You Don't Say

WORDSMITH: Ralph Keyes began his writing career in San Diego 30 years ago with a bestseller that was turned into a hit off-Broadway musical, Is There Life After High School? And he’s continued to mix scholarship with entertainment in a string of popular books, including Chancing It, Timelock and The Post-Truth Era. His newest, The Quote Verifier (St. Martin’s Griffin), traces the history of famous quotations. Packed with familiar lines that have become widely misquoted or falsely attributed, Keyes’ book is a delightful exercise in setting the record straight. Few readers will be surprised to learn that Oscar Wilde, Mark Twain and Yogi Berra are among history’s most oft-quoted figures. But it’s the anecdotal material the author provides that makes The Quote Verifier so readable. Of the 460 quotes included, Keyes discovered some two-thirds were either wrongly attributed or worded—including one of the most famous sports quotes of all: “Winning isn’t everything; it’s the only thing.” That bit of philosophy is routinely attributed to legendary football coach Vince Lombardi. But, says Keyes, it was used in a John Wayne movie, Trouble Along the Way, that was released in 1953, when Lombardi was still a rather obscure assistant coach at West Point. More likely, those words came from former UCLA football coach Red Sanders, although Sanders and Lombardi aren’t the only coaches who’ve been given credit over the years. Among the others: Michigan’s Fielding Yost, Maryland’s Jim Tatum, Alabama’s Paul “Bear” Bryant, Joe Kuharich of the Washington Redskins and Sid Gillman, the San Diego Chargers’ first head coach. If Gillman didn’t say it, he should have.

ENTRE NEWS: With the city mired in financial crisis and turning its back on any deals, the Chargers are finally getting the kind of serious attention they’d hoped for—from the county. Supervisors Ron Roberts and Dianne Jacob, acting as a subcommittee of the board, have met with Chargers president Dean Spanos and his representatives to look at several options in the team’s quest for a new stadium in San Diego County. And one of them is smack in the middle of the city. In addition to the oft-mentioned sites in or around Oceanside, Chula Vista and National City, they’ve identified several others, including some East County land adjacent to Gillespie Field. But they seem most excited about what appears to be a suitable parcel at the southeast corner of I-15 and Highway 52. The undeveloped land is in the city limits, adjacent to Tierrasanta, and currently owned by the Navy (but not a part of Miramar). Roberts says the Navy has no plans to use the property, and adds it might be possible to work out a purchase or a trade with the Navy. He also holds out the possibility the city of San Diego might come back into the game as part of a joint venture with the Chargers and the county. “I think if we can get creative, we can have a win-win-win situation,” he says . . . Matthew Broderick, who turned a starring role in the regional revival of How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying at La Jolla Playhouse a decade ago into a Tony-winning turn on Broadway, may hope lightning strikes twice. Next winter, he’ll star in the world premiere of Kenneth Lonergan’s The Starry Messenger at the Old Globe. Pre-Broadway.

MONEY’S NO OBJECT: Yes, the cost of a gallon of gas has reached crisis proportion—but only for most of us. At the Union 76 station on Pearl Street in La Jolla, premium gas was selling for $3.94 a gallon one recent day. That’s high even by La Jolla standards. But according to my mole, there was a driver, blithely pumping the stuff into a yellow school bus. And then our spy took in the whole picture. The bus belonged to the privileged Bishop’s School of La Jolla.

ITEMS INFINITUM: Travel + Leisure magazine already ranks us second among “America’s Favorite Cities.” Now comes Condé Nast Traveler with more accolades in its 10th annual “Hot List” issue. The “insider’s guide to the newest and sexiest hotels, restaurants, spas and nightclubs” ranks four San Diego properties among the hottest—giving us more than any other city in the world. The hotties: Island Prime restaurant on Harbor Island; Altitude Skybar at the Ballpark Marriott; Tower23 hotel and its Jordan restaurant in Pacific Beach; and Solamar, Kimpton’s popular new boutique hotel in the Gaslamp Quarter . . . The mega-marketing of the late Dr. Seuss continues. In 2007, to mark the 50th anniversary of San Diegan Ted “Dr. Seuss” Geisel’s first children’s books—The Cat in the Hat and How the Grinch Stole Christmas—a San Francisco outfit is launching a major expansion of the Seuss line. Look for Dr. Seuss apparel, personal accessories, gifts and home furnishings. Really.

LAST WORD: When Mayor Jerry Sanders and City Attorney Mike Aguirre got word that an appeals court had tentatively overturned a developer’s multimillion-dollar award against the city of San Diego, they greeted the news, a newspaper reporter wrote, with “carefully guarded elation.” Which made Cary Butler wonder: “Would that be the opposite of ‘wildly abandoned depression’?”

Listen for Tom Blair’s Friday reports on KOGO News Radio (600 AM) at 7:25 a.m. You can also click here to listen to his column.

Items for the magazine or radio may be e-mailed to tblair@sandiegomag.com.

© 2006 San Diego Magazine

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