Peeping Sundaze

Sunday Afternoons Atop Hotel Andaluc-a

Last Sunday afternoon, a perfectly sweltering, sweaty summer day, I found myself eyeing my bathroom door with a hatred and disgust normally reserved strictly for the parking Nazis who seem to have singled me out as public enemy number one. Why? Because I knew what awaited me, and there was no escape: an event I wouldn’t consider missing was about to get started, and I had to blow-dry my hair. “Just shoot me,” I muttered, to the utter bemusement of my dog, and marched in to face the music. Five minutes of indescribable torture later, I emerged, red-faced, boiling, and defeated with my hair in a ponytail. My dog didn’t seem to think anything was amiss, and, making my way over to the Hotel Andaluc-a, I pretended she was right.

Pole Position

Last Friday’s scorching sun and 90-degree temperatures provided a picturesque yet taxing backdrop for a public walk-through of the proposed Naples development. The daylong affair was an official site visit for the county’s planning and development staff, led by the developers’ consultant Mark Lloyd, and organized by Santa Barbara Ranch owner Matt Osgood and the Schulte family of Dos Pueblos Ranch.

A Day at the Races

Most people know what an outrigger is-it’s that canoe-like boat thingy that the Polynesians used to paddle from island to island in the South Pacific; it’s the floaty you rode the waves in as a tourist in Hawai’i. While you’d be right in both cases, outrigger canoe paddling is also a serious sport, both in California and Hawai’i. The spirit behind the sport of outrigger paddling is Hawaiian Albert “Toots”Minvielle. In 1951, he organized the first Molokai Channel race; in 1959, he brought the sport to California, with a race from Avalon, Catalina, to Newport Beach.

Three Questions With…

“Konichiwa!” greets the Reverend Al Green. Definitively one of the best soul and R&B singers of the early ’70s, Green pays a visit to the Chumash Casino on July 27 to salve the souls of Santa Barbara County. A lot of mystery has surrounded the legend since he was ordained a Baptist pastor at the Full Gospel Tabernacle in Memphis and started singing gospel. I recently had the privilege to attend a phone sermon.

Barney Brantingham: New Digs

When the Santa Barbara News-Press threw a party for me on my 45-year anniversary at the paper, I recited “10 Reasons Why I Stayed So Long.” One was: “I was waiting for an offer from The Independent.”

Death On The High Seas

Tragedy struck about a mile off Santa Cruz Island last week when a local commercial fishing boat sank, killing two of the three men onboard. Shortly after 8 p.m. Monday night, the Five G’s vessel was drift netting for sea bass near Lady’s Harbor when it violently rolled over, sending its three passengers-Captain Clifton Kent, Mike Caligiuri, and Joseph Breck-overboard and sinking the 35-foot boat in a matter of minutes.

Quote of the Week

‘We met three times, but each time I got investigated by the FAA or received phone calls from Lois Capps questioning my integrity. I stopped meeting with them.’

Gary Rice, Santa Maria Airport district manager, on PUEBLO (People United for Economic Justice Through Building Leadership).

LOWE’S DREAM HOME APPEALED

Actor Rob Lowe’s controversial plan to build a 14,000-square-foot dream home on Picacho Lanenews coverage of which sparked the controversy now embroiling the Santa Barbara News-Presshas been appealed to the County Board of Supervisors by Lowe’s neighbor Fred Gluck.

DROWNING FALLOUT

Nearly a year after 4-year-old Yoni Gottesman drowned in a swimming pool at the Cathedral Oaks Athletic Club, the Santa Barbara District Attorney’s office announced there was “insufficient basis” to file criminal charges in the case. The decisionwhich was publicly released at a press conference last Thursdaywas an outrage to the boy’s family and their lawyer Barry Cappello. According to the victim’s father, Oded Gottesman, the family plans to file an appeal and bring a civil suit against the Goleta-based athletic club and those on pool duty when the boy drowned.

SNAIL JAIL

The Board of Supervisors this week polished and approved the Sheriff’s response to a Grand Jury report that called for the construction of a new jail in the North County, starting with a timeline and fundraising.

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