Newman\u2019s blue eyes were unforgettable It was 1972 \u2014 in San Francisco \u2014 making of the movie “Towering Inferno.” The movie was filmed during the night around the Bank of America building located at the bottom of California Street. Believe it or not, I was working the night shift (\u2019til 3 a.m.) as a keypunch operator in a building across from the BofA. Not only did we watch the filming through the windows, but we sneaked from our jobs and went to hang out with the hundreds of local firemen. I spoke to Steve McQueen, who was the star, and his wife Ali McGraw. Someone said that Paul Newman was directing the movie. Wow, one night at the entrance of the building stood Paul Newman, all alone. I approached him face to face. He looked at me and I looked at the bluest eyes ever. Maybe because it was nighttime or the lighting, but those bluest eyes stuck in my head for the last 36 years. I asked him, “Are you directing this movie?” He replied, “Not that I know!” Sierra Wysling Pacific Beach *** Memories differ on alcohol\u2019s impact Mr. Chubinsky\u2019s recollection and interpretation of events differ markedly from mine (“What the ban side doesn\u2019t want you to know,”?Beach &?Bay Press, Sept. 25). Let\u2019s just say that whether voters want the current alcohol ban to become permanent will be decided Nov. 4. Since he cites his experience on Mission Beach Town Council to give weight to his claims, here\u2019s a “second opinion” on that experience, from one who survived it. Chubinsky participated in a four-year takeover of the council by customers of the Pennant and Beachcomber bars. First a guy named Richard Green, who had never before even attended a town council meeting, was installed as president. Later, Chubinsky took over. Participation during their terms dropped markedly, and the meetings became mainly “gripe” sessions. Chubinsky\u2019s designated successor as president, a character named J.P. Hegemeyer, suddenly left town before presiding over his first town council meeting. Fortunately, Nancie Geller, whose husband Marc had been council president in the past, stepped in, picked up the pieces and ran the group successfully for three years. After her first year, Chubinsky bailed out and has seldom attended a meeting since. Geller was followed by Mary Swenson, who has continued to build membership during her two terms. The meetings are now a lively forum dealing with a variety of community issues. In fact, Mission Beach Town Council is currently in its annual membership drive, and interested parties can go to our web site at www.missionbeachtc.org to see some of our current projects and priorities. I\u2019ve been active on the town council for over 15 years, and it\u2019s never been healthier. As for Chubinsky\u2019s claim that ban supporters just don\u2019t like alcohol, no one who knows me could accuse me of being anti-alcohol. I\u2019m simply pro-public safety. William Bradshaw Board Member Mission Beach Town Council *** 2002 ban ordinance can\u2019t be compared to Prop D Regarding “What the ban side doesn\u2019t want you to know” (Beach & Bay Press, Sept. 25), let me try and get to some real facts and issues letter writer Robert Chubinsky doesn\u2019t want you to know. He starts by saying, “Many PB and MB residents don\u2019t want a total ban on alcohol.” Well, the last vote on a ban in2002 only lost by 1\u00bd percent, and that was mostly due to the fact that the ordinance was not written so all the beach areas were included and voters were either confused or afraid all the problems would move to their area. Also, the alcohol industry pumped about $128,000 into the last election while the people for the ban and safe beaches came up with only about $25,000. Oftentimes in a democracy we have to give up minor personal freedoms to do what\u2019s best for the community as a whole. Please vote yes on Prop D and you\u2019ll support safe, clean and fun beaches, not the alcohol industry. Steve Sherrard Mission Beach<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Newman\u2019s blue eyes were unforgettable It was 1972 \u2014 in San Francisco \u2014 making of the movie “Towering Inferno.” The movie was filmed during the night around the Bank of America building located at the bottom of California Street. Believe it or not, I was working the night shift (\u2019til 3 a.m.) as a keypunch […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"Letters to the Editor (Oct. 2)","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11600],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-298989","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sdnews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298989","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=298989"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298989\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=298989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=298989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=298989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}