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…
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,…
I am a Facebook voyeur, and I have been guilty of shameless schadenfreude. Several years ago, I got a friend request from a man I didn’t know, but we had friends in common, so I accepted. All I knew is that he was a widower in his late 70s. He sent me a nice message. But after a few months of seeing his posts, I…
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…
Feb. 29 is Leap Day, 10 points one might want to consider. 1. Monthly salary — oops. An extra day when getting paid on a monthly basis doesn’t account for much. It counts, actually, for nothing. People getting paid a monthly salary are paid the same whether the month is 28 days or 29. 2. Tale of the tape — yeah. The sun rose at…
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,…
(Editor’s Note: Originally published Sept. 22, 2001 in the North County Times…) Clown came to town. He was talking peace by the freeway as others spoke of war. “I’m mainly out here for world peace,” said the thin, wispy-bearded 22-year-old who blew in from a Sonoma organic farm to visit his “girl,” and child in Ramona. In case you missed Clown — his nom d’pax…
“A payphone (alternative spelling: pay phone) is typically a coin-operated public telephone, often located in a telephone booth or a privacy hood, with pre-payment by inserting money (usually coins) or by billing a credit or debit card, or a telephone card. Around the Big Apple, Google Sidewalk Labs is replacing them with free city-wide Wi-Fi. In Ireland, units now are used less than once every…
In case you noticed, thanks for wondering. Everyone enjoys getting their news online for free. I know I do. Since 2015, I regularly have updated this site without seeking ads to keep it authentic and clear of any influence on fair and free journalistic expression. I have created and hosted this site through money out of my own pocket. Web hosting and development companies do…
Re: Hubcaps going second time around for art at the California Center For the Arts, Escondido from April 8 to May 28… Disclaimer: I do not carry, or sell, or handle, or trade in, or have anything to do with hubcaps Let me make this perfectly clear: I am not —- repeat not —- a hubcap dealer. OK, the tussie-mussies were one thing. I mentioned…