Maybe It’s a Small Annex to Horton Plaza

Horton Plaza continues to get media attention, albeit with a glitch here and there.

When San Diego free-lance writer Janice Steinberg wrote a piece for Advertising Age magazine the other day about how the Irvine Ranch Market has set up outlets in several stylish Southern California shoping centers, she included in her list the “tony” Horton Plaza in San Diego.

You got it. Alonzo Horton notwithstanding, the April 28 article made reference to San Diego’s Tony Horton Plaza.

Saying ‘No’ Is Growing

It was March 1 when pigtailed Soleil Moon Frye of “Punky Brewster” television fame led thousands of San Diego youngsters on a down-with-drugs rally through downtown by proclaiming, “Just Say No!”

What has happened to the anti-drug campaign since then?

The campaign is spreading quickly around San Diego County schools, according to PTA spokesman Nina Kurtz, who sits on a task force--along with the Navy, the Optimist Club International, KCST-TV (Channel 39), the San Diego Police Department and the county’s Department of Education--promoting the “Just Say No!” campaign.

About 100 elementary and junior high schools around the county are establishing “Just Say No!” chapters. Plus, chapters are being established by churches and community centers. The clubs, with older, drug-free school kids serving as role models for the younger kids, are designed to provide “counter-peer pressure” to the forces at work in getting kids to use drugs, Kurtz said. Besides the education program, clubs will have social activities, such as roller skating, not only as a reward for their behavior but toward assuring parents that their children are hanging out with straight kids.

Among the more active school districts involved in the campaign is Santee’s, where administrator Dick Dorsey has organized “Just Say No!” clubs in five of the city’s 10 schools.

“The clubs won’t be a panacea, because there will always be some kids who won’t be motivated by this kind of positive peer pressure,” he said. “But at least we have a greater chance in reaching kids, and we can celebrate the positive choices these kids will make.”

Avocado Supplants Chili

There’s no sense in there being another chili cookoff contest in these here parts, so Escondido is going to do the next best--and probably next most appropriate--thing when the Chamber of Commerce holds a “Celebrate Escondido” promotion Saturday on Grand Avenue.

There’ll be a guacamole-making contest, with a $5 entry fee to show off your best two-cups’ worth. The rules are simple enough: fresh ingredients, no preservatives and attach the recipe to your bowl.

Dialing a Way Home

The University of San Diego’s student body and student affairs office have contracted with a San Diego taxicab company to deliver students to their homes, safe and sound, no matter the time of day or day of week, so long as the student feels he needs the ride for his safety and well-being. It is believed to be the only university in the nation with such a program.

In the three months since the so-called College Cab has been available, about 100 students have used the service, which is free to them except for the cost of a phone call to Orange Cab Co.

The student requests the ride, shows his university identification card to the driver, and signs a voucher for the ride when dropped off at home. The cab company then bills the university’s Associated Students office at a discounted rate. So far, the 100 rides have cost about $1,100, said Gaye Soroka, special projects coordinator at USD.

The demand has been heavier than expected, she said, and most ride requests apparently came from partying students who felt tipsy. But, she emphasized, the service is intended for more than that: it’s available to get females out of uncomfortable dating situations or to unstrand stranded motorists.

The idea for College Cab was inspired in part, Soroka said, by the November, 1984, slaying of USD student Anne Swanke, who was abducted and killed after her car ran out of gasoline.

Lampooning Newsmakers

Finally, in our Get-Rich Scheme Dept., we bring you the hopes and dreams of Loch David Crane, a 37-year-old English instructor who works on a month-to-month basis at National University, happens to be off this month, and is looking for some supplemental cash.

He is trying to sell a T-shirt emblazoned with with a caricature of Gadaffy (as in Daffy) Duck. It’s a little black duck with tight, curly hair dressed in a military uniform and swimming in the Gulf of Sidra with a missile spearing his hat.

Crane (who ran for mayor of San Diego last time around and placed 5th out of 15) printed up several thousand shirts. But they’re not moving too well, he concedes. “Moammar Kadafi hasn’t done anything too stupid in the past couple of weeks, so sales have slipped,” Crane said.

That’s OK, he said. He’s got another T-shirt design in mind, playing on the riddle, “What lays eggs and glows in the dark? Chicken Kiev.”

“I feel a little bad feeding on these kinds of news events, but hey, maybe there’s money in this until I have to get back to teaching the difference between who and whom.”