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Almost a dirty secret
This is the best thing Lorena Gonzalez has done to date. In the all-Dems-all-the-time environment of Sacramento I hope this bill will pass handily. It feels like New Deal legislation -- a measure that's good for the People. Good for Assemblywoman Gonzalez and thank you.— November 27, 2014 12:12 p.m.
Thanksgiving as we know it
Love this one, Patrick, and in the spirit of the season, I even love your really reprehensible correspondent Kim Solem. (Or is he/she joking? I can't tell anymore, what with Mencken's Almost-True-Tales columns.) But you should know that charities also have been getting in on the pre-Sales Day act: I received three human-being phone solicitations today, asking for money. By now I am a little offended and asked the latest one, the United Farm Workers, to take me off their list of gullible marks. (But wait, does this churlishness make me another version of Kim? It might.)— November 26, 2014 3:35 p.m.
Can new conductor beat Ling's $429,960 deal?
You're right, Alex, philistines don't care. But for many people, "the real world" includes live performance of symphonic music and it enriches their lives. We're fortunate to have a strong and stable orchestra in San Diego, fortunate to have the Jacobs' to support the arts in general and the San Diego Symphony in particular.— November 24, 2014 9:02 p.m.
Can new conductor beat Ling's $429,960 deal?
You're right, Alex, philistines don't care. But fortunately for the rest of us, the "real world" includes music played by symphony orchestras, and we're grateful to have a good one in San Diego.— November 24, 2014 8:54 p.m.
Coming distractions
Truth amid the joshing: the World Famous San Diego Zoo, back when it was just the plain San Diego Zoo, really WAS supposed to be free to San Diego kids. Today it costs nearly $100 for a tyke to go through the turnstile. (That's softened by calling the ticket a three-day pass or some such dodge -- but who wants to bring their kid back for another zoo visit within three days?) Plus, the City of San Diego subsidizes the Zoo annually from the General Fund, even though the Zoo rakes in plenty of dough without it. We could talk about rampant commercialism inside the walls, too, but enough negativity for now.— November 23, 2014 4:31 p.m.
Can new conductor beat Ling's $429,960 deal?
The Symphony is much-improved from olden days of short seasons, small orchestras and sometimes even a shuttered hall. There have been good conductors over this period, but nothing works like financial resources and a home of one's own. Jahja Ling has done a good job building a strong organization that today plays in many configurations and venues other than the movie-theater-turned-music-hall where the best seats are only a few rows upstairs called the Grand Tier. Joan and Irwin Jacobs' largesse has made the Symphony what it is today -- stable, strong, and well-positioned to find another excellent exceedingly well-compensated maestro. Maybe San Diego will attract another Gustavo Dudamel.— November 21, 2014 9:20 p.m.
Innovative spending
Actually, I was thinking about people like Nathan Fletcher. He's not even a TA.— November 20, 2014 6:21 p.m.
Innovative spending
Well, UC Davis has a lot of dealings with Big Ag, Berkeley has nuclear science labs covered; Riverside is into Botany; UCLA has the arts; why shouldn't San Diego be the handmaiden of bio-tech? I just hope they will remember to teach undergraduates with better-qualified staff than part-time provisional "profs" hired at the behest of Big Corporate Donors.— November 19, 2014 5:17 p.m.
Not called "toilet-to-tap"!
No thanks to blinkered self-interested "rare" bedfellows like Surfrider and the Chamber of Commerce. It will always be Toilet-to-Tap to me and it should only be used for irrigation purposes -- never for drinking. Visduh has it dead-right, as indeed we will all wish we were, should we inadvertently drink partially-purified water after the inevitable municipal purification plant malfunction.— November 19, 2014 12:39 p.m.
Not called "toilet-to-tap"!
No thanks to blinkered self-interested "rare" bedfellows like Surfrider and the Chamber of Commerce. It will always be Toilet-to-Tap to me and it should only be used for irrigation purposes -- never for drinking. Visduh has it dead-right, as indeed we will all wish we were, should we inadvertently drink partially-purified water after the inevitable municipal purification plant malfunction.— November 19, 2014 12:39 p.m.