2023

Keeping those New Year’s resolutions

OK, 2020 was hell on earth in many respects. And 2021 wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows. Not to mention 2022. Many of us have already decided that things will be different in 2023. We’ll try to finish off COVID-19, eat better, get more exercise, save more money or finally get around to decluttering those closets. But by the time February rolls around, most of us…


Three Dot Lounge gets jiggy with paella, then over to the local pizza and martini joint, the new Inn at RSF and …

Yes friends, Three Dot Lounge is breaking the publisher’s no posts until somebody actually supports this site rule to bring some important, and much needed, takes on the idiosyncratic, yet very f(l)avorable, local to The Grapevine culinary scene. BTW, if you support The Grapevine by donating throughPayPal: We exist to carry your voice. We do that for the good of the community. We are a…


Ghosts are in the house, but have no fear

I’ve talked about poltergeists before and we learned that if you don’t actually see what threw the plate at you then it was, most likely, a poltergeist instead of a ghost. Ghosts don’t fool around in the background of life. They are right there to scare the puddin’ out of you every chance they get. But why? Why does a ghostly spirit get his kicks…


Why are so few people born on Christmas Day, New Year’s and other holidays?

Christmas and New Year’s are days of celebration in many parts of the world when people gather with family and friends. One thing many typically don’t celebrate on those days is a birthday. That’s because Dec. 25 is the least popular day in the U.S., Australia and New Zealand to give birth. In England, Wales and Ireland, it’s the second-least popular, behind Dec. 26, when…


Beginning to look a lot like Christmas

No matter what holiday you honor in your home, we decorate our homes to please ourselves and to welcome family and friends during the holidays. Although this time of year seems to be hectic for most of us, transforming our homes with dazzling decorations for the tree, sprucing up the mantel (no pun intended), setting a new, inventive holiday table scape, or hanging an exquisite…


Riehl World’s Christmas gift — an ET brain

Today I agreed to donate my brain to medical science. (I’ll pause here to allow regular readers of my published opinion pieces to stop laughing.) Twenty-two years ago, after an afternoon of heavy yard work, I reached for a cold beer and sat down to rest. As I brought the bottle up to my mouth I couldn’t keep my hand from shaking. I had to…


Idiosyncratic dinosaur ‘museum’ went extinct

Always a bit of an oddity, and itself a colorful exhibition of an Escondido antique dealer’s lifelong hobby, the Roynon Museum celebrating all things dinosaur, went the way of the creatures celebrated within, that is to say, extinct, on June 30, 2019. Applying the lofty title of Roynon Museum of Earth Sciences and Paleontology to its decidedly idiosyncratic exhibit and purpose, museum officials this week…


From San Marcos ‘Dressing’ to Thanksgiving

(Editor’s Note: This was the state of the holiday just one year pre-COVID, for those with nostalgia for the way ot was before social distancing and over 770,000 Americans lost their lives…) California supplies the nation’s Thanksgiving tables California ranked #8 in turkey production in the United States (2016), and supplied most of the western states from our poultry farms located in several areas in the state….


Setting the Thanksgiving Table

Ah, Thanksgiving – the holiday that toasts America’s richness and bounty as no other. When we think of the loving labor that goes into preparing dinner for relatives and friends, it can anything but a holiday. The Thanksgiving table allows us to keep the day special, beautiful, and relaxing without being stuck in the kitchen. Whether you’re having a San Diego style get-together, celebrating somewhere…


J’accuse: Esc. youth council members say Esc. Council member Morasco went racist over Allegiance Pledge

Immediately after the Escondido City Council meeting on Wednesday, Nov. 15, District 4 Councilmember Mike Morasco approached Escondido City Youth Council (ECYC) founding members. Why? Morasco, a Republican in his 13th year on the council,  questioned youth council members about their citizenship status because they quietly opted out of reciting the Pledge of Allegiance at the start of the meeting. “It’s incredibly disappointing to have…