dan weisman


29 years ago, Heaven’s Gate couldn’t wait

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…


Seriously, what? Issa nominated Trump for Nobel Prize

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…


Memories of Pikake Gardens

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,…



Phyllis Weisman Blackman of Greenwich Dies at 92

Phyllis Bernstein Weisman Blackman died peacefully of natural causes at her longtime Greenwich, Conn., home on Feb. 8. She was 92. The daughter of Bernard “Bunny” and Ethel Bernstein, whose family owned National Silver Industries and F.B. Rogers Silver Co., known for consumer and specialty silver-plated tableware and hollowware, Phyllis grew up on Manhattan’s Upper East Side and attended The Dalton School. She left school…


Robynn Nussbaum and The Shoe Lounge

Robynn Nussbaum put her heart and soul into The Shoe Lounge. It was a small, yet elegant, haute couture footwear and accessory store she opened at Del Rayo Plaza across from Fairbanks Country Club. An avid tri-athlete and marathon runner with three young children and four step-children, the 44-year-old Rancho Santa Fe resident had a passion for shoes. She dreamed for years of opening an…


Oolong ain’t just for tea anymore, it’s an RSF art icon

Hey, you. That’s right, YOU. Art lover, cultural icon. Keeping it classy, sassy and fun. Art for any space, any place, any situation, enjoyable and appreciating in value as you appreciate it for years to come. We’re talking tons of visual and personal pleasure, enhancing any experience, providing fun and coffee plus water cooler talk for ages immemorial. Frame it, display it, do with it…


Pink slime and the phantom newsroom: When bots like ‘San Diego City Wire’ pretend to be your neighbors

San Diego’s got sunshine, surf, and—who knew—synthetic journalism. Lately, a site called San Diego City Wire has been popping up in social feeds and search results, dishing out “local” tidbits about home sales, city meetings, and “community happenings.” It looks like any of the old-school weeklies that used to land on your porch in a blue plastic bag. The headlines are tidy, the writing reads…


Welcome to Kevin Breslin’s Harmony Grove rabbit hole

Jimmy Breslin. That’s my lede. Jimmy Breslin. Or rather, AI Jimmy Breslin. Breslin was OK. Not a great writer, but an OK muckraker. So, sue my story tag, you’re it, Kevin Breslin, Jimmy’s apparent self-appointed nepo baby defender of the family jewels. I wasn’t a big Jimmy, and now Kevin, Breslin fan; and sometimes not a fan at all, but considered Jimmy Breslin part of…