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
Lemons Foils Attempted Mugging
Hey Foster, no one was trying to make fun of you--glad to have the opportunity, in fact, to express admiration for what you did--truly heroic! What a fantastic place this would be with more caring citizen involvement like yours. I'm sorry if you misunderstood my ironic message, which was that we are often very specific about race when race is NOT Caucasian--i.e., 'I met a nice guy the other day' vs. 'I met a nice BLACK guy the other day.' AG corrected me about the standard practice of noting the race of the perp, but not bystanders. I then made a joke about the genre of the stringer article, as it contains a few phrases that don't seem totally standard for journalistic reportage. Hope that clears it up, and thanks again for being such a stellar citizen and person, Foster :)— November 4, 2009 9:38 a.m.
SPAM-arama.
I can't believe it, but according to Pete's link in #19, there is NO WIKI ARTICLE ON SPAM!!!! Who among ye SPAM lovers will step up--to the PLATE? Could this be the communal writing project we've been seeking, apart from Pike's libretto? I leave it to you SPAMMERS to decide. A QUESTION FOR EXPERTS ON KITSCHY, NOSTALGIC FOODS: I once made an amusing set of inquiries of Hormel, Kraft, and various companies making processed meat 'foods;' was trying to find a true recipe--and a good photo-- for the "Stockade Roast." Even tried food sites like Epicurious, and Chowhound. People had some fun things to share, but no stockade roast :( Here's a book I want to get, called "Retro Food Fiascos." Anybody read this already? http://www.amazon.com/Retro-Food-Fiascos-Collecti… Anyway, the Stockade Roast is a very special dish, consisting of a kind of meat lump, like a meatloaf, with a catsup glaze, surrounded by a "stockade" structure of hot dogs, used kinda like Lincoln logs. It is paramount that pimiento-stuffed olives are used to decorate. I was thinking of making a veggie version with soy dogs, and making a big pile of mashed taters, as though the 'stockade' is resting in holiday snow drifts. As is common with American recipes from the 50s, a vegetable may be present in the form of tufts of curly parsley. You know, it occurs that the stockade roast might be doable with SPAM, too...— November 4, 2009 9:18 a.m.
SPAM-arama.
re: #10: Pete, I emailed you on where to find Charleston Chews. In return, I want the lowdown on the BEST possible Wisconsin cheeses, listed in order of sharpness and yumminess levels.— November 4, 2009 9:07 a.m.
Blogging for SPAM
Being half Hawaiian, I suppose I should love Spam. Nan is helping me get in touch with my roots by making me some VEGISPAM. MMMMMMM. VEGISPAM. It actually does sound good, fried up with some hash browns, and those eggs and potatoes...Hey, when's brekkie, Lady?! :)— November 4, 2009 8:56 a.m.
SDGE Lobbyist Said to be Innocent, Reinstated
I wrote that, SurfDummy :)— November 4, 2009 8:48 a.m.
SDGE Lobbyist Said to be Innocent, Reinstated
re: #73: Is Don Bauder advocating the "rhythm" method? I thought we had better sex education in this country! ;)— November 4, 2009 7:12 a.m.
SDGE Lobbyist Said to be Innocent, Reinstated
re: #64: Well said as always, Paul. I would say that the 'arrangement' between highly visible public figures like the Clintons is probably to stay out of each others' personal business. They probably fell out of love decades ago, and stay 'together' so as not to jeopardize their political careers, which in this hypocritical moral climate means that heterosexual marriage with children is somehow a prerequisite to the job of representing the people in any capacity. re: #67: SurfPuppy, do you realize we are talking about a LOBBYIST? A LOBBYIST, SurfPuppy. re: #69: Agreed, unstable behavior from a very creative and smart individual--unfortunately thinking below the belt and caught. re: #70: I agree, "whoremonger" is cuter, and bonus: it implies one has some form of work. "Floozy" just sounds too trivial and lazy—a floozy cadges drinks, and might possibly be on welfare. re: #65: A la the governator’s favorite linguistic game: Frankly, your argument about the personal Lives of politicians is poorly structured, which leads One to conclude that it is of rather naïve philosophical Origins. Apparently, you are unable to ignore a common Zeitgeist of American politics, and ignore the social policy of Your public representatives.— November 4, 2009 7:11 a.m.
As Promised A Scary Story
PS: Nan--I was a ward of the court from age 14 to 17 and can relate to that particular kind of homelessness. I went on through sheer determination to get through school and make a life for myself, and it looks like you have done the same--and yet more, because you have become a gifted poet of incisive wit and breathtaking image--you have achieved what a tired and cynical English teacher like myself might not have thought possible--you make casual spelling errors totally irrelevant in the face of your mastery over words and evocation of feeling. Brava to you, and strong women like you! :)— November 4, 2009 5:21 a.m.
As Promised A Scary Story
Thank you dear nan, for this very touching and beautiful, personal yet historical ghost story. I agree that the film was well done, and hope that someday you can bring yourself to read the book too--it is amazing. Here is a link to the full text of Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath, if you want to read it online: http://www.archive.org/stream/grapesofwrath030650… ...from which I chose the last passage--also the last scene of the film. How metaphorical of the bounty of hope for the future in a woman's body, and of the care we extend to strangers in need, as Rose of Sharon, who has lost her baby, is yet able to feed a starving man with her own body: "She moved slowly to the corner and stood looking down at the wasted face, into the wide, frightened eyes. Then slowly she lay down beside him. He shook his head slowly from side to side. Rose of Sharon loosened one side of the blanket and bared her breast. "You got to," she said. She squirmed closer and pulled his head close. "There!" she said. "There." Her hand moved behind his head and sup- ported it. Her fingers moved gently in his hair. She looked up and across the barn, and her lips came together and smiled mysteriously."— November 4, 2009 5:14 a.m.
Jumper Slips
As usual, this has degraded into a shouting match over the first amendment, and free speech. Pete and Gringo, can you ever consider any finer, subtle points about social interaction that do not necessarily end with an assertion of the finality of this right? Pale_Rider was, I believe, responding to SurfPuppy’s example in #10: “in public everyone is free game. Ask any papperazzi.” When I attended UCSD, I used to walk over to the glider port, and descend the cliff paths to Black’s Beach, to sit on the beach and study and eat my bagged lunch. It was such a great idea, I couldn’t understand why I was the only one to do it until the resident pervs started circling like vultures—yes, some with cameras. They would keep juuust a few feet away, and park their asses to watch me, and see if there was any possiblity of my removing my school clothes (No chance of that--I never wore even a bathing suit, as I had always come from class). Enjoyment of this natural paradise became impossible; I tried sitting near the lifeguards at the south end of the beach, but it didn’t really help. The lifeguards were sick of this situation, too. They could not just call the cops every time a perv started jacking off looking at a woman—that action being identifiably illegal. So the beach was left to the pervs, and the rest of us had to stay away, or suffer their continual harrassment. Princess Diana was killed because of the ‘rights’ of papparazzi to hound her and her boyfriend. Sure, there are questions about the driver’s blood alcohol levels, and they were speeding in a dangerous area, but is this kind of harrassment ok with you personally—so celeb stalkers and gossip mongers can look at photos on TMZ? What if your family were being chased night and day for pictures, by parasites who sell candid photos of you for $100 a pop—or for millions? As for violence or sex on TV—I am for unrestrained freedom of expression in the media, but again, Pale_Rider’s and AG’s point is not about the first amendment, it is about a basic respect of other people. Gringo, you have frequently lauded the more civilized behavior of Mexicans toward one another, and noted the lack of such in American society. What if Mexicans went around saying “F You” to each other, my a-hole behavior is protected by law? Shouting racial epithets, just because speech is protected? The fact is that most important of your Libertarian or anarchic ideals cannot be realized without the kind of unregulated ‘moral code’ Pale_Rider referred to—better characterized, as tinastar did, as common social decency. I guess my own ideal would be more modest: People allow each other some personal space, and use common courtesy and basic respect of others, as we are taught as children, presumably, and expected to use as ADULTS.— November 4, 2009 4:50 a.m.