Yuppies and the Half-Baked Cherry Pie Connection

I say: “Cherry pie and coffee, please.”

Dolores Miller looks at me and inquires, quite friendly like: “How did you know we have cherry pie?”

Miller and her husband, Mike, own The Little Cafe on 8th Avenue in downtown San Diego, a down-home breakfast-and-lunch place tucked between Broadway and C Street.

After 21 years at the same spot, the Millers thought they had seen it all. Then, about six months ago, the number of requests for cherry pie began to increase without explanation.

“For years, we probably didn’t bake more than two cherry pies a year , just for Washington’s Birthday,” Mike explains. “Now we bake two or more a week .”

Finally, someone clued them in: It’s the “Twin Peaks” cult. Cherry pie is the favorite dish of FBI Agent Dale Cooper, the dramatic linchpin to the spooky-spoofy series.

Then as now, the Millers have no direct knowledge of “Twin Peaks.” They don’t watch much television: their off-hours are consumed with playing in a mandolin orchestra.

I confess to Dolores that the leader of the “Twin Peaks” sect in my office had told me of the cherry pie boom at The Little Cafe. She nods.

“I hear ‘Twin Peaks’ is kind of a yuppie show,” she says. “We get a lot of yuppies here.”

She says one young couple paid for their cherry pie with a fistful of coins. No, the woman was not wearing an eye patch or cradling a small log.

Of course, not all of the customers at The Little Cafe are fans of cherry pie and “Twin Peaks” (have you checked those drooping Nielsen ratings?).

An older gent, a regular, arrives as I’m leaving and orders a beer and a hot fudge sundae. I wonder what show he’s been watching?

Gift Horses and Politics

Money and politics.

On Aug. 22, Mercy Inc. of Las Vegas contributed $5,000 to the campaign to defeat Propositions D and M, the builders’ growth plan.

The San Diego City Council wants D and M defeated. The Mercy Inc. contribution is the most generous of the campaign.

On Sept. 17, the council voted 6 to 2 to renew the city’s paramedic contract with Hartson Medical Services of San Diego, without competitive bidding. In April, the council had voted to allow Hartson to raise its fee for ambulance service by $65 to an average $347.

What’s the connection between Mercy Inc., Hartson, and the City Council?

Mercy Inc., an ambulance company, is owned by Hartson Medical Services, although their relationship is not spelled out on disclosure forms at the city clerk’s office.

Glen Roberts, Hartson chief administrative officer, says there was no attempt at deception: “The check was written on Mercy because that account had money and the Hartson’s account didn’t.”

He adds that he has raised or contributed money to every council member except Abbe Wolfsheimer. He says contributions provide access but not necessarily influence.

He says he can’t recall who asked him to contribute to the campaign against D & M, because there are so many local politicians and political operatives asking for money these days. Exactly.

Here and There

More or less.

* And away they go.

A 5-foot-tall bronze statue of a horse has been stolen from in front of Taryn’s restaurant in Solana Beach, across from the Del Mar Race Track. Value: $5,000.

* Sheriff John Duffy, explaining the severity of 10-day suspensions for deputies accused of brutalizing jail prisoners:

“Have you ever gone 10 days without pay, medical benefits and insurance?”

A bit misleading. Under Civil Service, deputies retain their medical benefits and insurance even while suspended without pay.

* Graffiti are appearing on trees in downtown San Diego. Trees .

* A rattlesnake warning has been sounded at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla. The free-roaming rattlers are riled by construction on campus.