At the end of Catching Fire, the second film in The Hunger Games series, our hero Katniss Everdeen, played by Oscar-winner Jennifer Lawrence, has managed to destroy the high-tech dome in which she and 23 other “tributes” from the 12 districts of the nation of Panem were fighting each other to death. The previous year,…
also playing Stephen Hawking is the most famous living physicist, if not the most famous living scientist, in the world. Hawking is best known for being debilitated by a motor neuron disease; he is almost completely paralyzed and communicates only through an electronic voice box. His first wife, Jane, wrote a memoir about their marriage,…
Everyone wonders how someone should handle the delicate situation of when a friend is at the center of a public firestorm. Should you defend your friend to the end? Should you say nothing because all you know is the friend has been a wonderful leader and nice guy as far as you can tell? Does…
The city’s medical services director, Dr. James Dunford told a City Council committee Nov. 13 that more than 2.5 million dirty needles were properly disposed of since the start of the city’s Clean Syringe Exchange Program. Presenting the Safe Point San Diego Clean Syringe Exchange Program Annual Report for fiscal year 2014 Dunford then asked…
The “Peep Bandit” who robbed adult bookstores and other businesses was sentenced Nov. 18 to eight years in prison and ordered to pay $1,914.14 to the adult businesses. Additionally, Oscar Augustin Smith Jr., 29, was ordered to pay $544.72 to two sandwich shops and 7-Eleven by San Diego Superior Court Judge Timothy Walsh, who said…
Thanksgiving is almost over, but as it is too soon for the religious elves and snowman, I’ll tell you of the Thanksgiving dinner I gave in my first year of teaching. Deciding to duplicate the happy ambiance of the famous Norman Rockwell tribute to Thanksgiving, I invited three equally new, young teachers and, in a…
Well over a year ago in this column, I wrote about the financial mismanagement going on at Auntie Helen’s. I reported how the County Board of Supervisors had demanded their government grant back because of mismanagement fraud; how Auntie Helen’s executive director was caught using this AIDS agency’s money at casinos for personal dinners and…
dvr this Lifetime, Saturday, Nov. 29, 8 p.m. The “Internet sensation” known as Grumpy Cat – named so because it’s a cat that always looks grumpy – has been monetized into a Lifetime Christmas movie. This sounds awful and absurd, but it’s also potentially rather funny, since the cat is voiced by the hilariously deadpan…
Between 1784 and 1846, the Spanish and Mexican governments established large land grants, called ranchos, to encourage the settlement of the territory known as California. The ranchos, dedicated to raising cattle and sheep, established land-use patterns and boundaries recognizable today. The community of Rancho Bernardo is one such example. People living on ranchos grew their…
