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Laguna Beach fest's roots in Valley Center: The “Pageant of the Masters” opens its annual two-month run in Laguna Beach on Wednesday. So why, you might ask, is a history museum in Valley Center mounting an exhibition touting an event in Orange County? The famed pageant actually began in Valley Center in 1914 and was repeated there in 1915.
More Diane Bell columns | e-mail
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Fair gets a dressing down for icon's outfit: An old editor of mine telephoned last month with one last assignment. “Go check out the statue,” Gary Mortenson told me. “See if they haven't dressed it up again.”
More Gerry Braun columns | e-mail
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Caltrans decision was legal roadkill: 11-SD-005 PM 66.3-68.3 N/B. No, that's not a mistake.
More Logan Jenkins columns | e-mail
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The League isn't stupid, but rookie salaries are: The NFL is a monster with more faces than Sybil. The League is one of the last bastions of socialism (although a few radical capitalists in its ranks threaten to tear down Ivan's wall).
More Nick Canepa columns | e-mail
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Longtime umpire, volunteer an inspiring example: When Tom Desaulniers calls you out, he calls you out. Born with an incomplete left arm and no right one, Desaulniers umpires mainly with his mouth. He might be disabled, but he must be heard, and some days even that can be a struggle.
More Tim Sullivan columns | e-mail
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Even Padres have a shot in abysmal NL West: After two-plus weeks of playing some of the sufferin'est teams in the American League – the Detroit Tigers, the Cleveland Indians, the Seattle Mariners – the Padres get to spend the upcoming week playing the two clubs that played in last year's National League Championship Series.
More Chris Jenkins columns | e-mail
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It's early, yes, but rank Pats No. 1 . . . and Bolts No. 2: Seven different teams have represented the NFC in the past seven Super Bowls, which suggests how markedly matters can change from year to year in the NFL.
More Jerry Magee columns | e-mail
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'Black Magic' does the trick: Next week, ESPN interrupts your March Madness for some “Black Magic.” If you're a college basketball fan, or even just a student of American history, this two-night, four-hour documentary is worth your time. You'll learn something, I guarantee it. At times, you'll get angry. At a couple junctures, you'll get a lump in your throat. This is powerful stuff.
More Alan Drooz columns | e-mail
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Mortgage rates on rise, as are fears for housing: As if the local housing market weren't bad enough, there's another storm cloud on the horizon: rising mortgage rates.
More Dean Calbreath columns | e-mail
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Is ObamaAmerican enough?: Barack Obama celebrated the week of the Fourth of July trying to address critics who say he is insufficiently patriotic. In the process, Obama almost hit another home run. He sent one into the stands a few months ago with his speech on race. But this time, speaking from Independence, Mo., Obama came up short.
More Ruben Navarrette Jr. columns | e-mail
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Just who is the real Republican?: Logos? We love 'em. Whether it's McDonald's golden aches drawing attention to the 187 billion hamburgers, or thereabouts, passed through those little windows. Or Ford's simple script logo, now more than 100 years old. Or a cuddly infant imploring us not to squeeze the Charmin.
More Lionel Van Deerlin columns | e-mail
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Garage floor retaken with no casualties: Well, we finally did it. We can walk into our garage without feeling like we are in a rat's maze. Well, that is, after we cleaned up evidence that a few rats had traveled through the maze we unknowingly created for them with our clutter.
More Jane Clifford columns | e-mail
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Fun-packed 'Burn Notice' rekindles summer romance: It is not a perfect television show. But for reasons that returning viewers already know and newcomers will grasp before the first commercial, “Burn Notice” is the perfect summer TV show. And like its unflappable hero, it is showing up just in the nick of time.
More Karla Peterson columns | e-mail
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Meals-on-Wheels struggles to deal with high gas prices: Montez Belcher, a 39-year-old single mother of five, loved her volunteer work for Meals-on-Wheels, Greater San Diego. Two days a week, the former Navy communications specialist delivered meals to seven older clients who don't shop or cook.
More Marsha Seff columns | e-mail
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A few things that stir up our readers: Nothing stirs up readers' feelings of love or hate quite like the comics. Knowing that Special Sections Editor Jim Chute and the comics committee were removing one strip to make room for “Doonesbury” and then rearranging all the comics gave me the jitters last Monday morning.
More Carol Goodhue columns | e-mail
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