Category: Life Events

By Channel 6 News/ March 20, 2012

An 18-year-old motorist accused of killing a pedestrian on Interstate 8 in the Ocean Beach area, then taking off, pleaded not guilty to a charge of felony hit-and-run causing death.

Nikolette Kristina Gallo — who is free on $50,000 bail — is charged in the death of 23-year-old Sho Funai in the early morning hours of March 11.

Originally posted on March 15, 2012

A few words about political cartoons, U-T’s Steve Breen, and the blackout.

Over the past few days Doonesbury creator Gary Trudeau has depicted a woman’s experience in a Texas abortion clinic. The woman has been introduced to the shaming room, pronounced a suspected slut, and has been Rick Rolled, as Governor Rick Perry casts aside the woman’s own doctor’s health assessment to present a legislative edict of his own.

Trudeau has been a comic strip artist since 1970. He is also a Pulitzer Prize winning comic strip artist ( 1975), and political satirist and social commentator. It is therefore not a surprise that his cartoons riff off of the mainstream news and delivers them up with a distinctive point of view. This is what political satirists and commentators do.

That is what U-T San Diego’s own political cartoonist, Steve Breen does—he draws political cartoons that represent his own distinctive point of view. Breen was born in 1970, the same year that Trudeau became syndicated, and he has won two Pulitzer Prizes (1998, 2009).

by Dixon Guizot

When I called in to schedule a vasectomy a few months ago, my health insurance company said I’d have to first attend a one-hour class at a Point Loma medical office.

I showed up to the class along with 9 other guys, and the woman running the class kicked things off by asking each guy in the room how many kids he had.

I was the last guy she called on. I was the only one who said this: “I don’t have any kids.”

by A feleségül

What is the true definition of love?

Webster’s dictionary says that it is “a deep and tender feeling of affection for or attachment or devotion to a person or persons.”

Then what is the definition of lust?

Again, quoting Webster, “lust is a desire to gratify the senses; bodily appetite; a sexual desire.”

Using these two definitions, it is difficult, as a youth, to determine whether one is “in love” or “in lust.” And, unfortunately, one may never be able to ascertain which is which.

A case in point: As an unhappy teenager, I was seeking acceptance any way I could get it. If a male told me he “loved me” I was ready to thank him any way I could, and usually meant going to bed with him.

By Gail Powell

On a foggy morning in March 2011, a man who blacked out in the water while surfing off Sunset Cliffs survived, all thanks to quick action from three fellow surfers. Fox5 News reported at the time that surfer David Scheidlinger was very close to death, when help arrived from an angel in a wetsuit!

“I remember being at the top of the stairs carrying my board down and starting to paddle out and then the next thing I remember was being in the bottom of a lifeguard’s boat,” Scheidlinger noted.

Scheidlinger is lucky that Paula Reynolds was his surfing companion and buddy that morning, for she noticed that something was amiss with her friend who suddenly seemed unresponsive in the water.

This life and death situation occurred off surfing mecca Garbage Beach, a popular place to catch some waves off Sunset Cliffs.

Paula Reynolds, a friend since childhood and next door neighbor, told me that she “pulled Dave out of the water” and (onto his surfboard.)

I wrote in the guest book of her obituary:

Pearlie Mae. What can I say.
On my family tree.
A cousin but like a big sister to me.
Part of my history.
Here when I arrived.
Could always count on her love.
In my heart she will always reside.

She was a prominent member on our branch of the Windham/Windom family tree. Our grandmother’s Lillie (hers) and Alma (mine) were sisters. It’s hard believing that she’s now resting in peace with those two extraordinary women.

Her obituary states how selfless and loyal she was to family and friends and confidantes and I sure got a sense of that early on in life.

by Emilie Astolat

Breasts. It wasn’t too long ago that I told my 10-year-old stepdaughter she had to wear a different shirt because I could see details of her breasts beneath the one she had on.

I’m not sure when she started maturing sexually, but it’s definitely happening. Technically, according to all the books, they’re only buds. But the idea of her actually having them is so foreign they might as well be balloons.

For her birthday recently, I got her a book called The Care and Keeping of You: The Body Book for Girls by Valorie Lee Schaefer. As the name implies, it describes and illustrates various bodily developments and what to do about each one.

There’s a new Pew study out about the rise of bi-racial or bi-ethnic newlyweds in America. Overall, the study found that “about 15 percent of new marriages in 2010 crossed racial or ethnic lines, double the rate from three decades ago. Intermarriages comprise 8 percent of all marriages now, up from just 3 percent in 1980.” (Washington Post)

And in the Western states, “about one-in-five (22%) of all newlyweds … married someone of a different race or ethnicity between 2008 and 2010″. This compares with 14% in the South, 13% in the Northeast and 11% in the Midwest. The highest rate was in the state of Hawaii with more than four-in-ten (42%) being bi-racial.

(Note from Ernie: This was written in memory of Diana Gail Shipley, a dear friend and educator who was an inspiration to many people throughout San Diego. She lost a courageous battle with pancreatic cancer on January 5, 2012. I submit it here so that readers could just get an inkling of what a remarkable human being she was.)

When Diana arrived in heaven,
I can imagine the Almighty looking at her going:
“Diana.
Hm, hm, hm.
My Sister, my Sister, my Sister.
I know how you battled what ailed you
so I forgive you for arriving CP time
but I just want to tell you
that I’m so glad to greet you
because you were just what I had in mind
when I came up with this whole idea of Humankind.”
I mean wasn’t someone like Diana what a Creator must have wished for among His creations, someone:

Nick Taliaferro of Ocean Beach was on the ill-fated Italian cruise ship with his girlfriend when it hit a reef and sank last week. Now some of the passengers are calling Taliaferro a hero for assisting them and their children getting into lifeboats despite calls by crews that everything was okay.

A website in Nick’s hometown of Hannibal, Missouri, ran a piece about him last week, see this: Hannibal.net :

A former Hannibal resident is being called a hero by some of his fellow passengers aboard the cruise ship Costa Concordia, which was carrying more than 4,200 passengers and crew when it hit a reef and sank last Friday off the tiny Italian island of Giglio.

Married at the age of 17; divorced at the age of 27; remarried at the age of 27, didn’t give…

UPDATE: The U-T reports: SAN DIEGO — The body of a San Diego man who had been reported missing was found Friday in San Diego Bay, San Diego police said.

Logan Angus, 31, had not been seen since leaving his Point Loma home Sunday night to go to work.

His family had said he was suffering from depression and had asked for the public’s help to locate him. The death is considered an apparent suicide, police said.

“We wish to thank the media and all who have expressed concern,” the family said in an email. “Unfortunately Logan chose to end his life. He was very loved and will be greatly missed.”

SEE ADDITIONAL DETAILS INSIDE …

Logan Angus – an Ocean Beach – Point Loma man, has been missing since Sunday evening, January 15th. Family and friends of the 31-year-old San Diego man have asked for the public’s assistance to help locate him. San Diego Police are aware of his missing.

Logan Angus walked away from his home on Mentone Street, near Camulos Street, in the Point Loma Heights area about 10 p.m. Sunday and has not been seen since, police said.