The 40,000 Twitter followers are just the beginning.
San Diego’s Gina Trapani has that many fans who track her tweets online. And there are many more who read her blog about Google, learned how to better control their lives through the hugely popular site she edited (Lifehacker) and think she’s the bee’s knees when it comes to anything geeky or techie.
In this week’s Q&A interview, we chat with the local tech expert about her obsessive problem solving, the problem with the perfect tool, and how four years turned into 10,000 posts.
In other news:
- The cost of living may be sky-high, but living in San Diego literally isn’t very taxing — maybe.
- As we report, “The city of San Diego remains at the bottom of large California cities in collecting tax money for its day-to-day operating budget, a new study has found.” But the study is already encountering a buzzsaw of criticism.
- The Photos of the Day are outtakes from our session with Q&A subject Trapani. We also answer the question, “Hey, how’d you do that?”
Elsewhere:
- Jeff Light, hired to be the new editor of the U-T, responded to online comments on the newspaper’s website and said, among other things, that “I am somewhere to the right of the average journalist and to the left of the average Orange County voter. Not sure if that narrows it down any.”
Actually, it does. It suggests he won’t be living with all those average journalists in Berkeley South (aka Ocean Beach) or all those Orange County transplanted voters in Outer Mission Viejo (aka Ranch Bernardo).
What We Learned This Week
- The Housing Market Rally Is Over (for Now): Whether it reignites is largely up to the government, writes Rich Toscano.
- Judge Not Lest Ye Be Judged (by the D.A.): There’s talk that the district attorney may boycott a third judge. Gosh. Was it something she ruled? (Yes.)
- Supervisor Saved from Challenge? County Supervisor Ron Roberts may not have a challenger for his re-election campaign as Assemblywoman Lori Saldaña decided against running. Now City Councilwoman Donna Frye is the only potential rival to Roberts’ long-held seat.
- A Watchdog Stumbled: A splashy story in the U-T by its nonprofit investigative journalism partner claimed that a huge percentage of local registered sex offenders are violating the law. True? No, we find. It was something different.
- Mmmm, Mmmm, Plastic!: Gobs of tartar sauce won’t hide a major problem with fish from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Our cartoon helped drive home the point.
The Coffee Collection (stories to savor over a cup of java):
- Eat and (Don’t) Run: In a story brimming with colorful detail, we check with seniors who rely on free and inexpensive lunches that are on the chopping block.
- Pressure on Postdocs: Get a biotech doctorate degree and you’re home free, right? Nice job, big salary, fancy home. You wish..
- Paging Salvador Dali: San Diego school board members don’t seem quite themselves these days when it comes to where they stand on teacher cutbacks. It’s “surreal,” says one observer.
If only one of the board members would put on a goatee like Spock in that “Star Trek” episode. That way we’d know we’re in an parallel universe.
Is This Thing On?:
In recent weeks, we’ve stepped up our partnership with NBC 7/39 to bring you more information and perspective on San Diego news stories. (The pictures move and everything!)
You’ll find two weekly features on the local news: San Diego Explained, which appears on Tuesdays during the 6 p.m. news, and San Diego Fact Check, seen on Fridays during the 6 p.m. news.
We welcome your input about everything from our speaking styles to the clothes we wear. (Some of us are hoping a certain necktie goes to that great haberdashery in the sky, by the way.)
This week’s edition of San Diego Explained examines downtown’s proposed “schoobrary” project.
Quote of the Week: “He’s a real shakeup for San Diego. At the Union-Tribune, when you had a new idea, it was: ‘Write a proposal, study it for six months, we’ll think about it.’ Jeff is comfortable trying unconventional things.” — Norberto Santana Jr., a former writer at both the Union-Tribune and Orange County Register, on new U-T editor Jeff Light.
— RANDY DOTINGA