Sometimes San Diego Looks a Lot Different

More and more, I think things in San Diego are not what they appear. Here are two recent examples.

First is a hot-selling new post card of the skyline: an aerial shot of San Diego Bay, Seaport Village, silvery Marriott high-rises, the glassy office buildings, the works.

The problem is that the picture has been inadvertently “flopped,” so that nothing is in its proper place. Right is left; left is right.

It’s like returning home and finding all your furniture rearranged. Worse yet, it makes you take a closer look at that furniture.

The flopping has the effect of downplaying the classic county building on the waterfront and the spiffy high-rises behind it, while accentuating the seedy eastern part of downtown.

America’s Finest City looks like Bakersfield by the Bay. And to think: This is the image that hordes of tourists are mailing back home!

It’s enough to make a San Diegan swear off post cards forever.

For our second facsimile-warp, we go to a southbound Amtrak between Los Angeles and San Diego.

Aboard were 40 fun-loving salesmen from a German pharmaceutical company taking a Mystery Train Tour. A Laguna Beach firm organizes these whodunit trips.

Think of it as “Murder, She Wrote” on wheels. Amtrak personnel are supposed to be briefed. This time there was a glitch.

A salesman flashed a badge at a conductor: “A woman has just been shot. Call the police to meet us at the next station,” which was Oceanside.

The stunned conductor told the equally stunned engineer, who radioed his dispatcher to summon police and paramedics. Five minutes later he had to nix the call: “Never mind.”

“When you mix fantasy and reality, there can be problems,” says Mystery Train Tour operator Richard Doherr.

Then again, Doherr prefers to be called Sam Spade, so I’m not sure I should believe him.

Home Front Odds and Ends

The home front, man and beast.

* The Lakeside-based Animal Press backs Operation Desert Storm, particularly because of Saddam’s penchant for gas warfare:

“Our soldiers and the population of Israel all have gas masks. The animals do not. There is no question that Saddam Hussein must be stopped.”

* Spotted on Interstate 5 near Oceanside: a Chevrolet dragging a noose. Inside the noose, a Saddam doll.

* San Diego Animal Advocates joined Sunday’s nationwide anti-fur protest by picketing in La Jolla.

The group had considered skipping the protest because of the war. But it decided to go ahead for fear that fur sales will zoom if vigilance slackens.

“We cannot allow the fur industry to increase sales because of the war,” explained Sally Mackler.

* SamSonS Restaurant & Deli in La Jolla will host a special program for military families Feb. 24. Entertainment plus a chance to talk about children’s anxieties.

On tap: a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle (probably Michelangelo), a psychiatrist and free chicken soup.

* A demonstrator was arrested at San Diego State University for carrying a sign with a sharpened stick. Cops considered the stick a weapon.

A peace protester? No, an engineering student angry at long lines at the financial aid office.

Carrying a sign that read: “Make the Dean Wait in This Line” and “4 Hrs.”

Putting Bite in the News

Media moves.

* From the recent edition of San Diego Political Watch:

“When it comes time to decide who will be running for state, county or national office, eyes turn to Chula Vista’s mayor and council members.”

I’ll bet not a day goes by without a Chula Vista pol being begged to run for President.

* Hounds of the press.

San Diego Police Chief Bob Burgreen last week announced plans to use more dogs in an effort to avoid officer-involved shootings.

One reporter asked Burgreen if the dogs “have been trained to chew to kill or just chew to wound.”

Burgreen laughed. Or was that a suppressed growl?