I’ve been saving this subject for a rainy day and, lo and behold, I was not only struggling to come up with something to write about but it’s an actual rainy day.
You might be familiar with my colleague Andy Keatts, who likes to troll people with ludicrous opinions such as the sun doesn’t really cause cancer.
Several months ago, a year ago maybe, he expressed one of these opinions on Twitter and was promptly eviscerated. But here’s the thing: This opinion wasn’t ludicrous, it was 100 percent right. And I stood by and watched him get torn apart. They say it’s never too late to do the right thing, so here goes.
Breakfast burritos are terrible.
Breakfast burritos: worse breakfast than a breakfast sandwich. Worse burrito than a regular burrito. They serve no purpose.
— Andrew Keatts (@andy_keatts) November 13, 2015
I’ll elaborate a bit here, though Andy did most of the heavy lifting for me. There are plenty of delicious savory breakfasts: corned beef hash with a poached egg, biscuits and gravy, bacon on anything. A breakfast burrito takes the two best parts of a regular burrito — some sort of delicious stewed or grilled meat, and guacamole — and replaces them with overcooked, flavorless starches like eggs and potatoes. So you get none of the joys of a delicious breakfast, and none of the joys of a delicious burrito. A breakfast burrito is the worst of both worlds.
I know you might be inclined to argue about this because the idea came from Andy. Believe me, I know how you feel. But on this point, he’s right. Still, let me pre-empt some of the arguments you might throw back: Yes, I’ve had breakfast burritos from all the “good” places. Yes, I’ve tried various kinds. They’re just gross.
I’ll put my snacking and Mexican food-eating bona fides up against anyone’s. Come. At. Me.
What VOSD Learned This Week
A plan is making the rounds that would let SDPD re-hire retirees in order to stave off a big staffing shortage. And it just so happens the plan would let Police Chief Shelley Zimmerman stick around, too.
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It shouldn’t come as a surprise that the Chargers are pushing a hotel-room tax increase to fund a new stadium. It’s been part of the team’s plan for a long time, and part of the NFL playbook for years.
Councilman Chris Cate wrote an op-ed for us this week announcing he won’t support the Chargers’ measure. The two candidates vying to represent the area where a downtown stadium would go aren’t into the plan either.
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The San Diego County Water Authority notched a major win against its arch nemesis, the Metropolitan Water District, when a judge ruled last year that Met had been charging San Diego too much to deliver Colorado River water. But Ry Rivard revealed this week that Met is going to keep on charging those rates until a higher court weighs in.
Another thing that’s not gonna help the feud: In a new op-ed for us, a Metropolitan representative totally slams San Diego County Water Authority’s financial practices.
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Rachel Evans talked with students in Hoover High’s tech academy to try and understand why so many more boys sign up than girls. Meanwhile, Hoover’s leaders joined the latest Good Schools for All podcast to talk about its new approach to disciplining students and other shifts happening at the school.
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The point-in-time count, in which volunteers tally the region’s homeless population, often undercounts two big groups: women, and youth.
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San Diego is ahead of the curve when it comes to planning for a future that includes self-driving cars. When it comes to planning for how to protect treasures from the past, though, some folks think the city’s slacking.
What I’m Reading
Memories of My Oregon Youth
• I was never sent to prison as a youngster, but I did start running competitively at age 11 and haven’t stopped. This is a lovely story about a group in one of Oregon’s youth correctional camps that’s training for a marathon – one says running saved his life. (Oregonian)
• This piece on cooking without a recipe gave me all the feelings as I thought back to learning to make soups and bread from scratch in my dad’s restaurant growing up. (Guardian)
Media Matters
• A group of Mexican broadcasters were tired of self-censoring to stay on the airwaves, so they started a Netflix-like service for podcasts “that is challenging the country’s dominant radio industry.” (Quartz)
• This story about a reporter’s bizarre interaction with John Popper from Blues Traveler is not only hysterical, it offers some useful tips about engaging in Twitter fights. (Buzzfeed)
Real Life on TV
• The producers of the fantastic “American Crime Story: The People vs. O.J. Simpson” give a post-mortem on the series, and discuss how they were able to take a verdict viewers already knew was coming and make it suspenseful. (Mashable)
• Anita Hill is being thrust back in the spotlight thanks to the HBO movie “Confirmation.” She talks race, women’s rights and 2016 in a new interview. (Time)
Line of the Week
“If you want me to stop covering news, then you get off your computers and do something about the news. There, is that cute enough for you?” – A 9-year-old reporter, taking on critics who say she’s too young to cover crime stories.