rgreyson
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
Cable-company monopolies
RE: Cox Cable and Time Warner Dear Matthew Alice, I have noted your cogent, insightful and snappy responses for years, but you must be getting tired of putting meat on the bones of your responses. It is such a crock of poop for the cable companies to continue with their ‘natural monopolies’ that I was left wanting after your response to Bryan Hendricks. Whatever good rationale existed 25 years ago for these exclusive franchises does not hold water now. Were there even cell phones 25 years ago? It was 1988 in case the math is fuzzy. My brother-in-law complained to me that since Fox and Time Warner can’t reach a Padres deal, local pro-baseball won’t be on his screen this season. He’d like to sign up with Cox, but... Of course, when I think of those enormous start up costs that Cox and TW went through, my heart just aches, if you know what I mean. Curiously, the cell phone companies manage to share each others infrastructures, as do electricity, gas and water providers on occasion. But I guess the cable companies have borne such great burdens that protecting exclusive territories is just good public policy and a great consumer benefit. And it puts a special spin on the concept of ‘free enterprise’ and ‘market forces’. So Matthew, if you have some spare moments and a little left over energy, I would appreciate it if you would investigate and maybe slam those self-serving free-loaders a bit. Hey, what about the wave of pure internet streaming services? Maybe we’ll be cutting the cable soon anyway.— March 15, 2013 9:25 p.m.