Halfway through 2013
We're halfway through the year, how's your fitness resolution?
Achieving my New Year’s resolution is going to have to wait. My resolution for this year is to finish a marathon in three hours or less. The loose ACL in my right knee has decided I won’t be doing that …
Mary had a little lamb a la Tchaikovsky
The Russian equivalent of Row, row, you're boat gets thrashed by Tchaikovsky.
When I went to the Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 4 a few weeks ago I didn’t realize how famous the theme of the finale movement is Russia. The theme is exactly the tune to In a field a little birch tree …
Memorial Day Review
When did Memorial Day start and can I run a 10K to celebrate?
Memorial Day Weekend--the start of summer--time to get in shape. I’m sure Memorial Day is about something other than the start of summer but sometimes that gets lost. The first Memorial Day was May 30th, 1868 and flowers were placed …
San Diego tourism lags other California coast metros
Local figures up moderately -- others up stoutly
April occupancy rates in San Diego County hotels dropped slightly from 71.1% in April of last year to 71% the same month this year. However, average daily room rate rose from $126.42 to $131.19, according to Smith Travel Research. For …
Study finds unfair, unsafe working conditions for San Diego taxi drivers
A group of graduate students at San Diego State University led by Professor Jill Esbenshade teamed with the labor-friendly local think tank Center on Policy Initiatives to produce Driven to Despair: A Survey of San Diego Taxi Drivers, which was …
Smoke & Guns: a cocktail standoff at Roseville Cozinha
Liberty Station fish-to-fork eatery hosts a showdown between some of San Diego's finest craft cocktail innovators.
Craft cocktails are on the rise in San Diego, and with the visionaries have come dozens of late-comers hoping to turn a quick buck off of what may or may not prove to be a passing fad. To showcase the …
Pac-Arts monthly Film Forum now open to non-members
For as long as I've known my pal, John Dacapias, he's been touting the virtues of Pac-Arts monthly Film Forum. The group, limited to a precious few, meets 12 times a year -- with pot luck in hand -- to …
Carrier suit against U-T begins tomorrow
Carriers say they were misclassified as independent contractors
Preliminary matters in the case of newspaper carriers suing the Union-Tribune begin tomorrow (May 24) in the Superior Court department of Judge John S. Meyer. Persons who signed contracts with the U-T as home delivery carriers beginning in 2005 say …
Save San Onofre Coalition accuses transportation agency of trying to resurrect a plan to build a toll road to Trestles
Group files two lawsuits in San Diego Superior Court against the Transportation Corridor Agency
The Save San Onofre Coalition, a coalition comprised of basically every environmental advocacy group in California, is accusing the Transportation Corridor Agency of moving forward with plans to build a controversial 16-mile expressway through Orange County and North San Diego …
Yoga = Satanism
Lawsuit seeks to stop Encinitas schoolchildren from school-implemented worship of Baphomet disguised as healthful exercise
If you can't see Satan in the above series of Ashtanga yoga poses, then you're not looking hard enough. "I'm all for health and wellness," says concerned parent Pearl Clutcher, "but I know for a fact that Eastern religions are …
Cardinals top Padres in clash of rookie pitchers
The Padres Burch Smith faltered while Tyler Lyons shined for St. Louis and the Cardinals beat the Padres to take the series.
Burch Smith, for the second time in his three-start major league career, failed to get out of the second inning. In fact, Smith failed to record an out in the second inning and the Cardinals went on to beat the …
Brown appoints new Superior Court judges
Amid considerable grousing about budget cuts in the state’s court system, Governor Jerry Brown has announced the appointment of eleven new California Superior Court judges, two from San Diego, Courthouse News Service is reporting. Patricia Guerrero, a graduate of UC …
Salt and Cleaver: moonshine, brats, and duck confit
New sausage spot in Hillcrest gives Midwestern football food a big-dollar makeover
Salt and Cleaver has been open for a little while, but I hadn’t had a chance to go check it out until just now. The extensive remodel on the building’s interior put a lot of distance between the new restaurant …
Linda Vista: Broken rice's secret power
Bale Restaurant's special plate has a story
What price broken rice? Was at Bale’s (“Baa-Lay’s”) Restaurant & Deli last night (6925 Linda Vista Road, Suite B, at Ulric Street, Linda Vista, 858-297-2707). Vietnamese. http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2013/may/23/46156/ Here you expect to find Pho (the French-inspired Vietnamese beef and other broths) …
Much-hyped Venter Big Oil algae deal heads back to drawing board
UCSD alumnus and self-styled emperor of the worlds genomes recasts not so miraculous $300 million deal with ExxonMobil for genetically engineering fuel from algae, reports MIT Tech Review
As first reported here in November 2008, La Jolla's Craig Venter, the self-styled human genome king, had grand plans for altering the DNA of algae to produce a variety of so-called biofuels, hopefully to replace the world's rapidly depleting supply …
City Attorney finds gaps in Mayor Filner's effort to remove traffic from Balboa Park's Plaza de Panama
In a May 15 memo, City Attorney finds issue with Filner's so-called temporary plan.
Not so fast, Mayor Filner. That's the gist of a May 15 memo from the City Attorney's Office regarding the Mayor's plan to close the Cabrillo Bridge, thus removing traffic in the Plaza De Panama. Filner's announced his proposal shortly …
Trailer Park: The World's End
Now that's structure.
Okay, it's not out until tomorrow, but I really really like the device in Frances Ha of having addresses serve as chapter headings, especially when your film is set in New York City. Still, I'm not sure that even that …
Trailer Park: Last Vegas
Brilliant. Mean, but brilliant.
Okay, so that was awful. That's understood. But there's a special evil to the awfulness. Because even though the trailer is barely over a minute long, it still manages to insult each and every one of its Academy Award-winning leads …