren't hungry, and had pizza for lunch. So we split a salad and a sandwich. A bunch of people there said they were not going to eat, but she ordered a few pizzas, a few appetizers, a bottle of wine or two. I said I would pay for her, and everyone else was ponying up for what they owed. And, the bill ended up being $50 short or something. I just chalked it up to an expensive piece of jewelry! But, with parties of 8 or more, when the restaurant charges, if I'm ever with someone that bitches about that (it happens about once every 10 times), I say "Hey...every time I've been with a big group, the bill never comes out right. It's always short money. So, the waiter ends up screwed, because if we have to just barely get to the right amount on the bill, you're sure not going to get everyone else to throw in a few extra dollars for the tip, too. And, them doing this, fixes that problem."— March 4, 2009 4 p.m.
Cheap Trick and The Roots
NIN is my girlfriends favorite band. We went and saw them in Vegas a few months back. I'd love to hear Country Closer, although I can hardly imagine where it would go. Obviously, you've heard Johnny Cash's wonderful version of NIN, right?— March 4, 2009 3:52 p.m.
A sampling of San Diego's vanity license plates
Yeah, that STP could've been a Stone Temple Pilots fan also. The problem with Gavins concept is that the number sequence at the end is so limited.— March 4, 2009 9:38 a.m.