Month: December 2017

Over the last several years, the OB Rag has hosted two fund-raising drives – one in the summer and one in the winter. And thanks to our readers and supporters, they’ve all been successful – we’ve always met our goals and then some.

Well, we’re at it again. Starting Friday, December 29th, 2017th, we’re doing our Winter fund-raising drive, which will go to next weekend, January 6th – 7th in 2018, and we’re asking our friends to help us reach $1,000.

By Frank Gormlie

Sheldon Dorf was one of the founders of Comic-Con and he lived in Ocean Beach for many years. “Shel” was living in OB when I met him in the mid-1970s. He passed away at the age of 76 in 2009, but now he’s a key focus in a current Rolling Stone article, entitled “San Diego Comic-Con: The Untold History” by Chris Chafin.

It turns out Dorf was quite a character, even a tragic figure gathering from Chafin’s brief recounts of his early history. Here’s a quote about him from the article:

Many of the founders [of Comic-Con] would go on to successful careers. … For Dorf, things were less smoothly.

by Ernie McCray

I dream a New Years Wish for my fellow black brothers and sisters, one steeped in my yearning for a country that truly is committed to the mythical land of “liberty and justice for all” we Americans pledge loudly and proudly in classrooms and public gatherings.

I just wish we actively pursued such ideals.

Now, I realize that we, like all other “individual” citizens of the country, can rise and shine and fulfill the loftiest of hopes and dreams.

We can find ample proof of that in our history as we’ve accomplished a little of everything. We’ve won Nobel Peace Prizes and journeyed beyond earth’s skies into outer space.

An historic day in California is rushing upon us – Monday, January 1st – the day it’s legal to smoke marijuana in the Golden State.

So, what does it all mean? Can you smoke a joint legally on the way home from your New Year’s Eve party? Can you stop by your local dispensary on January 1 and buy cannabis legally? There’s a lot of smoke enveloping the ganja – lots of confusion out there.

Here are some answers to basic questions – plus updates on a whole range of issues surrounding California’s recreational pot industry and situation.

Can I buy legal weed on January 1?

By the Widder Curry

Sometimes you learn the strangest things in the strangest ways. Today was one of those days. Shadow, my golden retriever, needed a bath in the worst way. He does not like to climb up the stairs at the OB Dog Wash, so I called “Four Paws” and Cari Huges to come over with her mobile van and make him smell good again.

After the bath we started talking about things, and she mentioned that she was really upset with “Amazon Fresh.” And there-in begins this article.

I asked her what she was upset about and she said, “they won’t deliver to “92107”. I thought she was being a little pessimistic so I decided to do some research on my own – and – guess what. She is right!

UPDATE: Police said the 72-year-old man diagnosed with dementia was found Thursday. The circumstances of how James Burks was found were not released. San Diego police confirmed that he was found Thursday morning.

James Burks – a 72-year-old man diagnosed with dementia – left his home Wednesday, December 27th around 12:30 pm – and hasn’t been seen since.

His home is in the 4600 block of Newport Avenue. The elderly OB resident routinely goes on walks in the Ocean Beach area and has had multiple contacts with people there, police said. But he usually returns within 15 minutes or so, according to San Diego police.

“Write hard and clear about what hurts.” – Ernest Hemingway

By Eva Posner / San Diego Free Press

2017 hurt.

It hurt a lot of people in a lot of ways. For most of us, the pain started in 2016. Many people sang the praises of 2017 as the new year, hoping for a reprieve. I was not one of them. All I could think this time last year was, “You guys know it’s just going to get worse, right?”

And it did.

2017 made things worse for families. For children. For seniors. For immigrants. For women. For national parks. For scientists.

It’s been 6 months now since Walter “Ras” Riley was stabbed to death on Bacon Street in an unprovoked attack, and there have been no arrests.

Riley was found with multiple stab wounds on a sidewalk on Bacon Street near Newport Avenue around 12:30 a.m. on June 22nd, 2017, and he died from his injuries at UC San Diego Medical Center.

Riley, 65, was a light-skinned homeless African-American who often sold incense in front of People’s and at the Farmers Market. He was described as “very quiet, soft-spoken person”.

The force that through the green fuse drives the flower
Drives my green age; that blasts the roots of trees
Is my destroyer.

Dylan Thomas

Editor’s Note: Susan Taylor, who wrote gardening columns for the OB Rag and San Diego Free Press, passed in mid-December.

By Anna Daniels / San Diego Free Press

Susan Taylor began writing columns about gardening for the OB Rag and San Diego Free Press in February of 2014. The biography that she provided to append to the end of her articles is quintessential Susan—direct, spirited and humorous. It deftly conveys details of an intriguing past, establishes the commitments of her heart and intellect and reflects her whimsical optimism about the future.

[Editor: Here are sites for San Diego’s Christmas Tree Re-cycling Program.]

In William Carlos Williams’s famous poem “Burning the Christmas Greens” he notes how at “the thick of the dark moment” in “winter’s midnight” we turn to the trees because “green is a solace” that we use to “fill our need.” Thus the “living green” along with “paper Christmas bells covered with tinfoil and fastened by red ribbons” seem “gentle and good to us.”

But then when their time is past we feel the relief as we clear our rooms and assign the greens to the fireplace and “in the jagged flames green to red, instant and alive.” And we stand “breathless to be witnesses as if we stood ourselves refreshed among the shining fauna of that fire.”

Edited From OBTC:

If you would like to take your community involvement in Ocean Beach to the next level, here’s a great opportunity to do so.

The Ocean Beach Town Council Board of Directors is now accepting Candidate Statements for the 2018 election.

There are 15 seats on the Ocean Beach Town Council Board of Directors and half of those seats on the Board are up for election every year. This year, seven seats are up for election. OBTC members elect Board Members for two-year terms.

As an OBTC Director you would :

Ocean Beach Town Council Delivers Food and Toys for 150 Local Families and Seniors – Point Loma High Students Collect 25,000 Pounds of Food

Tires slashed, fires in Point Loma alleys, an arsonist, outrageous behavior, mentally-challenged people acting out, acts of vandalism … there’s plenty of negative news out of Ocean Beach and Point Loma these days.

Yet, in the midst of all this bad stuff, we have to remember all the good news.

Just last week, the OB Town Council was able to provide nearly 150 local families and seniors with groceries, a fresh holiday meal, and gifts – as part of their annual OB Food & Toy Drive.