Watch Your Back, Too

i On San Diego

STILL WATCHING: Yes, we’ve been here before. People-watching is the stock in trade of magazine writers. So we’re always watching. Each January, for the past quarter-century, we’ve trained a spotlight on a select group of San Diegans we deem particularly worthy of your attention in the new year. You’ll find this year’s crop by turning to page 78——just in case you turned to this page first.

But now let’s take a quick look back at that first crop of watchables, class of 1982. Did we know our business? Pete Wilson was still mayor of San Diego, but we predicted bigger things. He went on that year to win a U.S. Senate seat, then decided he’d rather be governor, and won that, too. Sportscaster Ted Leitner, who’d recently joined Channel 8, was still “a breath of fresh air,” according to the editors. And Donald Sterling, then new owner of San Diego’s NBA Clippers, was promising “a championship team soon.” Two years later, he and his team defected to Los Angeles. We’re still waiting.

Susan Golding was a fresh-faced rookie San Diego councilwoman. Gene Cubbison was a 33-year-old, no-nonsense TV newsman. He still is. No-nonsense, that is. Richard Louv was a 32-year-old reporter/columnist at The San Diego Union. These days, he’s an award-winning author whose latest book, Last Child in the Woods, has won him international accolades.

Malin Burnham was a “business–sports–civic leader——a perennial all-star in the community.” Still is. Doug Manchester was “stamping his business brand on the downtown San Diego skyline.” Ditto. Dick Williams was the “hard-nosed, highly respected new manager of the San Diego Padres.” Last month, he was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Bill Kolender was San Diego’s young police chief, whose “strength, smarts and affability could carry him far in public life.” They have.

Jack O’Brien was one year into his long reign as artistic director of the Old Globe Theatre and had one nomination for a Broadway Tony. This month, with three Tonys on his mantel for directing Broadway musicals, he segued to Globe artistic director emeritus.

Oh, and Tom Blair was The San Diego Union’s “spicy new items columnist.” Whatever happened to him?

WATCH THIS: It’s official: You can now buy anything on eBay. Item number 120190729344 appeared in the category of “Specialty Services——Experiences,” just in time for holiday giving: “Win a Lunch with San Diego City Attorney Mike Aguirre.” The auction prize, according to the seller, entitles the winner to a sitdown lunch with Aguirre at the Westgate Café. “You get the opportunity to ask Mike whatever you’d like,” the ad says, “and the best part is, he’s buying!” The lunch was originally won at the Doin’ Downtown Gala & Auction, benefiting the Hospital Infantil de las Californias. “The winner sought [sic] it fitting to allow all San Diego residents the opportunity to win this RARE opportunity,” the ad says (although it may well have been just buyer’s remorse). Special instructions: “Please use the ‘Ask Seller a Question’ link to submit a question you would like to get a straight answer for.”

OUTSIDE IN: “The travel choices for global nomads have never been more varied,” boasts The New York Times, just out with its list of the top 53 destinations for savvy travelers in 2008. And of course, San Diego makes the cut. “Wildfires this fall didn’t prevent the opening of the much-anticipated Hard Rock Hotel San Diego,” the Times says, while also noting the launching of new Virgin America air service between San Diego and San Francisco next month. But maybe we shouldn’t let this go to our heads. We’re way down at No. 44 on the list——behind such chic destinations as Detroit (No. 40), Namibia (No. 38), Iran (No. 18) and Death Valley (No. 8).

BED & BOARD: The San Diego edition of the prestigious Zagat guide to dining——unceremoniously dropped by its publishers in 2001——is back. The 2008 edition, coordinated by San Diego Magazine dining critic David Nelson and written by former San Diego Magazine associate editor Maribeth Mellin, is in bookstores this month . . . In Condé Nast Traveler’s “Top 100 Readers’ Choice Awards,” La Jolla’s Lodge at Torrey Pines was named one of the top 50 mainland U.S. resorts . . . A Travel & Leisure online survey of 60,000 put San Diego and Miami at the top of the list of U.S. cities with the most-beautiful people.

SAN DIEGO SEEN: LaDainian Tomlinson got the 60 Minutes treatment in a recent segment that was long on praise for the Chargers’ iconic running back. On the field, CBS correspondent Bob Simon said, L.T. proves the exception to the rule that nice guys finish last. But it’s the running back’s off-field generosity and community service that “makes him truly remarkable . . . a role model for children and their parents.” A bit of happy irony, courtesy of CBS: The Chargers drafted Tomlinson after trading away their rights to that year’s number-one draft choice. Not much of a role model there. The player they could have picked, and didn’t, went to prison last month: quarterback Michael Vick.

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