Cover Story
Sweeps week
It’s about 4:30 on a cold and misty Wednesday morning. We’re shivering outside the Paso Robles Police Department headquarters, awaiting the arrival of San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Department Cmdr. Aaron Nix, our ride and chaperone for the day. I’m standing here with a very sleepy Staff Photographer Steve E. Miller, the sour taste of…
Dear Santa,
There’s a very good chance I haven’t made your nice list this year. In my 89 years on this planet, I’ve yet to make that confounded document, and I don’t feign confusion as to why that is. I am who and what I am, and I’ve never pretended any differently. The world might not like…
Longoria 2010 Pinot Noir Rancho Santa Rosa Vineyard
Whenever I’m in northern Santa Barbara County wine country, I always stop at Longoria tasting room. This vineyard-designated Pinot from the Sta. Rita Hills appellation is a beauty, even this young, and will age well. But if you’re like me, you’ll have a hard time staying away from this now. It has bright red fruit…
Cuesta cuts some, modifies some
Cuesta College said goodbye to 10 entire programs at its last Board of Trustees meeting, but it could have been worse. In an effort to address long-term financial concerns and trim roughly $800,000 from the annual budget, school officials met several times over the last two months to rank 29 programs for possible elimination. People…
What is the best gift you’ve ever given for Christmas?
Sarah Wadsworth Mondeo Pronto shift manager “A smile. Just seeing my family members’ faces light up is a gift in itself.” Miguel Avila Boo Boo Records clerk “A mixtape of punk rock songs with collage artwork.” Ali Weiss student “Homemade cards.” Samantha Hurt Urban Outfitters sales associate “A PlayStation 3.”
Interview with a Krampus
NEW TIMES So um, I’m wondering if you could maybe explain who or what exactly you are. KRAMPUS Well, if my cleft foot, hair, and horns weren’t any indication, I’m a Krampus. European children know me well as something of a demon—amazing that they know what that is without having read Dante’s Inferno—that will punish…
Fast and loud
Self-proclaimed as “The Greatest Rock Band in the World,” the high-octane Supersuckers have been keeping their audiences jumping for nearly a quarter of a century! Not quite as long as the Rolling Stones, but hey now … . Here’s a band that’s recorded with Willie Nelson, Steve Earle, Eddie Vedder, and plenty of other famous…
A good enough excuse to party
Here’s a fun fact for the holidays: The world will end someday. Absolutely, without a doubt, everything we know and love will be gone. Chances are the big day won’t come for billions of years; people will have evolved by then into giant brains that ride around in the stomachs of giant robots; and the…
Ghosts in the curtains
A slender new lock on a peeling, ornate wooden door seems a poetic summation of Alison Watt Jackson’s photography exhibit “Say Goodbye to Yesteryear.” It’s the sight of the past left in the care of the present: cloistered away, gracefully succumbing to rust and rot. Watt Jackson’s striking black-and-white images—many taken in Arizona and in…
There and back again
On Silver necklaces they strung The flowering stars, on crowns they hung The dragon-fire, in twisted wire They meshed the light of moon and sun —The Hobbit It can be said that the hobbit Bilbo Baggins, created by author J.R.R. Tolkien and recently given life on the big screen thanks to director Peter Jackson, was…
Clubs: 12/20
BRANCH ST. DELI: 203 E. Branch St., Arroyo Grande, 489-9099. Live music Fri. from 5:30-8:30 p.m. THE CLIFFS RESORT: 2757 Shell Beach Road, 773-5000 or cliffsresort.com. F. MCLINTOCKS SALOON: Two locations: 750 Mattie Road in Pismo Beach and 133 Bridge St. in Arroyo Grande. 773-1892 or mclintocks.com. Live music at the Pismo Beach location every…
James Huddleston
NEW TIMES How long have you been a unicyclist? HUDDLESTON Since the summer between my junior and senior years of high school, so about 3 1/2 years. NEW TIMES What drew you to ditching the second wheel? HUDDLESTON It just gets in the way. With one wheel, you don’t have to worry about…
Responses to opinions published Dec. 13
Mr. Rizzotto: Thanks. Mr. Dawson: “Facts can be interpreted to get the outcome you want.” True, but that could apply to sources you believe, too. (Also, “unagenda21.com” appears to have nothing to say about the subject of your letter.) Mr. Duenow: What city with any kind of nightlife would you point to as an example…
This requires some thought
Your commentary (“Sprechen Sie Deutsch?” Dec. 13) caught my attention because I was born and raised in Germany. Your essay about my native country and its language is flattering, and I enjoyed reading it. I would like to add one more reason why German was chosen as a study language in American colleges, at least…
Get. Off. The. Phone!
Hey you! If you are still talking on your phone or texting while you are driving, then shame on you, you moron! If you drive a black Cadillac, are you a complete idiot, or only behind the wheel? Driving in the pouring rain you gave zero thought to the cars around you, even as this…
Tragedy upon tragedy
I think that we here in Los Osos are not all that surprised by the tragic events surrounding George and Gewynn Taylor. With the start of sewer construction, the county is digging a huge, stadium-sized hole on the site of our planned and promised downtown city park. This beautiful park is the one thing we…
As individuals, we don’t need automatic weapons
As a lifetime gun owner, former hunter, and Army veteran, it is my opinion there is absolutely no reason that any U.S. private citizen should be allowed to have, own, or use any weapon that has the capability of a magazine exceeding eight shells and with automatic firing capacity. The only personnel who should be…
Where’s the courage when it comes to gun control?
Last week’s tragedy at Newtown, Conn., is yet another wakeup call to Americans that gun violence is out of control and needs to be controlled with any and all means necessary. As someone who spent almost 30 years in municipal and federal law enforcement, I’ve seen more shootings and gun-caused murders than I had ever…
Silence is not so golden
As the world fast approaches its end, or not, it gives rise to our personal, chosen path. Do we wait, in angst, to kiss our asses goodbye or renew the vow of solstice, looking toward spring for longer days and nature’s song. Similarly, my favorite institution, Cuesta, has suffered its own Armageddon, of sorts. Imagine…
This is the true cost
Are dead children the acceptable price we pay for the Constitutional right to bear arms? In the wake of the Sandy Hook shooting, which involved legal firearms owned and registered by a responsible adult, and the firm belief that such a right is irrefutable, one can only assume that such freedom shall be gladly paid…
What not to say when a child dies
Like the rest of the nation right now, I am filled with anger and sadness in regards to the tragic shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School. It is disgusting that anyone would and could be capable of committing such a horrible act and my heart breaks for the families of all the victims. This tragedy…
Last bite at the end of the world
I’ve only flown first class once in my life. It was a flight from Orlando to Los Angeles right after Christmas, and while our plane was in the air, a particularly nasty storm was brewing below in the Gulf of Mexico. Not long into the flight, the attendant began passing out warm towels, a fancy…
Freshly made every day
Upon hearing that El Rancho Market, a special wine country gourmet food and wine market based in Santa Ynez Valley, was opening in Pismo Beach at 555 Five Cities Drive, I immediately called co-owner Greg King and asked him to keep me informed about the upcoming arrival. I had been a regular at Scolari’s ever…
Cougars & Mustangs
As the buildings that stood so high and smug disassembled brick-by-brick, atom-by-atom, to be blown away by an unfeeling wind into a slowly fading sky, mankind will be faced with a final question. Was it worth it? It’s something to consider at any stage of life, and the moment before it ends is no exception.…
‘Heaven’ needs help
Sitting in a chair, with medical-grade poisons coursing through her body, Susan Schwartz was scared—but not for herself. In the dazed agony of her first chemotherapy session, she kept returning to the same question: How am I going to care for my horses? As the founder and operator of Heaven Can Wait Equine Sanctuary for…
Fishing unfriendly waters
Brian Stacy hasn’t fished for half a year. He’s got a small, commercial boat, the Marja, moored in Morro Bay and a garage packed full of rods, reels, buoys, and five-gallon buckets strung together with special lids that turn the things into traps for ugly sea creatures called hagfish or slime eels, a dish Koreans…
Sleeping Tiger has big kettlebells
You won’t find weight machines, treadmills, or Pilates studios when you walk into the new Sleeping Tiger fitness center in San Luis Obispo. Instead, curious athletes are greeted by blank walls lined with unconventional sports equipment. Beer kegs, kettlebells, sledgehammers, and a tire fit for a monster truck sit on the vacant floor. You get…
Developer asks nicely; Paso waives fees
A Fresno-based developer got a special present from the Paso Robles City Council on Dec. 18, with the six-month extension of a fee-waiver program that will cut construction costs on 25 permitted projects—as long as they’re completed quickly. While the permits are technically up for grabs and open to anyone, a representative of Wathen Castanos…
Supes press staff for solutions to Paso water crisis
New hydrographs painted a clearer picture for the San Luis Obispo Board of Supervisors on Dec. 18 of severe water shortages in certain sub-areas of the Paso Robles Groundwater Basin, areas that don’t respond quickly to rainfall. Board members voiced concerns that increasing water supplies won’t be enough to address declining well levels throughout the…
KCBX bids supes fond farewell
Citing a drop in ratings, management for the local public radio station KCBX FM has officially pulled the plug on the regular San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors meetings. Following decades of routine coverage, the regular Dec. 18 board meeting was the last to be aired on the station, after years of declining public…
Phillips refinery increase OK’d by county
A request by oil company Phillips 66—formerly ConocoPhillips—to increase production at its Santa Maria refinery in Arroyo Grande has received a nod of approval from the county. On Dec. 13, Phillips 66 reps went before the San Luis Obispo County Planning Commission, seeking a modification to the company’s existing permit to allow for a 10…
Bail set in SLO stabbing case
A San Luis Obispo Superior Court judge has allowed bail for a 22-year-old man suspected in a late-night stabbing in downtown San Luis Obispo in January 2012. At his Dec. 13 preliminary hearing, Austin Sarna sat quietly in shackles as Judge John Trice set bail at $500,000 and scheduled a trial-setting conference for Jan. 22.…
Local activist pleads guilty to assisting suicide
George Taylor walked into the courtroom, dressed casually in a denim jacket and followed by an entourage of about 10 friends and supporters. It was difficult to hear the solemn 86-year-old and his attorney over the commotion in the packed San Luis Obispo County Superior Courtroom. The felony case against Taylor has attracted a bevy…
Lockheed Martin buys SLO drone company
A San Luis Obispo manufacturer of unmanned aerial vehicles—known as drones—has been purchased by a major military contractor, Lockheed Martin, for an undisclosed amount. AME Unmanned Air Systems designs and manufactures a small drone aircraft known as the Fury UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle), used to conduct intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, and electronic warfare missions for the…
