Slow the Presses. . .

i On San Diego

WATCH OUT FOR THE FOOD FIGHT: That roving prize of a “Lunch with City Attorney Mike Aguirre” is still on the move. First offered as an auction prize at the Doin’ Downtown Gala, it later turned up for sale on eBay. It was then purchased by a group of local investors, who had something special in mind. They gave it as a gift to David Wescoe, who should have plenty of lunch conversation in store for the city attorney. Wescoe is CEO of Aguirre’s archenemy——the San Diego City Employees’ Retirement System.

SAN DIEGO SHUFFLE: After a long layoff, San Diego’s Joe Wambaugh, the ex-cop-turned-author, came back two years ago with a best-seller in Hollywood Station. This month, Little, Brown publishes the sequel, Hollywood Crows. Anticipating another best-seller, the publisher has bumped it up from an original May release to March 25 . . . The San Diego Opera has co-commissioned a world-premiere opera to be part of its 2011 season. Created by the renowned artistic team of Jake Heggie (composer) and Gene Scheer (librettist), it’s based on Herman Melville’s classic novel Moby-Dick. And no, wise guy, it has nothing to do with the soprano’s girth . . . Thanks for next to nothing: Alpine congressman Duncan Hunter, who’s abandoned his quest for the presidency, has thrown his support to Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee. Presumably that would be the one delegate Hunter bagged in Wyoming . . . San Diego is now the second-largest movie production center in California——second only to Los Angeles——with an average of 2,312 productions a year. The latest: an independent feature called Flying By, starring Heather Locklear and Billy Ray Cyrus, that pumped another $2 million into the local economy . . . Glaring anachronism: “If it’s really 2008,” Betty Heggerton wants to know, “why are gas stations still listed in the Yellow Pages under ‘service stations’?”

ST. PATRICK WOULD BE PROUD: How “green” can you get? At Del Sur in North County, the earth-friendly housing development of seven communities adjacent to Black Mountain Ranch, the prime parking spaces are marked “HYBRID ONLY.”

LOVE & MARRIAGE: This is not likely to go down well with the family values crowd or folks on the religious right, but at San Diego State University, it goes down as research. According to a first-ever psychological study of same-sex couples in civil unions, gay couples are more satisfied with their partners than married heterosexual couples are. The study, coauthored by SDSU professor Esther Rothblum and conducted over a three-year period, was just published in Developmental Psychology. It showed same-sex couples reporting greater relationship quality, compatibility, intimacy and lower levels of conflict than married couples. Says Rothblum: “The reasons for this could be varied, but when you have two women or two men in a couple, they have been socialized similarly, and so they’re both from ‘Venus’ or both from ‘Mars,’ so to speak. Because of this, they may not have to negotiate the huge barriers that men and women do in terms of how they view conflict, provide emotional support or handle child rearing.”

ENTRÉ NEWS: The Farnsworth Invention, spawned at La Jolla Playhouse in a Page-to-Stage workshop in early 2007, brings down the curtain at Broadway’s Music Box Theatre this month after just 104 regular performances. The play, based on the battle over the patent for television, was coproduced by Steven Spielberg and directed by former Playhouse artistic director Des McAnuff, who left the theater last year to pursue other creative opportunities . . . Three local restaurants made the top tier in the latest Mobil Travel Guide. The four-star winners: A.R. Valentien (The Lodge at Torrey Pines), Laurel and the Ocean Room at Jack’s La Jolla . . . Meanwhile: Blanca chef Wade Hageman——one of Esquire magazine’s “Top Four Chefs to Watch” in 2006, demonstrates his culinary talents this month at James Beard House in New York City . . . Victoria’s Secret, the self-styled arbiter of all things sexy, has added a new category to its “What Is Sexy” list. Sexiest running back, naturally: Charger LaDainian Tomlinson.

BLOODLINES: San Diego physician Forrest Adams, descended from presidents John Adams and John Quincy Adams, has enrolled in a new genetic research study with Scripps Genomic Medicine. The Wellderly Study looks at the genes of healthy elderly people (over 80) who’ve avoided major disease, to attempt to uncover modifier genes that keep them healthy. For Dr. Adams, who’s 88, good health clearly runs in the family. The first President Adams lived to 90; the second to 80. (Scripps is still looking for enrollees——no presidential pedigree required.)

THE BOTTOM LINE: Designer Doug Wilson shares food for the bureaucrats’ thoughts: We know exactly where one cow with mad-cow disease is located among millions and millions of cows in America, but we haven’t got a clue as to where millions of illegal immigrants and terrorists are. Maybe we should put the Department of Agriculture in charge of immigration.

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