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Michael Fitzgerald
Mike Fitzgerald is The Record’s award-winning metro columnist. His column runs in the paper three times a week. Born in San Francisco, he was raised in Stockton. His column covers diverse beats including, sometimes, the offbeat. Read FullCategories
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Latest Tweets
- Just passed a low-rider pickup on the Crosstown Freeway, custom painted and pinstriped. A rear-window decal read, "Praise the Lowered." 2009-11-11
- Moving to a new address on the blogosphere: http://bit.ly/1Sft50. See you there. 2009-10-22
- Recession Chronicles: Maxim's restaurant, which beat City Hall in court over dancing, closed today. More on my blog at recordnet.com/blogs. 2009-10-12
- Prison hospital scoop, inside info on the Stocktoberfest cross-up and giant tunnel-boring machines on my blog, recordnet.com/blogs. 2009-10-12
- A state assemblyman says the Peripheral Canal will be big enough for cruise ships. My light bulb moment in Friday's column at recordnet.com. 2009-10-01
- More updates...
Posting tweet...
Monthly Archives: October 2006
Stockton: California’s Casbah
“Mr. Fitzgerald:
“While going through a box of very old mementos, I found I had cut out and saved this blurb from what – I believe – was a brochure on the virtues of UOP. It was a priceless description that has held up well. I’d say this was about 1958.”
[...]
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Stockton in (racy) literature
Stockton gets an amusing mention in Robert Parker’s new Spencer mystery novel, “Hundred-Dollar Baby.”
In this scene Spencer, a detective, is talking to a madam about Internet prostitution.
“What will I find under escort services?”
“About 3 million hits,” April said. “Nationwide.”
“So If I’m going to, say, Pittsburg,” I said, “I look up escort services in Pittsburgh and [...]
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On a Reverend’s bigotry
Below is the Rev. Bob Hailey’s anti-homosexual speech inspired by Susan Eggman, a candidate for the Council who happens to be a lesbian.
Hailey read this before the Council, Board of Supervisors, possibly from the pulpit and submitted it as a letter to the editor of this paper.
My tirade appears below his tirade.
The Destruction of America
Words [...]
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Hans Kopes (1923-2006) Fought City Hall, lost
Hans Kopes, a highly disgruntled Stockton man who doggedly fought a developer and City Hall for years over paving a small stretch of road, was buried last week. He was 83.
Kopes lived on Podesto Lane, a short snippet of ragged dirt road off Pacific Avenue in unincorporated North Stockton. That road was his battlefield.
In the [...]
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Strange news from TUSKany
The Mother Lode’s social scene – glittering or bizarre?
I’m tilting toward the latter after an animal sanctuary held a fundraiser Saturday in which an elephant stomped grapes.
The Performing Animal Welfare Society, or PAWS, threw the gala “Afternoon in TUSKany” at their San Andreas “ARK2000” wildlife sanctuary.
Billed as a “fun-filled romp,” the event featured vegetarian cuisine [...]
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Maury Kane 1923-2006
I’ve got a column going into tomorrow’s paper on the late Maury Kane, the reporter who worked at The Record for 40 years.
I wanted to add that Maury had my gratitude for a kindness he showed me early on.
When I got a try-out at the paper, the boss put me on a standard three months’ [...]
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Keak Da Sneak: officials tweak
City bureaucrats have killed the Keak Da Sneak concert scheduled for Nov. 3. They gave a poor reason.
Officials said the promoter applied to stage a youth talent show along with Keak but advertized the event as a distinclty adult affair featuring, among other attractions, a “Mz. New Booty” contest.
OK, so maybe the promoter misrepresented the [...]
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A print blurb about audio books
Hurrahs for Myrna Mouchon, a former Lodi resident who recently won recognition as an “Outstanding Older Worker.”
Mouchon, 76, moved to Virginia eight years ago. She runs the talking book program at the Fairfax County Library. She helps patrons who can’t see or read to find audio books they will enjoy.
Only one senior worker per state [...]
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More ‘Famous from Stockton’
Readers keep pointing out more native Stocktonians — or people who once lived here – who went on to be famous, or almost famous, or notable, or foot-notable.
Here’s another: Jeanne Cooper, who has played Katherine Chancellor on “The Young and the Restless” for 32 years.
Y&R’s longest-running cast member, Cooper made minor TV history in 1984 [...]
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We’re so happy for you, Modesto