Tom Blair: Waiting for the Second Act…

Tom Blair is an SDNN columnist.

TEMPUS FUGIT: When Jerry Brown came to San Diego on his first fund-raising foray for a run at the governor’s office, he was a very young 35. On July 23, he’ll return for another fund-raiser in an attempt to recapture the governor’s office — 35 years later. It’s $500-a-pop cocktails and dinner at the Point Loma home of Marcy and Jeffrey Krinsk, with former congresswoman Lynn Schenk and Hugh Friedman as co-hosts. The invitation says, “Always Before His Time, Until Now.” All of which has set Wendy Butler to reminiscing. “I remember that first campaign trip to San Diego in 1974,” she said. “Jerry Brown had a full head of dark hair and white-gray sideburns. And you guys in the media were giving him a bad time-suggesting he’d dyed the sideburns gray to look more mature. No such problem this time,” she said. “Now the gray sideburns are all he has left.”

ITEMS INFINITUM: This is what you might expect when the average annual temperature is 65 degrees: A University of Michigan study of combined energy demand for heating and cooling in the 50 largest U.S. metro areas puts San Diego lowest. Highest: Minneapolis. Right . . . Good news: San Diego-brewed Karl Strauss beer just picked up two gold medals at the Los Angeles County Fair for its Amber Lager and Conquistador Doppelbock. Bad taste: no gold for Karl at our own county fair . . . TV’s America’s Next Top Model has set an open casting call  for 8 a.m. July 11 at NTC Promenade in Point Loma. The vital stats: Only women 18-27 and 5-foot-7 or taller need apply . . .  A group of San Diego State TV and film students picked up an Emmy last week in Los Angeles for their hour-long TV pilot Hollywood Heights. It’s all about a band of Hollywood hopefuls looking for their big break in show biz. Pure case of art imitating life . . . David Peckinpaugh, who sold San Diego to conventioneers for three years as head of our ConVis Bureau before quitting in May, has signed on to sell Phoenix for HelmsBrisco, a meeting-planning company.

More from Tom Blair:

On going out in style… |  There’s no business like show business… | In case you hadn’t guessed…

R.I.P.: Good food helps if you want to be a success in the restaurant business. But location, timing and economic conditions are vital. Crescent Heights Kitchen & Lounge, the winner for best new restaurant in our San Diego Magazine readers’ poll last month, closed the doors last week on its West Broadway eatery, after little more than a year.

SO THEY SAY: A New York Times profile of former Padres closer Trevor Hoffman says he’s “savoring a fresh start with the Milwaukee Brewers.”  But it’s a quiet sort of savoring. According to the Times, Hoffman has no phone at home, listens to the same radio station every day and has no serious friends in Milwaukee outside of his teammates. Hoffman says he realized his life “was going to slow down” after he left San Diego.  In Padres country, everybody knew him. In Milwaukee, the Times says, he’s “just the dude wearing cargo shorts on another cool, rainy day.” Says Hoffman: “It’s like I’m a rookie again. I keep my head down.”

PARTING SHOT: Tom Gable’s timely technology  report: “Midwestern farmers are using equipment that turns manure into energy.  You know, the reverse of the San Diego Padres.”

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This entry was posted on Monday, June 22nd, 2009 at 6:29 am and is filed under Columns, Lifestyle. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.