Our Our Way

BURIAL RIGHTS: After paying $45 million to purchase the storied U.S. Grant Hotel, and pumping another $53 million into refurbishing the downtown landmark, the Sycuan Band of Kumeyaay Indians decided it would be appropriate to bury a new time capsule in the century-old hotel. This time, they made sure the capsule contained something of the legacy of the American Indian—a recording of bird songs; a woven basket with photos of tribal members; a ceremonial gourd rattle; a history of the Sycuan people. All good choices, certainly. But Nancy Harmon thinks it would have been nice had they also included a few items representative of modern-day San Diego. “You know,” she says, “like a $2 billion IOU to the city’s pension fund; a giant pothole; a homeless NFL team; a city attorney’s ego; maybe a stripper from Cheetahs.”

SAN DIEGANS’ INK: Say aloha to Aloha. After leaving Channel 8 for the colder pastures of Minneapolis a year ago, weathercaster Aloha Taylor returns this month with a new gig at Fox Channel 6 in sweltering San Diego . . . One of San Diego’s biggest restaurant success stories is doing some editing. Sami Ladeki has sold off his Blackhorse Grille in Del Mar and Fresh Seafood Restaurant in La Jolla. But don’t look for any slowdown. Ladeki, who bankrolled his first Sammy’s Woodfired Pizza with personal credit cards, plans to continue the expansion of his Sammy’s chain and remodel his upscale Roppongi in La Jolla.

FOR SPORT: This might come a little late, but I just uncovered a press advisory dated July 26 from the San Diego Air & Space Museum. The museum may wish it had remained covered. The breathless release says the staff at the museum’s Technology Center on Pacific Highway has been “giving each other high-fives since Floyd Landis won the Tour de France.” That’s because Landis was at the center earlier this year for two days of testing. No, not drug testing. Time-testing in the wind tunnel. Oh, well.

ENTRÉ NEWS: In the first two weeks after the outbreak of war between the Israelis and Hezbollah, the San Diego Jewish Community Foundation took in more than $250,000 in grants from donors to support displaced residents of Israel . . . It’s old news to most of us, of course, but the great, gray New York Times has finally waded into the controversy over the harbor seals and their takeover of the Children’s Pool in La Jolla. The newspaper goes into some depths on the often-nasty debate between the Save Our Seals Coalition and La Jollans who want to take back the beach pool for their kids. But the headline pretty much says it all: “Cute, Stinky and Beached Seals Cause a Squabble.” . . . San Diego’s Resa Weinstein says our city is following the lead of New York, San Francisco and other great cities with a “new and exciting form of exercise and confidence boosting.” And she’s offering private and group lessons in downtown San Diego. The new program: exotic striptease. “During and after class,” Weinstein says, “your confidence comes out, you feel sexy, your radiance glows, and you show it.” You want to show it? E-mail Weinstein: ebyresa@hotmail.com.

FLASHBACK: It was a decade ago this summer, and John F. Kennedy Jr. was in our city promoting his new national magazine, George. John-John is gone, and so is the magazine he founded. But the memory lingers. During his visit to San Diego, Kennedy found an opportunity to have some fun with all the fuss over the Republicans arriving for their national convention. “This is such a suspenseful time for San Diego, what with the GOP convention coming,” Kennedy deadpanned. “There are so many unanswered questions. Like, will Bob Dole wear the blue suit or the gray suit? And will Jesse Helms attack blacks, women and gays, or will he mellow out and just attack gays? And if Pat Buchanan goes to a Mexican restaurant, who gets to poison his guacamole first?”

UNKINDEST CUT? So, former Representative Randy “Duke” Cunningham is not only a crook, he’s a crook with bad taste. Vanity Fair’s summer opus on the disgraced congressman doesn’t turn up a lot of late-breaking news. But it’s packed full of the sort of dishy stuff that makes the magazine so popular. We go behind closed doors with his defense-expert Beverly Hills shrink. We get rumors of sex with women villagers on Central American fact-finding missions. And we get the down low on those antiques he bought with his bribe money. Duke liked his antiques big, and he liked them expensive, according to his Maryland antiques dealer. But she absolutely despaired of his taste.

THE LAST WORD: It’s not just America Online that likes us. Staffer Leif M. Wright, of the Muskogee Daily Phoenix & Times Democrat, visited our city this summer and raved about our beaches in his travel feature. Not that Leif was here by choice, exactly. His story begins this way: “Last week, I flew to San Diego to testify in a murder trial in which one of my best friends is the defendant. The San Diego County district attorney had subpoenaed me, so I had to go.” Yeah, well then, might as well do a travel story.

---

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 © 2006 San Diego Magazine

Do you like what you read? Subscribe to San Diego Magazine »