Articles by The Grapevine

Monarchs in flight: Saving our fluttering treasures

On a quiet Tuesday, U.S. wildlife officials, with an air of both resolve and regret, unveiled their intent to extend federal protections to the delicate monarch butterfly—a creature whose presence evokes a profound sense of wonder yet whose existence teeters precariously. For years, environmentalists have sounded the alarm, warning that the monarch’s numbers dwindle ominously, their shimmering wings an emblem of a vanishing world threatened…


La Niña looms. Will San Diego’s luck hold this winter?

San Diego County, as far as weather is concerned, often carries the smug air of a guest at the Thanksgiving table who neither brings nor takes too much—just clear skies and dry streets to boast about, while its neighbors to the north dabble in calamity. This week has been no exception. While Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, and San Luis Obispo have been slapped about by…


Dance of the orcas: Awe and etiquette on the open seas

In the surging foam of the Pacific swells, where the boundless blue mirrors heaven’s depths, there came again to Southern California’s shores a band of oceanic hunters, their presence rare as an albatross amid the doldrums. These orcas, sovereigns of the sea, whose brief sojourns here once stirred both awe and marvel, now returned, their black-and-white heraldry glistening like banners of some ancient, aquatic knightly…


San Diego North County Japanese-Americans recall World War II internments

In San Diego County, which had a population of 2,076 Japanese-Americans in 1940, families were sent to Poston, 12 miles south of Parker, Ariz. Poston was one of 10 internment camps created during World War II after an executive order authorized the Secretary of War to designate specific areas as military zones and excluded certain people from living in them. President Franklin Roosevelt signed Executive Order…


Dock Ellis 6/12/70 San Diego LSD no-hitter

It’s been 54 years. Welcome to Lysergic World San Francisco, April 16-19, 1993 presentation of one of the most infamous days in San Diego sports history. Los Angeles, April 8, 1984- Former Pittsburgh Pirates’ pitcher Dock Ellis says he was under the influence of LSD when he pitched a June 12, 1970 no-hitter against the San Diego Padres. Ellis, later co-ordinator of an anti-drug program in Los…


Why won’t scientific evidence change the minds of Loch Ness monster true believers?

You may have noticed a curious recent announcement: An international research team plans to use state-of-the-art DNA testing to establish once and for all whether the Loch Ness monster exists. And for those locally, check out The Grapevine’s consideration of our local monster wannabe, Hodgee, the friendly Lake Hodges Moster, posted  here… Regardless of the results, it’s unlikely the test will change the mind of…


Dr. Bronner’s psychedelic mushroom trip

Dr. Emanuel Bronner was born Feb. 1, 1908 and died March 7, 1997 at his Escondido home. His soap company moved to Vista in 2014 after 50 years in Escondido. Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soaps remain an iconic and distinctively American staple brand and curiosity, their wordy labels ubiquitous from Northwestern co-operative farming communities to the upscale bodegas of gentrified North Brooklyn. The boldly colored packaging…


Veteran serves Escondido ag community

USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service is celebrating National Volunteer Week by thanking and honoring its Earth Team volunteers for their service to conservation. One of those so honored was Commander Theresa Everest, an Escondido resident who knew farming was her next step after service in the U.S. Navy, that included deployment to Kuwait and Afghanistan. Two traumatic brain injuries ended Everest’s career with the Navy and…


Heaven’s Gate coming to the big screen in blockbuster

Considering the spectacular nature of the nation’s largest mass suicide on March 26, 1997 when 21 men and 18 women wearing the same black Nike shoes, covered in purple blankets killed themselves at a rented Rancho Santa Fe estate, it seemed only a matter of time when the incident would go Hollywood.. That time has come, according to Britta DeVore of entertainment news site Collider. Vera…


What President Biden said at Rancho Santa Fe event

The White House Tuesday released a complete read-out of formal remarks made by President Biden from 6:47 p.m. to 7:25 p.m. Monday at the Rancho Santa Fe residence of tech entrepreneurs Allan and Megan Camaisa. He made those remarks during a fundraiser for the Democratic National Committee and Democratic Grassroots Fund in which he reportedly raised $1 million. This was Biden’s final stop after a…