Escondido took a knee at high noon Wednesday, June 3, 2020. That’s when Mayor Paul “Mac” McNamara, Council member Mike Morasco, Escondido Police Chief Varso, Yusef Miller of Racial Justice Coalition San Diego, Rev. Meg Decker of Escondido Together and other leaders and community members held a peaceful vigil at City Hall. An estimated 200 people attended. With the coronavirus devil still in the air, invisible,…
Click Here or title to read more
(Here are a few random items relating to Escondido, San Marcos, Rancho Santa Fe and Valley Center that might have missed in the rush to societal protest and coronavirus relief…) Coronavirus be damned, time for some Panache Panache is the most important event on Escondido Arts Partnership Municipal Gallery (EAP)’s busy calendar of exhibitions, educational programming, and special activities benefiting San Diego county residents and…
Click Here or title to read more
We are going to consider a few outstanding three-dot items stripped from below, well below, today’s coronavirus headlines. But first, a reminder and salute about he who pioneered the three-dot way It’s been over 20 years since famed San Francisco journalist Herb Caen (1916-1997) died. For journalists and San Franciscans, Caen was a superstar. Known as “Mr. San Francisco,” his columns were a vital piece…
Click Here or title to read more
IN SUMMARY The National Guard — now deployed to some California cities where property damage and a few incidents of violence occurred — are being welcomed by some but not all. As Californians continue to protest the death of George Floyd and what it signifies about broader racism, thus far two counties and the mayors of Los Angeles, Long Beach and Sacramento have requested —…
Click Here or title to read more
In cities across the country, police departments have attempted to quell unrest spurred by the death of George Floyd by firing rubber bullets into crowds, even though five decades of evidence shows such weapons can disable, disfigure and even kill. In addition to rubber bullets — which often have a metal core — police have used tear gas, flash-bang grenades, pepper spray gas and projectiles…
Click Here or title to read more
Following peaceful protests over the weekend that sometimes turned violent, the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department instated a curfew on Monday, June 1, 2020 and protests have still continued. According to Martha Montoya, who sits on the State Board of Food and Agriculture, the protests have been disrupting access to markets for small farmers, who are already struggling to adapt during the pandemic. “It’s a tough situation,” said Montoya…
Click Here or title to read more
Rosie’s Cafe hasn’t had much success as an actual eatery, but it has become something of a cause celebre and a virtual hit on television thanks to TV makeover chef Robert Irvine and his Food Network’s “Restaurant: Impossible” show. The televised journey into somethingness continues at 9 p.m. Thursday May 28 with a 60-minute special on The Food Network. Check your local listings for channels….
Major Market becomes a masking hotspot Sara Chhng-To of Aspara’s Salon & Day Spa took her coronavirus layoff to heart by going into the masking business. These days, she can be found from around noon to 5 p.m. daily at the northeast corner of the Major Market parking lot, 1855 S. Centre City Parkway, Escondido. Chheng-To makes many masks hersef and brings in a varety…
As the death, disease, and financial devastation wrought by COVID-19 begins to recede in some communities, restaurants are eager to re-open in ways that will protect customer and employee health while re-establishing profitability. And diners are salivating at the thought of savoring their favorite meals and supporting the restaurant community. “Smoke-free outdoor dining promotes healthy air and capitalizes on the intensive sanitizing efforts already implemented…
With all due respect to ABC’s Wide World of Sports…Spanning the world to bring you the constant variety of sports… the thrill of victory… and the agony of defeat… the human drama of athletic competition…This is The Escondido Grapevine’s Wide World of Coronavirus-related Sports. Tyler Saladino turning South Korean (Baseball) Your browser does not support iframes. You remember Tyler Saladino. Some of you anyway. Saladino,…
Tough to cull the sweet from the bitter this week as customers at Grand Avenue’s landmark, iconic Champion’s Family Restaurant ate their last meals with tears flooding food-splashed eyes. Like the condemned with no remaining reprieve, customers bade sad farewells to all that tasty comfort food with final portions of signature corned beef hash topped off by to-die-for cinnamon rolls. Come to represent the heart…
State Rep. Marie Waldron (R-75th District), who portrays herself as a fiscally responsible conservative, took the highest amount of mileage reimbursements in the California Legislature during the 2015-16 session, state records show. Nine of the Legislature’s 120 members — 80 in the House, 40 in the Senate, in all — who took over $20,000 in payouts represented almost half of the mileage reimbursements, according to…
Local non-profit research and advocacy group Center on Policy Initiatives this week found that Escondido’s poverty rate was just about the highest in San Diego county. Only El Cajon’s 22.8 percent was barely higher than Escondido’s 21.6 percent overall rate. El Cajon had 28 percent poverty rate for children, Escondido? It was 28.5 percent. Otherwise across the land, Vista had an 18.6 percent rate, San…
My days at the department store weren’t the most memorable, but a friend I knew briefly stands out, and the job had its moments. Who knows who makes these personnel decisions. Some genius at store management had the brilliant idea of assigning me, at first, to women’s shoes. It didn’t take long to realize that women, at least the ones who shopped at our store,…
There are farmers markets and then, there are (cannabis) farmers markets. At an undisclosed location and time in San Marcos, revealed only to certified medical marijuana card holders through private message, but with a $15 admission price, the San Diego Cannabis Farmers Market “North County Edition” rolled into somewhere for a while Saturday. “We ask that you not give out the location to non-market attendees…
Thanks for stopping by to read mmm-yoso!!!, a food blog. Kirk is having some technical difficulties, while Ed (from Yuma) is enjoying the pleasant weather (in Yuma) and Cathy is writing a quick post. We parked in front of Vinz a few weeks ago when stopping at EscoGelato for a sweet treat and The Mister kept it in mind when it was His turn to choose one…
Escondido took a knee at high noon Wednesday, June 3, 2020. That’s when Mayor Paul “Mac” McNamara, Council member Mike Morasco, Escondido Police Chief Varso, Yusef Miller of Racial Justice Coalition San Diego, Rev. Meg Decker of Escondido Together and other leaders and community members held a peaceful vigil at City Hall. An estimated 200 people attended. With the coronavirus devil still in the air, invisible,…
Click Here or title to read more
Ammar Campa-Najjar led the way in 50th Congressional District and top county results Democrat Ammar Campa-Najjar advanced to the run-off in the race to fill the vacancy left by disgraced former Republican Rep. Duncan Hunter in California’s 50th District. Campa-Najjar will likely face former Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), who’s attempting a congressional comeback, and beat out former San Diego City Councilman Carl DeMaio in the all-party primary held on…
Click Here or title to read more
Would anyone call for notorious Joe McCarthy advisor, and corrupt lawyer, Roy Cohn to be given any kind of award or recognition as a distinguished graduate of their school? How about Bill Barr? Like Cohn, Barr went to Horace Mann School. Unlike Cohn, Barr was 2011 “distinguished” Horace Mann alumnus. Considering Barr’s immoral and unethical conduct in support of Donald Trump and circumvention of accepted…
Click Here or title to read more
Got to give it to Marie Waldron, Valley Center’s ode to abuse of mileage reimbursements in the California Legislature — for more on that, visit this link — but YOUR Republican representative for California’s 75th Assembly District managed this week to score a solid “F” for her 2019 “Courage Score” from The People’s Report Card of California. In fact, Waldron couldn’t have fared worse to standing…
Click Here or title to read more
(Editor’s Note: The San Diego Union Tribune recently ballyhooed a documentary it created based on that newspaper’s coverage of California’s 50th Congressional District’s disgraced former representative Duncan Hunter, R-Vapeville. The 5-part series, accessed through this link ,debuted on Jan. 22 at the California Center for the Arts, Escondido. An hour-long version of “The 50th” first played on Jan. 26 on Cox Cable and Spectrum Cable in San Diego. Episodes are…
Click Here or title to read moreEscondido took a knee at high noon Wednesday, June 3, 2020. That’s when Mayor Paul “Mac” McNamara, Council member Mike Morasco, Escondido Police Chief Varso, Yusef Miller of Racial Justice Coalition San Diego, Rev. Meg Decker of Escondido Together and other leaders and community members held a peaceful vigil at City Hall. An estimated 200 people attended. With the coronavirus devil still in the air, invisible,…
Click Here or title to read more
Editor’s Note: Michael Patrick Welch, renowned New Oreans writer, musician, teacher and friend of The Escondido Grapevine, conducted an interview with the provocateur known to Andy Kauffman and Bob Zmuda fans as Tony Clifton. While others have shunned this outstanding piece of informational journalism, we embrace it and re-print this as a public service. “After a year of chasing Tony Clifton to get his thoughts…
Click Here or title to read more
Go down to Hernandez Hideaway at rural Lake Drive in Del Dios and people will swear up and down the long wooden bar that Hodgee, the friendly Lake Hodges monster, really truly — well, almost definitely exists. “The Lake Hodges Hodgee monster is kind of like the Loch Ness monster,” said Stan Smith, a long-time Del Dios resident. Smith, a cowboy poet and man about…
Click Here or title to read more
Dateline Rancho Santa Fe. March 26, 1997. A 911 call came into the San Diego Sheriff’s Communications Center. It was treated as a prank call at first. From what turned out to be a nearby payphone, the caller said something so preposterous that dispatchers took their time in relaying the information to central command. “This is regarding a mass suicide. I can give you the address,” the…
Click Here or title to read more
Et tu Brute? Beware the Ides of March. It’s a day cloaked in infamy and the assassination of the Emperor Julius Caesar, a turning point in Roman history; March 15, 44 B.C.E. Let that be a lesson to you, Donald Trump. Time for you to self-quarantine. But we digress. And, according to the Smithsonian Museum, a lot of other notable events have taken place today…
Click Here or title to read more
Rosie’s Cafe hasn’t had much success as an actual eatery, but it has become something of a cause celebre and a virtual hit on television thanks to TV makeover chef Robert Irvine and his Food Network’s “Restaurant: Impossible” show. The televised journey into somethingness continues at 9 p.m. Thursday May 28 with a 60-minute special on The Food Network. Check your local listings for channels….
Click Here or title to read more
Major Market becomes a masking hotspot Sara Chhng-To of Aspara’s Salon & Day Spa took her coronavirus layoff to heart by going into the masking business. These days, she can be found from around noon to 5 p.m. daily at the northeast corner of the Major Market parking lot, 1855 S. Centre City Parkway, Escondido. Chheng-To makes many masks hersef and brings in a varety…
Click Here or title to read more
As the death, disease, and financial devastation wrought by COVID-19 begins to recede in some communities, restaurants are eager to re-open in ways that will protect customer and employee health while re-establishing profitability. And diners are salivating at the thought of savoring their favorite meals and supporting the restaurant community. “Smoke-free outdoor dining promotes healthy air and capitalizes on the intensive sanitizing efforts already implemented…
Click Here or title to read more
With all due respect to ABC’s Wide World of Sports…Spanning the world to bring you the constant variety of sports… the thrill of victory… and the agony of defeat… the human drama of athletic competition…This is The Escondido Grapevine’s Wide World of Coronavirus-related Sports. Tyler Saladino turning South Korean (Baseball) Your browser does not support iframes. You remember Tyler Saladino. Some of you anyway. Saladino,…
Click Here or title to read more
Coronavirus has killed a lot of business and commerce during the past few months. A national retail giant and locally based restaurant chain are getting out of Escondido and North County. By the same token, an Escondido shopping center and apartment complex changed hands recently as well. Here are the highlights. No more Nordstrom for you Want to get some high-end retail goods for whenever…
Click Here or title to read more
When you think of California in the 1970s, maybe you think of hippies, Fleetwood Mac or skateboards. But if you’re an entomologist, you might think of all the natural spaces that have since been devoured by urbanization and wonder what happened to the native bees that lived in them. The question isn’t one of mere nostalgia or curiosity. Insect populations around the world are plunging…
Click Here or title to read more
After a frustrating couple months — which saw some 300 workers, including nurses, get laid off — Palomar Medical Center nurses once again rallied against the practices of the health care corporation on Monday, May 11. This time, they’re calling for the resignation of Palomar Health CEO Diane Hansen and the rescinding of layoffs. “All have lost confidence that she can guide us through this…
Click Here or title to read more
Let’s face it: we’re stressed. The current COVID-19 pandemic has plunged us into a period of unparalleled change in the way we live, work, and learn. Worries about the public health crisis are coupled with deepening concerns about unprecedented job and financial losses. Thus, it is more important now than ever to be mindful of our emotional health and prioritize self-care. With May recognized as…
Click Here or title to read more
