Today’s Big News

27 years ago, Heaven’s Gate couldn’t wait

Dateline Rancho Santa Fe. March 26, 1997. A 911 call came into the San Diego Sheriff’s Communications Center. It was treated as a prank call at first. From what turned out to be a nearby payphone, the caller said something so preposterous that dispatchers took their time in relaying the information to central command. “This is regarding a mass suicide. I can give you the address,” the…

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Three Dot Lounge gets jiggy with paella, then over to the local pizza and martini joint, the new Inn at RSF and …

Yes friends, Three Dot Lounge is breaking the publisher’s no posts until somebody actually supports this site rule to bring some important, and much needed, takes on the idiosyncratic, yet very f(l)avorable, local to The Grapevine culinary scene. BTW, if you support The Grapevine by donating throughPayPal: We exist to carry your voice. We do that for the good of the community. We are a…

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Move over D.B. Cooper for Geezer Bandit

People have been debating D.B. Cooper ever since his Thanksgiving 1971 leap into history and out of a commercial flight from Portland to Seattle with a whole bunch of money. The same, on a smaller scale, appears to be happening with North County’s own Geezer Bandit, so-called. He hit Vista — twice — Rancho Santa Fe, La Jolla — twice — Poway and 10 other…

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This Veteran’s Day unremembered: American Expeditionary Force Siberia

Parades rolled through many American cities on Veterans Day, Nov. 11 honoring the anniversary of the end of World War I on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918, what once was known as Armistice Day. None of those parades, however, featured tributes or remembrance of one of the war’s oddities made all the more poignant by today’s tensions…

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Trumponomics for those believing a faux businessman

Trump and his administration claimed credit for much of the economic success during his presidency, including the booming economy ahead of the pandemic-induced shutdowns and recession. However, critics have pointed out that much of the economic progress he points to was inherited from former president Barack Obama’sadministration. Trump ran a campaign centered on the promise to Make America Great Again (MAGA).Trump’s tariffs are expected to…

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VOTE TO END THE TRUMP ERA

THE EDITORIAL BOARD VOTE TO END THE TRUMP ERA You already know Donald Trump. He is unfit to lead. Watch him. Listen to thosewho know him best. He tried to subvertan election and remains a threat to democracy. He helped overturn Roe, with terrible consequences. Mr. Trump’s corruption and lawlessness go beyondelections: It’s his whole ethos. He lieswithout limit. If he’s re-elected, the G.O.P. won’t…

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Popular Posts

Local ironworker Paul Pursley spent 10 weeks at Ground Zero following Sept. 11

Sept. 11, 2001: Local ironworker Paul Pursley spent 10 weeks at “Ground Zero” following the terrorist attack. His major complaint in the years following concerned his inability to get correct, and affordable, treatment due to the costs involved, costs that Congress finally agreed to add funding to the 9/11 First Responders fund almost 18 years later. “Ironworkers worked every day,” Pursley said. “We went on 12-hour shifts…


Sending in the llamas and clowns on 9/11

Sept. 10, 2001 was pretty much like any other day. That is to say honored only in its passing, don’t remember what happened. Sept. 11, 2001, as we all know, was a day seared in our personal and national memories like few others. Don’t know when the carnage began, but at my Del Dios home phones started ringing way too early in the morning and…


Before Babe Ruth, there was Gavvy Cravath

(Editor’s Note: Gavvy Cravath was an Escondido native, perhaps the first Major League Baseball star from San Diego County. Patrolling right field at the historic Baker Bowl for the Dead Ball Era Philadelphia Phillies, he led the National League in home runs six times in the years just prior to Babe Ruth’s arrival on the scene. Later, a Laguna Beach municipal judge, the crusty Cravath,…


Lynn Marrie hats help rock for Sublime’s Bradley House

A Sublime Life Sobriety Festival attracted a host of fans and sober living proponents to Oceanside Civic Center on May 11 where a supportive community immersed itself in a variety of activities including live music, insightful speakers and interactive activities. Inspired by late Sublime front man Bradley Nowell, the Nowell Family Foundation sponsored the event to acquaint folks with its Bradley House addiction recovery project….


Editor’s Picks

Nerd was the word at Nerd Con 2016

Nerd Con 2016 has come and gone from the California Center for the Arts, Escondido and its immediate environs. Gone, but not forgotten, as evidenced by memories, and when those memories fade, Vblog accounts. Over 3,000 nerds and fellow travelers descended over, under, around and about the California Center doing what nerds do and heaven can wait. Major emphasis of the big show that ran…


Hunter, Waldron no-go at CSUSM forum

To help students become more engaged in the political process, Cal State San Marcos decided to bring the politicians to them on Tuesday, Oct. 9, exactly four weeks before the election. About 150 students, faculty, staff and community members turned out for CSUSM’s first candidate forum, held in the ballroom of the University Student Union. Of the six candidates invited, four were in attendance: Ammar Campa-Najjar, running to…


Fiscal con? Waldron posts top mileage bill

State Rep. Marie Waldron (R-75th District), who portrays herself as a fiscally responsible conservative, took the highest amount of mileage reimbursements in the California Legislature during the 2015-16 session, state records show. Nine of the Legislature’s 120 members — 80 in the House, 40 in the Senate, in all — who took over $20,000 in payouts represented almost half of the mileage reimbursements, according to…


Affordable, fun golf for the everyman at Castle Creek Country Club

If not for the blue-collar side of golf: Francis Ouimet would never have become a legend, Lee Trevino would never have won six majors, your local muni would now be a housing development and places like Castle Creek Country Club would be shunned for a dearth of collared shirts. Presenting a tenor of refreshing egalitarianism, Castle Creek isn’t shy about its operating philosophy. Amid a national public-golf…


People Behaving Badly: Weekday edition

High-speed stolen truck chase ends in Escondido living room crash A burglary suspect earned a trip to jail by way of a hospital Wednesday when he allegedly led police on a brief high-speed chase through Escondido in a stolen truck and then bailed out of the still-moving vehicle, sending it crashing into a home, Escondido police said. The suspect was the only person injured in…


Escondido mosque scorched in ‘hate crime’

A ticking time bomb of hate went off around 3:15 a.m. Sunday as Escondido’s only mosque was torched by a suspect who left a note referring to the New Zealand mosque killings earlier this month. “During the early morning hours of March 24, 2019, the Escondido Police and Fire Communication Center received a 911 phone call from the Dar-ul-Arqam Mosque on (318 W. Sixth Ave)…


Breaking News

End of an era for Champion’s Restaurant

Tough to cull the sweet from the bitter on Wednesday Jan. 20, 2016 as customers at Grand Avenue’s landmark, iconic Champion’s Family Restaurant ate their last meals with tears flooding food-splashed eyes. Like the condemned with no remaining reprieve, customers bade sad farewells to all that tasty comfort food with final portions of signature corned beef hash topped off by to-die-for cinnamon rolls. Come to…

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Politics

Vote ‘NO’ on Governor Recall, ACLU says

The executive directors of the ACLU of Northern California, ACLU of Southern California and ACLU of San Diego & Imperial Counties, and the board chair of ACLU California Action issued a joint statement Thursday, July 29 in strong opposition to the gubernatorial recall. This marks the first time in the history of the ACLU in California — which stretches back to 1923 — that the…

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John “Clown” Cox investigated by Humane Society for bear abuse in gubernatorial joke

Leave it to the political clown that is John Cox, laughed out of Illinois, and now debasing Rancho Santa Fe with his circus of stupidity as he pretends to run for governor — again — and definitively loses, again. Cox’s latest brush with political stupidity of the Bozo type apparently ran afoul of the authorities, the animal control authorities, that is to say. His bizarre…

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Sad tale of RSF’s Cox zombie governor run

(Editor’s Note: Rancho Santa Fe’s clown prince John Cox got laughed out of the last state gubernatorial race. He is reprising his ridiculous role in the 2021 faux recall attempt and ridiculous next race for governor, which Gov. Gavin Newsom will win easily while we, the people, have to pay for it. Cox is a joke. What else do you want to know.) Cox, a…

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Maskholes like Jim Desmond want us dead

I’ve reached the breaking point on the ideological crusade built around self-victimization over attempts to slow or stem the coronavirus. Yes, I’m a high risk individual, but that’s not the reason why I’m ranting today. I’m just one part of a much bigger picture, namely the portion of the population certain politicians think is expendable in the name of profit. The nation is in the…

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Escondido

Hodgee, the friendly Lake Hodges Monster: Fact or fiction?

Go down to Hernandez Hideaway at rural Lake Drive in Del Dios and people will swear up and down the long wooden bar that Hodgee, the friendly Lake Hodges monster, really truly — well, almost definitely exists. “The Lake Hodges Hodgee monster is kind of like the Loch Ness monster,” said Stan Smith, a long-time Del Dios resident. Smith, a cowboy poet and man about…

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Surprising and Strange

27 years ago, Heaven’s Gate couldn’t wait

Dateline Rancho Santa Fe. March 26, 1997. A 911 call came into the San Diego Sheriff’s Communications Center. It was treated as a prank call at first. From what turned out to be a nearby payphone, the caller said something so preposterous that dispatchers took their time in relaying the information to central command. “This is regarding a mass suicide. I can give you the address,” the…

Click Here or title to read more

Move over D.B. Cooper for Geezer Bandit

People have been debating D.B. Cooper ever since his Thanksgiving 1971 leap into history and out of a commercial flight from Portland to Seattle with a whole bunch of money. The same, on a smaller scale, appears to be happening with North County’s own Geezer Bandit, so-called. He hit Vista — twice — Rancho Santa Fe, La Jolla — twice — Poway and 10 other…

Click Here or title to read more

It’s National Fluffernutter Day. Hip Hip Hooray?

Every dog has its day, they say, and apparently so does every cause, effect and plain old thing. Welcome to Tuesday Oct. 8, 2024. It’s National Fluffernutter Day. Correct, National Fluffernutter Day is observed annually on Oct. 8, according to the National Day Calendar. This is a day set aside each year to make, and enjoy, the savory sandwich consisting of peanut butter and marshmallow fluff. Fluffernutter dates…

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Dock Ellis 6/12/70 San Diego LSD no-hitter

It’s been 54 years. Welcome to Lysergic World San Francisco, April 16-19, 1993 presentation of one of the most infamous days in San Diego sports history. Los Angeles, April 8, 1984- Former Pittsburgh Pirates’ pitcher Dock Ellis says he was under the influence of LSD when he pitched a June 12, 1970 no-hitter against the San Diego Padres. Ellis, later co-ordinator of an anti-drug program in Los…

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Featured Content

Light’s (out) at the end of Via de la Valle: Knorr’s Candle Shop minding its own beeswax (Closing Oct. 31, 2023)

Editor’s Note From Nextdoor….. “I just learned today that Knorr’s Candle Factory on Via de La Valle is closing 10/31/23 and they are having huge sale, including holiday decor, to cut inventory. It was always one of my favorite places to shop and such a local tradition. Please support them and stop by. Everyone loves beautiful candles!!” — Chari Chanin   As the world, and…

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Mom’s Kitchen serves slice of Vista history

A slice of Vista’s past was being served Tuesday over biscuits and gravy at Mom’s Kitchen, once knows as Allen’s Alley Cafe. While a lot has changed over the last 70 years around Vista, Mom’s Kitchen has not. So, the biscuits and gravy were flowing at the town’s oldest, continuously serving restaurant much as they have since, at least, 1950 when it was known as…

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Vick Vannucci comes back to Mother Earth

Former tennis prodigy, model and TV presenter Maria Victoria “Vick” Vannucci lived through the photograph, then figuratively died by the photograph. Former owner and chef at Normal Heights’ Pachamama Restaurant, Vannucci pursues a new socially aware image featuring her tale of personal redemption centering on giving back to the community and educating people about healthy food and animal conservation. “My story is a special story,”…

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Re-booting the past: Escondido shoe repair shop one of the few left around North County

Not a lot of us are left, Doart Shoe Repair owner Lucia Capuano says before jumping out of her lunch to wait on yet another customer. Capuano’s talking cobblers, not customers. A steady stream of the latter enter the 35-year-old fixture at 103 S Broadway, just south of the 100 block of W Grand Avenue, constantly interrupting her attempt to lunch. Not to worry, time…

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Bringing mid-20th Century modern furniture aesthetics to early 21st Century lives and homes

Applying an international twist to the American Dream, the globe-trotting French native Aymerick Rondeau, 44, now scours the world for authentic 1960s Scandinavian mid-century modern furniture, bringing it all back to his San Marcos warehouse and home. Like Cher and Oprah, the effervescent Rondeau is known by first name only as Aymerick. He followed the sun as a young man working in the hospitality industry…

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Grid and Bear It

Last but not Least

Local ironworker Paul Pursley spent 10 weeks at Ground Zero following Sept. 11

Sept. 11, 2001: Local ironworker Paul Pursley spent 10 weeks at “Ground Zero” following the terrorist attack. His major complaint in the years following concerned his inability to get correct, and affordable, treatment due to the costs involved, costs that Congress finally agreed to add funding to the 9/11 First Responders fund almost 18 years later. “Ironworkers worked every day,” Pursley said. “We went on 12-hour shifts…

Click Here or title to read more


Before Babe Ruth, there was Gavvy Cravath

(Editor’s Note: Gavvy Cravath was an Escondido native, perhaps the first Major League Baseball star from San Diego County. Patrolling right field at the historic Baker Bowl for the Dead Ball Era Philadelphia Phillies, he led the National League in home runs six times in the years just prior to Babe Ruth’s arrival on the scene. Later, a Laguna Beach municipal judge, the crusty Cravath,…

Click Here or title to read more

Lynn Marrie hats help rock for Sublime’s Bradley House

A Sublime Life Sobriety Festival attracted a host of fans and sober living proponents to Oceanside Civic Center on May 11 where a supportive community immersed itself in a variety of activities including live music, insightful speakers and interactive activities. Inspired by late Sublime front man Bradley Nowell, the Nowell Family Foundation sponsored the event to acquaint folks with its Bradley House addiction recovery project….

Click Here or title to read more

Three Dot Lounge visits Rancho Santa Fe: $20 ice cream pints, crying about the spilt Inn and foie gras lawsuits

We are going to consider a few outstanding three-dot items stripped from below, well below, today’s sundry headlines. But first, a reminder and salute about he who pioneered the three-dot way… It’s been 25 years since famed San Francisco journalist Herb Caen (1916-1997) died. For journalists and San Franciscans, Caen was a superstar. Known as “Mr. San Francisco,” his columns were a vital piece in…

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Bully Barr should be reviled, not given award

Editor’s Note: Updated… HM Alumni Council Shares Statement Regarding Alumni Award for Distinguished Achievement Petition – June 6, 2020 “We have heard concerns expressed by current students, alumni, and school employees regarding the Horace Mann School Alumni Association Award for Distinguished Achievement presented to US Attorney General William Barr in 2011. In response, we are convening our Council to canvass the views of our alumni…

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Dock Ellis 6/12/70 San Diego LSD no-hitter

It’s been 54 years. Welcome to Lysergic World San Francisco, April 16-19, 1993 presentation of one of the most infamous days in San Diego sports history. Los Angeles, April 8, 1984- Former Pittsburgh Pirates’ pitcher Dock Ellis says he was under the influence of LSD when he pitched a June 12, 1970 no-hitter against the San Diego Padres. Ellis, later co-ordinator of an anti-drug program in Los…

Click Here or title to read more

Hodgee, the friendly Lake Hodges Monster: Fact or fiction?

Go down to Hernandez Hideaway at rural Lake Drive in Del Dios and people will swear up and down the long wooden bar that Hodgee, the friendly Lake Hodges monster, really truly — well, almost definitely exists. “The Lake Hodges Hodgee monster is kind of like the Loch Ness monster,” said Stan Smith, a long-time Del Dios resident. Smith, a cowboy poet and man about…

Click Here or title to read more

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