Articles by dweisman

In search of…Big Tepee

Big Tepee? Do you know the way, Jose’? Go around Escondido. Ask anyone about the Big Tepee. Since we can’t bet dollars against donuts anymore — some donuts cost much more than a dollar — let’s wager dollars against Chargers super bowl appearances that people asked that question will believe you should go to a big tepee of the medical kind. There’s an answer to…


Where have all the payphones gone?

“A payphone (alternative spelling: pay phone) is typically a coin-operated public telephone, often located in a telephone booth or a privacy hood, with pre-payment by inserting money (usually coins) or by billing a credit or debit card, or a telephone card. Around the Big Apple, Google Sidewalk Labs is replacing them with free city-wide Wi-Fi. In Ireland, units now are used less than once every…



Rancho Santa Fe Covenant won’t change racist coding

Rancho Santa Fe’s Covenant Association, basically a quasi-governmental homeowners association dating to the community’s founding in the 1920s, refuses to change the covenant designation that harkens back to racist restrictions in its original 1928 documentation despite the 1948 outlawing of the practice by the United States Supreme Court, sources say. “What’s unique about Rancho Santa Fe’s covenant is that it went beyond just restricting the…


Why I have not updated this site by the publisher

In case you noticed, thanks for wondering. Everyone enjoys getting their news online for free. I know I do. Since 2015, I regularly have updated this site without seeking ads to keep it authentic and clear of any influence on fair and free journalistic expression. I have created and hosted this site through money out of my own pocket. Web hosting and development companies do…



An Appreciation: Jim Eubank’s Woodpile at San Marcos Creek

“So out walking in the frozen swamp one gray day/I paused and said,/I will turn back from here./No, I will go on farther/and we shall see.” — Robert Frost, “The Wood Pile” That’s how I feel this day walking past the bowling alley in the 2002 way back machine. Seeing what I can see on a hot day by a certain San Marcos landmark. The…


Pala’s ultimate underground radio station

“March 21, 2023 is the 12th Anniversary of the first show of Mark’s Groovy Trip on Rez Radio 91.3. Join us today from 1:00-4:00PM Pacific Time for our special !2th Anniversary Show featuring songs that peaked out at the #12 position on the Billboard Hot 100. Download the RezRadio 91.3 app at Google Play or the Apple App Store for the best listening experience. You…


Lightning in the form of an ATM machine stolen by truck strikes twice at same Del Lago shopping center

Why bother stealing from an ATM machine when you can just steal the ATM machine. Who says ATM machine theft, like lightning, never strikes twice? Somebody, or somebodies, around Escondido’s Plaza Del Lago Center just east of newly renamed North County Mall has a recurring criminal fixation with this bit of advanced banditry. For yet another time, an in-store ATM at that small outdoor shopping…


Earth Day and the treasure of Terra Madre

Earth Day, appropriately enough, was celebrated in the Earth Day way at Escondido’s Terra Madre Gardens. “This is the first time we’re doing it,” said Jessica Sanchez, who co-owns the farm with her spouse David Solomon. “The farm has a lot to offer and wants the community to be involved.” That meant following up its composting workshop at 9928 Protea Gardens Road by Old Highway…