DAVE Z IS BACK!!\u00a0 I swore I heard a meadowlark in the Chase Bank parking lot, but it was the Harley-riding, Pacific Beach mail carrier whistling on the job.\u00a0 The last time I saw him he was in obvious pain, walking with a cane, recovering from knee-replacement surgery.\u00a0 “If I\u2019d known how bad it would be, I\u2019m not sure I would have done it,” he said at the time.\u00a0 Guess it worked out OK, \u2019cause he\u2019s on the job, sporting a zipper on his knee and the old broad smile. IT\u2019S NOT SAFE on the streets OR the sidewalks.\u00a0 I was sitting at the light on Garnet Avenue, ready to head south on Fanuel Street when an eastbound Cadillac made a screeching u-turn in the middle of the intersection.\u00a0 Dang!\u00a0 Out of the corner of my eye, I heard and saw simultaneously, a palm frond tear away and cascade to the sidewalk.\u00a0My congratulations to the guy to lept out of the way. BUT YOUR HONOR!! I\u2019m having a recurring nightmare \u2014 or daymare, if there is such a thing \u2014 involving a well-endowed lady who walks down Fanuel most mornings as I\u2019m heading for Starbucks.\u00a0 At least once a week she wears a sweatshirt that says “JUST DO IT!!”\u00a0 At the very least, it seems to me, she\u2019s an attractive nuisance.\u00a0 At least that\u2019s my defense when the case goes to court. SPEAKING OF THE OCEAN BOULEVARD REDEVELOPMENT PROJECT, which I mentioned in my last column, Ray Steinwehe wants to know about the concrete benches just north of Crystal Pier.\u00a0 They seem to have been dedicated as memorials to different individuals.\u00a0 Ray is particularly curious about the bench dedicated to Smitty.\u00a0 Ray is of the opinion that Smitty might have been a homeless person who hung out in the area. I\u2019m not sure about Smitty, but the legendary Shorty met his maker not far from there \u2014 in the Food Basket parking lot, if I recall correctly.\u00a0 Wouldn\u2019t that be something if Shorty had a memorial bench? GOT AN E-MAIL FROM JERRY, who didn\u2019t give his last name, hoping I had a photo of a billboard rumored to exist in the mid-1980s.\u00a0 Jerry heard it was on Garnet and said something along the lines of “SIX BLOCKS, FORTY BARS \u2013 WELCOME TO HEAVEN!!”\u00a0 I don\u2019t have a photo and suspect the billboard is a Fig Newton of Jerry\u2019s imagination \u2014 or at least the imagination of his friends.\u00a0 Or I could be wrong.\u00a0 Maybe they ought to put it up again.\u00a0 I don\u2019t think anyone would mind. ARTISTIC LICENSE: I laughed out loud at the Mini Cooper with the “MNE HAHA” plates. \u2014 John Fry may be reached at (858) 272-6655 or by e-mail at mail@johnfry.com.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
DAVE Z IS BACK!!\u00a0 I swore I heard a meadowlark in the Chase Bank parking lot, but it was the Harley-riding, Pacific Beach mail carrier whistling on the job.\u00a0 The last time I saw him he was in obvious pain, walking with a cane, recovering from knee-replacement surgery.\u00a0 “If I\u2019d known how bad it would […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11559","_seopress_titles_title":"Now & Then","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11559,11547,11593],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-294447","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-beach-bay-press","category-features","category-no-images"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294447","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=294447"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294447\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=294447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=294447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=294447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}