March 14 is celebrated as Pi Day because the date, when written as 3/14, matches the start of the decimal expansion 3.14159… of the most famous mathematical constant. By itself, pi is simply a number, one among countless others between 3 and 4. What makes it famous is that it’s built into every circle you see – circumference equals pi times diameter – not to…
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…
Daylight saving time: It’s backward time again when clocks step forth one hour at 2 a.m. Sunday, March 8, 2026. Don’t forget to do the right thing clockwise or you’ll be out of sync. Californians early Sunday will join most of the nation in the yearly ritual of switching their clocks an hour backwards and back on daylight saving time. Will they be allowed to…
As people in the U.S. prepare to turn their clocks ahead at 2 a.m. Sunday, March 8, I find myself bracing for the annual ritual of media stories about the disruptions to daily routines caused by switching from standard time to daylight saving time. About a third of Americans say they don’t look forward to these twice-yearly time changes. An overwhelming 63% to 16% majority…
A story published April 26, 2025, in the Santa Rosa Press Democrat, reported and written by Phil Barber, was about a senior facility 400 miles north of Encinitas. Swap out the vineyard views for coastal fog, and replace every mention of that facility with Encinitas Senior Living, 504 S. El Camino Real, and the piece starts to read less like regional news and more like…
While Encinitas Senior Living’s corporate pattern is playing out well beyond North County San Diego borders, the problems residents describe are not abstract. They are structural. When senior living companies say that legal disputes, bankruptcies, closures, and complaints at different properties are unrelated, they are usually asking readers to focus narrowly — one building at a time, one issue at a time — rather than…
Folks, you can’t make up this stuff: Former accused car thief who was arrested and eventually pleaded guilty to carrying a concealed weapon, Rep. Darryl Issa, (R-Bonsall???) said March 4 that he had “nominated President Donald Trump to receive the Nobel Peace Prize.” For real? “Not since Ronald Reagan has an American president better represented the national resolve of peace through strength or the fundamental…
Its gates are forever locked. The koi have died. A lonesome breeze blows through faded gardens overgrown with weeds. The waterfalls have ceased falling and even the roses have faded into wilted dreams. Welcome to Pikake Botanical Gardens at 15515 Villa Sierra Road, once one of the wonders of the horticultural world, now reduced to ashes and memories. A private botanical garden on nine acres,…
I owe my Trump-supporting family and friends an apology. I’ve been critical of the Trump presidency and — truth be told — still exhausted from the experience. But to be fair, President Trump wasn’t that bad. Other than when he… The Greatest Hits of Governance Incited an insurrection against the U.S. government. Mismanaged a pandemic that killed nearly half a million Americans. Separated children from…
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 years of chasing Tony Clifton to get his thoughts on…