This is a new once-in-a-while feature of non-political items.
SAN DIEGO TOURISM GETS BACK TO NORMAL OR WILL IT? Beaches are open today and many residents are breathing a sight of PARTIAL relief. When 66 year-old triathlete David Martin died Friday of blood loss after being bitten once by what is believed to have been a 15 foot long great white shark shark the idea that “this can’t happen here even though it did 50 years ago” became history. But the tragedy also came during a brutal heat wave (well into the 90s which is unusual for this time of year) when the natural San Diego instinct is to flock to beaches and get in the water. P.S. The killer shark was never found. And this summer many residents will go in the water with a bit more trepidation.
GAS IS OVER $4.00 HERE: Premium was spotted at $4.08 and $4.05 tonight. Gas is now higher than a Hollywood movie star.
WHERE IN THE WORLD IS JOE GANDELMAN?
I’ve gotten emails asking why I haven’t posted much. It’s because my condo is hours away from being fumigated for termites. How big a problem are termites in San Diego? When I called a local hotel and told them I needed two rooms (one for me and the other for my foster son, his wife and kids) and WHY…they gave me a special “fumigation rate” with a hefty discount.
In case you’ve never had the pleasure of having your house fumigated for termites, it entails bagging up all food, medicines, etc, and moving your pets (in my case my two elderly cats to a boarding facility where they will get “cuddletime” and “tuna on a cracker” once a day) out of the house. I’ll be a refugee, living at a hotel (and at the mercy of its Internet) until Friday. So I will likely do fewer posts. I will attempt to post from my hotel room tomorrow but there are no guarantees. But, then TMV has a large number of co-writers…so stay tuned!
An interesting facet of fumigation. The pest control company (which contrary to how its name sounds does not keep Presidential candidates away) stressed that you are not allowed inside the tented buildings until the tents are removed. In fact, there have been cases of people who broke back in and it cost them their lives. One interesting story is of a company worker who discovered someone had cut the tent and gotten in and apparently gotten out unscathed. The company put two and two together and discovered it was a resident’s high school age son who broke in to get his stash of drugs (he apparently did it when he was not impacted by the gas but they had to track him down to get him tested).
THE DECLINE OF BOSTON MARKET: The franchise was way oversold years ago and has been a shadow of what it used to be. I notice in travels today that a Boston Market has closed in San Juan Capistrano. You see fewer of them when you travel now….just as you see more and more Subway sandwich shops..
THE AGONY AND THE ECSTASY OF BLOGGING: I get lots of emails from people asking about blogging. This is one of the frustrating moments since a lot is going on — particularly on the political front — and I’m very limited due to what must be done logistically on this end to prepare for the fumigation and move everyone out. But I’ll be baaaaaaaack…
Until next time…
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.