Cover Story
A Thirsty Future: Problems loom for the Paso Robles Groundwater Basin
It’s easy to get lost in the rolling hills east of Paso Robles. Drive in one direction through rangeland smattered with oak trees and hills swathed in vineyards and you’re not really in Paso anymore, but outside of Templeton. Maybe Creston. Go the other direction, and you find yourself in San Miguel. It’s a countryside…
Social media company brings Twestival to benefit SLO Children’s Museum
Everyone has followers and friends in their social network they’ve never actually met. But a global movement connecting people in order to benefit outstanding causes is changing that, one city at a time. And it’s coming to San Luis Obispo. Think of it as a networking mixer without the need to network, update your LinkedIn,…
How often do you shower, and why?
Grace Huntsinger Student “Once every three days because I’m lazy, I like to take long showers when I do, and I live in a house full of eight other girls.” Ninja Security Guard “Twice a day. Once before work, and then once after I work out.” Dennis Ray Shaman “Sometimes up to five times…
Wonderfully weird: British pop icon Adam Ant comes to SLO Brew
One of the most well-known faces of the ’80s, Adam Ant is a true pop icon. In October 1980, during the new romantic, post-punk, new wave era, millions of TV viewers in the UK saw the blazing performance on Top of the Pops by Adam and the Ants, and the phenomenon began. Adam’s life—and music—had…
A clarification, of sorts
I once wrote the following about a series of drawings by the artist Guy Kinnear, which were being exhibited at Steynberg Gallery: “Two skeletons embrace in Just Dropping It, the ethereal suggestion of skin, muscle, and hair barely perceptible. Kinnear riffs off of this image in Who Woulda Thought and That Woulda Been a Different…
Jameson Irish Whiskey sends an ambassador to SLO
Even after I am shown the sign congratulating McCarthy’s for being the number one Jameson account in the United States, I still find it hard to swallow. And yet, per capita, we swallow more Jameson than anyone else in the country. Anne Sheeran—the Jameson “ambassador” who has come to McCarthy’s Irish Pub to tell us…
SLO Little Theatre opens with “Incorruptible”
Its themes may be dark, but Michael Hollinger’s Incorruptible makes for a downright giddy season opener at the San Luis Obispo Little Theatre. An able cast, under the direction of Jill Turnbow, is clearly up for fun in this goofy, adorable little farce about French monks trafficking in human body parts. The year is 1250…
All aboard for “The Unexpected Man”
Parsky is ruminating on the bitterness of life—“It’s all so bitter; the curl of my lip is bitter”—but, despite his eloquence and the innate humor of his interior monologue, I’m finding it difficult to agree with him. In the proximity of a can-do couple like Anet and Charley Carlin, sitting in a softly warm courtyard…
Cal Poly’s Wine & Viticulture Program makes the grade
Do you lie awake at night worrying that Cal Poly’s Wine & Viticulture program has an inferiority complex? Are you baffled by the superior treatment of programs like English and Engineering, whose students, I’ve heard, are given access to a secret lounge stocked with boba tea fountains and baked potatoes with all the fixin’s? (They…
Summerwood 2012 Grenache Blanc and Troublemaker Blend 6 Paso Robles
Summerwood 2012 Grenache Blanc I recently met Summerwood’s exuberant winemaker Mauricio Marchant, a Chilean native, who candidly told me he styled this delightful white after one of the most famed Santa Ynez versions, Curran grenache blanc. I found that his version is one of the best I’ve had in several vintages. I was impressed by…
It’s tomato season!
Late summer has to be my favorite season of the year because of the bounty of fresh vegetables and fruit available at the Farmers Markets. But I could also say that’s mostly because my favorite of them all, the fabulous heirloom tomatoes, are in peak season. The fact is I won’t buy those tasteless tomatoes…
Cougars & Mustangs welcomes incoming college students
We stand at a crossroads. The Literary Call beckons forward, something spectacular is on the horizon, you have your artifact in hand … . In this case my artifact is the orange lollipop I swiped from the front desk. It’s getting smaller as I type this so I suppose we better take a step forward…
Down the drain: Why can’t SLO get the I Madonnari Festival right?
They braved two days of 80-degree-plus weather, wore their fingertips raw on the asphalt, and attracted thousands of wide-eyed onlookers to marvel at the fruits of their labor and talent. As far as everyone was concerned, this year’s chalk art event was a success in San Luis Obispo. But as the last of the artists…
Dee Torres loses defamation suit to private eye
In a Sept. 6 ruling, San Luis Obispo County Superior Court Presiding Judge Barry LaBarbera laid waste to a local homeless services director’s claims that a local private investigator defamed her while conducting interviews for a local website. Dee Torres, homeless services coordinator for the Community Action Partnership of SLO County, sued former Atascadero mayor…
SLO Measure Y committee: ‘same suspects’?
When the San Luis Obispo City Council approved the formation of a 10-member Revenue Measure Advisory Committee in July, one council member predicted the citizen advisory board would be little more than a group of “Yes” men and women. That committee—tasked with determining whether renewal of the controversial Measure Y, which enacted a half-cent sales…
Fracking bill nears passage
The year began with a gaggle of bills seeking to tighten rules on the controversial oil extraction practice known as fracking. As the legislative session winds to a close, one bill might actually become law, even as some environmental groups hope it doesn’t. Fracking—or hydraulic fracturing—occurs when an oil operator injects a large volume of…
Oceano Dunes SVRA to pay a $50,000 fee after an air board vote
Following months of off-the-dais debate and a failed signature-gathering effort by opponents of current regulations aimed to curb dust emissions off the Oceano Dunes, the San Luis Obispo County Air Pollution Control District Board majority was able to pass a controversial set of fees to cover those efforts. At a Sept. 5 special meeting, the…
Police sting prostitutes after recent attacks on sex workers
A task force made up of San Luis Obispo, Pismo Beach, and Arroyo Grande police arrested or cited 23 people between Sept. 3 and 5 on charges of prostitution or soliciting a prostitute. According to a press release, police mounted the three-day sting operation in response to suspicions of a recent trend of violence against…
Water shortage: Dried up and pissed off in Cambria
San Luis Obispo County’s most contentious issue—water—reared its ugly head yet again, this time in Cambria, as irate residents, flustered community services district staffers, and an irresolute CSD board of directors squabbled over water supply concerns. Cambria declared a resource emergency in 2001 and, ever since, has flitted between acceptable and dangerous levels in its…
Carpenters union ‘shames’ Family Care Network
With their trademark “SHAME” banners, disdain for independent contractors, and seemingly endless vitriol, carpenters union members have publicly popped up again in San Luis Obispo County—and they’ve picked another unlikely target. This time, Family Care Network, Inc.—a SLO-based child, youth, and family services organization—is in the crosshairs of the Carpenters Local 1800, an Arroyo Grande-based…
Because: stupid
Does anyone know what kind of pipe the pied piper used? Was it a piccolo or some kind of tabor or reed pipe? My third cousin has an oboe that I borrowed when his back was turned. Also, I’m going to need lessons. I’d like to learn to play something eerie and haunting, the type…
Thoughts on Syria
As the executive editor, I see and hear opinions of all kinds every day. They come in by e-mail, by mailed envelope, and by fax. Some are hand delivered. Some are left as voicemails. As the situation in Syria ripened or stagnated, depending on your point of view, U.S. citizens, certainly Syrians, and people around…
Money won’t bring back heroes
As a fiscally responsible Democrat, I am opposed to Assembly Bill 1373 authored by Assembly Speaker John Perez. This would double the statute of limitations for death benefits for public safety officers and firefighters who die from a service-related injury or illness. Our public safety officers and firefighters are paid very well for the work…
Mayor Marx, fix the problem
Our Constitution protects the rights of Americans to freely acquire, use, and dispose of property. If our government restricts our use of our property, that can be considered a “taking” for which the government has a responsibility to compensate us. Accordingly, we have the right to rent a room in our home to anyone we…
No, we don’t need this mine
This is response to Mr. Bob Fowler’s letter of Sept. 5, “This is the right project”: Mr. Fowler’s letter summarized the attitude of the mining industry and Las Pilitas Resources LLC while failing to acknowledge the significant impacts, potentially insurmountable site constraints, and land-use incompatibilities with surrounding residential uses. In stark contrast, existing quarries within…
Show your research
In response to Zoey Duty’s letter of Sept. 5, “Fact is, the quarry is a good thing”: Duty says her research indicates that adding gravel trucks to town and school zones make them safer. This would seem to be counterintuitive to me. She fails to give her research sources so that we may review her…
