Good evening, 919 Gang. I occasionally sat in for Gina Lubrano in handling the U-T’s corrections. Not a lot of fun, but not really a bad job. The only time I hate doing corrections is when it involves something I did, or did not do.
Which brings us to last night. John Muncie’s birthday is Feb. 28, and I missed it. I apologize, and if John wants to celebrate two birthday this year, I will understand, but I really don’t encourage that.
P.O. Box 2239
Ramona, CA 92065-0938
United States
Good evening, 919 Gang. I wrote a couple of days ago that newspapers were dropping the Dilbert comic strip because of racist comments by its creator.
The Union-Tribune announced today that it also is dropping the strip, and hours later the syndicate which distributes Dilbert also pulled the plug. Here is a link to the U-T story, and I call your attention to the last graf where Elon Musk says something I call stupid.
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DAVID ELLIOTT writes:
Reply (again) to Nick Canepa:
Nick, I simply don't agree that Ebert's list "stinks." It's a personal and thus idiosyncratic list, which is the nature of this particular beast. Roger was a devoted and tireless film lover, as proven in thousands of reviews (and interviews).
But inevitably tastes differ, because there is no such thing as group taste. When critics get hashed together, you can get goofy results like the recent world poll which placed the formidably obscure "Jeanne Dielman" at the top (sure sign of an esoteric, academic lean by mostly young critics).
As to the Godfather trilogy, my p.o.v. is that The Godfather is superb and ruled by Brando (I've seldom felt an audience so caught up and elated as when that picture opened). Godfather II has powerful time shifts and De Niro is great in the Little Italy scenes, but overall it's rather baggy. The third seems to me like Coppola mopping up the leftovers and needing income for his winery, but Pacino is very good in it. Well, I now put down my gun -- and grab the cannoli.
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JAMIE RENO forwards:
P.O. Box 2239
Ramona, CA 92065-0938
United States
Good evening, 919 Gang.
JERRY RIFE writes:
Common to my age demographic is down-sizing. My U-T paycheck allowed me to have a nice family house in the suburbs. Then the years passed. The backyard swimming pool became just a weekly cleaning chore. Neatly trimmed grass and flowering plants lost their allure.
“Honey,” says my wife, " I think we need to replace the __________ (roof, garage door, pool motor).” Fill in the blank.
Jan and I sold our Tierrasanta house and moved into a Bankers Hill condo. The major part for me was winnowing down things from my U-T career - photos, books, memorabilia.
Days were consumed as I spread out photos on the garage floor from piles of boxes. Extra prints were the first things to hit the trash. Photos that I thought were great years ago had not weathered well in my estimation. On the other hand, there were hidden treasures that I had dismissed at the time. The San Diego History Museum took many of the photos up to 1987 under an agreement with the U-T.
At times, my eyes would moisten as they gazed upon the memory in my hand. My eyes would also moisten each time I opened a box of prints and the chemical fumes hit me in the nose. Memories of the photo lab in the old building flooded my brain. The air in the lab was a deadly miasma of chemical fumes and cigar smoke. I loved it.
Back in the halcyon days, the Union had a book review section. I wrote reviews of photo books for Ed Hutchin and, later, for Arthur Salm. I had bookcases and closets chock-a-block with coffee table books in pristine condition. Read, reviewed, put on a shelf.
I could have had a heck of a garage sale with those books but I wanted to give them to an educational institution. The recipient was a private photography school in Liberty Station. Then COVID hit. Of the thousands of businesses that collapsed because of COVID, the school was one of them. I guess those books ended up at a garage sale after all.
Memorabilia abounded. Press passes galore. Trinkets from PR agents brought to mind trinkets the Dutch used to buy Manhatten. Awards from paper certificates to a couple of clanking Copley bells nestled amid the detritus.
Then there was a whole different photographic category consisting of U-T photographers, reporters and editors. I would like to share them with the 919 Gang from time-to-time.
My first offering is a 1960s holiday greeting card which the photo department sent out each year. A photo car was pulled up on the sidewalk. The photographers gathered around holding our extensive range of cameras: the workhorse 2 1/4 Rolleiflex, old 4x5 Speedgraphics for studio and color photos, 35mm Nikons with telephoto lenses for sports. Pretty ordinary newspaper photography gear but we had some more exotic equipment too.
There was a tiny Minox spy camera which was carefully reserved for Jim Copley to take on trips. Another restricted use camera shot six frames in one second onto a single Poloroid print. It was used at the annual Borrego Conference to help company execs improve their golf swing. A war surplus military aerial camera weighed a ton and produced 5x7 inch negatives.
My favorite camera exotica was a Panon panoramic that produced a 180-degree image. The lens moved on a geared track which at its slowest speed took about 10 seconds to complete the movement. The lens peeked through a vertical slit exposing the film gradually as it passed. In practice, this meant that the subject could change positions during the long exposure and be recorded at different places in the picture.
The second picture here was recorded by the Panon. The inherent distortion can be seen in my distended hand as I reach to tap a photographer for a job from my elevated position on the photo assignment desk. l-r are photographers John Godwin, myself, Bruce Purdy and Andy Brown.
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CARL LARSEN writes:
The U-T’s Lori Weisberg needs your help as she gathers material from cruise passengers who’ve used San Diego’s B Street Cruise Terminal. (See link below.)
I’m looking forward to her piece as someone who’s taken a fair share of cruises, leaving from San Diego and other ports.
The terminal here, in my estimation, falls in the bottom tier of cruise-port facilities.
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NICK CANEPA writes:
My regards to the brilliant, prolific David Elliott. I'd like to know where he ranks the Godfathers. III was not good, agreed. I saw a list yesterday of the 20 greatest running backs in history. O.J. Simpson was 7th, Jim Brown 12th and Gale Sayers 17th. As with Ebert's list, it stunk. Reviews. Perhaps David remembers Newsweek reversing its pan of Bonnie and Clyde. Vietnam and Afghanistan. On second thought, we won.
P.O. Box 2239
Ramona, CA 92065-0938
United States