Lights, camera, weirdness. “Married at First Sight,” the Lifetime Channel reality TV show matching total strangers in unholy matrimony upon first meeting, shoots its brand of unreal magic through Feb. 5 at the ultra-exclusive Inn at Rancho Santa Fe. Check it out. If they’ll let you. They threw me off the set for having the audacity to walk up the Inn’s primrose path, lingering for…
Organic growing guru Scott Murray, a Vista resident, had a searing question — the kind of question that cuts to the core of a certain sense of community. Driving around Twin Oaks, he said, “Where are the twin oaks of Twin Oaks?” I’ve driven around Twin Oaks a lot. But it never occurred to me that the area at the northeast corner of San Marcos…
SURVEILLANCE PELICANA BY DAN WEISMAN The entire book appears at this link with chapters added after appearing online: Chapters 1-10: https://www.escondidograpevine.com/surveillance-pelicana-full-book-chapters-added-as-they-appear-online/. Chapters 11-20: https://www.escondidograpevine.com/surveillance-pelicana-part-ii-chapters-11-to-20-chapters-added-as-they-appear-online/ Chapters 21-30: https://www.escondidograpevine.com/surveillance-pelicana-part-iii-chapters-21-to-30-chapters-added-as-they-appear-online/ CHAPTER ONE On Christmas Day 1987, Tyger Williams, video artist, discovers a classified ad for an insurance investigator which he answers. On New Year’s Day, he burns the “box of troubles” at the abandoned 1984 World’s Fair site…
Ebenezer Scrooge could have used a better PR agent; the poor, dear misunderstood gentleman. Scrooge’s problem was bad publicity, the cynical media. However, I admire the poor sap, and not just because he is so darn cute. You’ve heard all the stories. Scrooge was the guy who (allegedly) messed with good old Bob Cratchit’s Christmas. And don’t even start on Tiny Tim. Bah, humbug. People…
Escondido’s Ukulele Ray was a man of many faces, many names and many talents, always entertaining and many time surprising. Scroll down the right sidebar and you’ll see one of his “Only in Esco” cartoons he drew for The Escondido Grapevine. Ray also drew the winter cartoon atop this story, which he captioned: “Harry didn’t always dress like ‘The Grimace!’ We moved to Escondido, so…
Like father like son like grandson, Del’s Barber Shop is old school and proud of it. “It’s pretty much the same old barber shop,” said Jason Engelbrecht, now large and in charge of the 4-barber shop on S. Escondido Boulevard next to Lourdes Restaurant and its famous chicken soup. “We try not to change anything.” One would be hard-pressed to find another blast from the…
The more things change the more they stay they same eerily reflects the appointment of a new Escondido police chief. That would be Ed Varso, announced Tuesday as new police chief come Dec. 27. Varso was Escondido police chief from January 2020 before leaving in June of this year to become Menifee’s second police chief. Varso served in the Escondido Police Department from 2002 until…
Was it me? Or was it the dart store? Whatever it was, every time I thought of going to the dart store, it was closed. My grand plan was to get a dart, throw it at a map of the greater San Marcos sphere of influence and produce a column based on the people at the place where the dart landed. This was an homage,…
Last week marked a time steeped in manifest destiny. Manifest Destiny. Not a term one hears much today, and a concept liberals and conservatives might debate from both sides of the ideological divide, but an organizing principle from 19th Century America with massive implications for modern day America. This, then, is a pretty good week to consider President James K. Polk. Nov. 2 marks Polk’s…
Get that up to $1,050 California direct tax refund today? Fret not, direct payments or money cards for about 23 million Californians are going in the direct deposit account or mailbox through next year, state officials said. Part of the $308 billion state budget signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom on June 30, one-time payments known as the Middle Class Tax Refund (MCTR) will be sent…