U-T Book Festival is a Special Local Treat
Plus: Self Defense Presentation, Ten Seconds Noodles in Convoy District, Empower Language Academy, Community Potluck on Saturday, Farmers Market News, and Kearny Football Begins with Victory
Calling all book nerds and anyone else interested in an intellectually stimulating and fun time! If you didn’t attend this year’s 7th annual San Diego Union Tribune Festival of Books, then you don’t know what you missed, and you need to mark a 2024 calendar to make sure you register for next year’s event. After attending this year’s event, which was held this past Saturday on the beautiful University of San Diego campus, right here in Linda Vista, I can attest that the Festival of Books is a must-do for any local book aficionado. It’s the perfect place to find a good book or two, listen to interesting authors, be around fellow book lovers, and just enjoy the festive, literary vibe.
There were a number of prominent authors at this year’s event, to include crime/mystery writers Joseph Wambaugh and T. Jefferson Parker, and musicians/writers Susanna Hoffs of The Bangles and Bernie Taupin who earned his fame co-writing songs with Elton John. There were numerous panel discussions with writers of all genres. These discussions covered such topics as nature writing, fantasy, poetry, sports, justice, and technology. Most of these discussion were held in a variety of impressive rooms, theaters, and courtyards located throughout the USD campus, (It’s always fun strolling through the campus), and a few featured authors held their discussions on the outdoor main stage.
Since I have long been a fan of The Bangles—one of my favorite rock groups from the 80’s—I attended a talk held on the main stage featuring Bangles singer/guitarist Susanna Hoffs. She has a recently released novel titled This Bird Has Flown, which is of course about a fictitious female rock musician. She gave an interesting, witty talk that mixed literary themes with rock and roll ones. I was happy to hear her describe herself as a fellow “vegetarian who eats fish.” I ended up buying the book and getting it signed by her later in the day.
I also attended a discussion by Captain Brett Crozier (US Navy retired). As you may recall, he was the commanding officer of a San Diego-based aircraft carrier; while on deployment, he was fired by the Secretary of the Navy after he took some controversial steps to protect his sailors against COVID during the early stages of the pandemic. His new book, titled Surf When You Can, is a well written account in which he tells interesting and valuable stories about his career. He is a good speaker who was able to entertain the audience with his stories and lessons on leadership. I found it interesting that one of his main leadership principles when it comes to decision-making is…”When in doubt, be kind.” In my opinion, the world would be a better place if more people with power/authority practiced this brand of leadership.
Besides attending a couple other discussion panels, I also attended a discussion held with music legend Bernie Taupin. In talking about his soon to be released book, which is a memoir of his life, Taupin told about his upbringing, his writing of songs with Elton John, and life in the music industry.
The Book Festival also included numerous book and publishing vendor booths, and good music on the main stage. It was a great way to spend a summer Saturday. By the end of the afternoon, I felt my literary/intellectual horizons had been expanded.
No doubt, one of the great things about living close to the USD campus here in Linda Vista is the opportunity to take advantage of the fantastic educational, cultural, and sports events that occur there. The SD Union Tribune Festival of Books is one such fantastic event.
Self Defense Takes Center Stage at LVTC Meeting
Here are a couple frightening statistics. According to the National Sexual Violence Resource Center, one in five women in the United States has experienced completed or attempted rape during their lifetime. Almost one in four undergraduate women experienced sexual assault or misconduct at 33 of the nation's major universities.
Furthermore, an article in the NY Times reported that there has been a significant rise in women traveling alone as tourists—at the same time, a safe country like Costa Rica has declared violence against women, to include foreign tourists, as a national problem.
What can be done to counter such violence against women? Gale Bryan, a guest speaker at last week’s Linda Vista Town Council (LVTC) general meeting, claims that the best protection against an assault is your own body. A self-defense instructor, Bryan has devoted herself to instructing people, especially women, children, and seniors about the dangers of sexual assault. The presentation she delivered at the LVTC meeting, which was a highly condensed version of her normal tutorial, fascinated the audience as she instructed the meeting attendees with common sense techniques and insights on how to protect against physical assaults. Everyone came away with the feeling that her presentation provides essential information and should be seen and heard by as many people as possible in the community.
Bryan, a self-defense instructor who resides in Serra Mesa, has been giving free lectures to the San Diego community since 2018. As explained by Bryan, these presentations “Consist of a prevention lecture and technique demonstration usually lasting one to 1.5 hours. First half is a lecture which covers general awareness and prevention, the pros and cons of pepper spray, how to use household items as improvised weapons and for seniors, how to defend yourself with a cane called "Cane Fu." Then a demonstration of simple self-defense techniques which cover how to escape from: wrist grabs, chokes, holds, bear hugs, head locks, hair pulls and how to fight from the ground. A 3.5 hour hands-on class can be offered at a later date if there is an interest from the group.”
As Bryan adds, “I offer this presentation to churches, clubs, community centers, businesses and private family groups at their home or venue. To date 1,092 people have seen this presentation.”
During the LVTC presentation, Bryan demonstrated some of the physical techniques one can use to defend against an attempted assault, to include kicks to the groin area and the gouging of eyes. In demonstrating the techniques, she emphasized that women are usually attacked from different angles (i.e. from the side or from the back) than are men (from the front or face-to-face), and she explained the extent to which using such instruments as keys, pepper spray, and weapons can/cannot help in fending off attacks.
Bryan also highlighted the importance of basic advice for women and seniors related to maintaining situational awareness when walking near people, to include keeping your head up and not looking like a victim, maintaining eye contact, moving your head as if it were on a swivel to keep an eye on your surroundings, maintaining a physical boundary of six feet, and looking for things that are out of place.
In addition to conducting presentations, Bryan has these two videos which will give you an idea of what techniques are taught:
Dr. Ruthless®: Practical, Primal Self Defense For Women - YouTube (5.25 min. This is what real self-defense looks like).
So You Think the Cane is Just a Crutch? Think Again! - YouTube (2 min. This video demonstrates "Cane Fu" for seniors.)
Bryan also has a Facebook page “To give women, children, and seniors all the information they need about assault prevention and self-defense in one place. The page has over 300 posts covering what to do in dangerous situations such as: walking, driving, car break downs, on vacation, in hotels, using an ATM, street harassment, encountering a flasher, mugger, child molester, rapist, active shooter etc.. The page is searchable, just see the first post for instructions.” Here is the link:
Gale Bryan: Every Woman Can, Self Defense for Women https://www.facebook.com/EveryWomanCanSelfDefense
If you are interested in scheduling Ms. Bryan for a presentation, check out the flyer here to obtain contact details.
Ten Seconds Yunnan Rice Noodles
Now, isn’t that an intriguing name! I thought so when I first heard it, so I googled it and learned that Ten Seconds Yunnan Rice Noodles is a restaurant located just outside the outskirts of Linda Vista on Engineer Road, right off Convoy Street.
I read up on it a little and learned it is among more than 750 restaurants across China and now expanding into North America with franchises in NYC, Philadelphia, Houston, Denver, and Toronto. This one—the first in San Diego—opened a couple months ago in a small shopping center at 7906 Engineer Road, just a block or two south of the more familiar Convoy District thoroughfare. The area has an industrial vibe, but the restaurant is adjacent to an interesting collection of other small Asian restaurants. Ten Second Yunnan Rice Noodles features hot pot cooking from the southeastern China province of Yunnan. I was fascinated and a bit apprehensive to think we would be cooking our own food, since I have not had much success with cooking Chinese dishes. But off we went for lunch one Tuesday foregoing the normal Taco Tuesday routine for something more exotic.
I didn’t need to worry though. When we arrived, the very friendly staff explained the menu to us and assured us that although we would add the ingredients to a steam pot of hot broth, we could not make a mistake. We perused the colorful menu with dishes such as pork bone stock, tomato, spicy, or hot and sour broth accompanied by many ingredients such as vermicelli, mushrooms, pickles, corn, scallions, cabbage, egg, two kinds of tofu, and more which are added to the steaming broth, as well as meat such as ham, pork, beef, or fish.
I have mentioned once or twice before that we do not eat meat. We are not vegetarians or vegans as we do eat fish, eggs, dairy products, etc. And our sidekick is really an omnivore, not strictly a carnivore because he eats ANYTHING; however, he was not to join us on this venture, so no review of the meat dishes.
With the help of our friendly server, we ordered the Spicy Bowl. Although the picture showed several of the accompaniments to be meat, we asked her to not bring them to the table and she said it was not a problem. We also ordered a side order of fried shitake mushrooms. I must say when our order came, I have rarely seen anything so prettily arranged, as you can see from the picture. The large pot of broth was boiling steadily as she showed us the order in which to add the ingredients, starting with the quail egg. The broth stayed boiling hence why the food is cooked in 10 seconds, although other than the egg, I think most ingredients were pre-cooked.
This dish was delicious. Although very spicy, everything tasted fresh and healthy. I forgot to mention that everyone is given a free bottle of water, which I needed to quell the heat. Although the restaurant was doing a good business and I noticed many customers eating their own pot of soup, ours was enough for both of us.
The restaurant has a very nice ambience and is sparkling clean and new. The staff was very friendly and efficient and service was quick. I asked our server what we can order next time which will not be so spicy and she suggested the tomato broth, or hot and sour broth which we will try. You can check out the menu here. They also have drinks, appetizers, and more.
Please give this little gem a try, especially if you are looking for something spicy. I think you will like it. It’s a little tricky grabbing noodles with chopsticks, but we were getting the hang of it. A good portion of the soup ended up on my T-shirt. Maybe we just need to go back and practice some more.
Spotlight on Empower Language Academy
Editor’s note: The new school year has started on several local campuses. In observance of opening week, we assigned our summer intern from Francis Parker School—Olivia Teates—to tell our readers about Empower Language Academy, a local charter school known for its language immersion program.
By Olivia Teates
If you’ve taken a trip south down Linda Vista Road, it might become apparent to you that there are a handful of schools within a stones-throw of each other…the University of San Diego, Mark Twain High School, and Francis Parker School. However, one school you might not have noticed - due to its more secluded location at 6484 Linda Vista Rd - is the Empower Language Academy (ELA), a K-6 Spanish immersion school that has existed in the Linda Vista community for almost 10 years.
ELA is a public charter school, meaning that students attend the school tuition-free, similar to a traditional public school. The process for enrollment at ELA, however, is slightly different. To become a student at ELA, a student’s family must submit an application to the school. If the school has availability that school year, the student will be admitted.
ELA is able to offer a tuition-free education as it is supported by a non-profit corporation (501c3) called Empower Charter School. The school’s mission is to “empower a generation of creative thinkers and effective communicators who lead healthy and fit lifestyles.”
Demi Brown is the Executive Director and Principal of ELA, as well as the school’s founder. In an interview, she explained how she believes dual immersion programs “not only foster strong biliteracy and bilingualism, they also foster multicultural understanding…and so much empathy,”
When asked about the demographics of their school, Ms. Brown noted that approximately 80% of ELA’s students live within three miles of the school. She explained further that, “about half of our families are Spanish-speaking and we have a very diverse school. And about 70% of our students qualify for free or reduced lunch.”
With just over 150 students enrolled at the school and an average class size of 20, students have the opportunity to work closely with the seven teachers who work at ELA. It became apparent after talking with two of the school’s faculty that the ELA’s small population is one of the school’s best characteristics.
“Every kid gets greeted at school by name at least twice before coming into school. That tight-knit community is really important to us,” explains Daniela Ruiz, ELA’s Community School Coordinator.
As a Spanish immersion school, most faculty at ELA are bilingual in both English and Spanish and immerse students in both languages throughout the school day, starting at the transitional kindergarten or kindergarten level.
Ms. Ruiz explained a bit about how ELA’s students are instructed using an 80/20 method to ensure that they are fluent in both Spanish and English by the time they graduate from the school. The 80/20 method uses the following formula: “When students start at ELA in kindergarten and first grade, 80% of their day is in Spanish with 20% English. Each year after that, students receive 10% more English and 10% less Spanish with fourth through sixth grade splitting their days evenly between English and Spanish instruction.”
In addition to immersing students in two different languages, ELA teaches students the core academic subjects, as well as more unique subjects, including fitness, technology, and character development.
“We fill the need of what Linda Vista and the communities around San Diego are looking for so we also provide enrichment programs like CrossFit and Gardening, which is part of the holistic aspect of what our school does. We try to focus on the mental, emotional, social, physical health and academics of the student. To make sure that a student is successful in school, they need to be well in their whole life,” explains Ms. Ruiz.
Ms. Brown and Ms. Ruiz want to let the Linda Vista community know that they welcome support from and connection with the community. The school is looking for staffers for their before and after-school programs and invites members of the community to join their Community School Design Team committee.
Lastly, if you are interested in enrolling your student at ELA, the school currently has open seats that they would like to fill. Ms. Brown explained, “We love our school’s small identity and, at the same time, we want to welcome as many students as possible because this is such a great program in this community.”
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The Linda Vista Update wishes to thank Ms. Brown and Ms. Ruiz for their willingness to be interviewed.
Reminder
Farmers Market Info for Today
The Love, Linda Vista Farmers Market will extend its closing time till 8:00 pm tonight August 24 to take advantage of summer daylight time. The Farmers Market will still open at his regular time of 2:00 pm. The Farmers Market operates every Thursday afternoon at the Linda Vista Plaza Shopping Center.
Additionally, customers can take advantage of $5.00 discount coupons today (after spending $10). Just ask for a coupon at the Farmers Market booth beginning at 3:30 pm—it’s first come first serve (one coupon per individual). Use it to get your fresh fruits and vegetables, or purchase delicious ethnic food or arts and crafts from one of the many vendors.
Community Event
Community Potluck and Water Balloon Toss This Saturday
Local realtor, Bree Partington, a resident of the Mission Heights neighborhood of Linda Vista, is hosting another of her popular community events on Saturday August 26. She will be hosting a Picnic Potluck and Water Balloon Toss for local families at the Linda Vista Community Park (7064 Levant Street) from 12:00 pm to 2:00 pm. She encourages local families to grab a dish (or bag of chips!) and join your neighbors for an end of summer get together!
As explained by Bree, “I've met a couple families in the neighborhood who are looking for other kids in the area that their kids could meet and play with. I think this would be a great opportunity for them all to meet and get to know one another.”
If you and your family plan to attend, she advises to please text 858-762-9338 with what dish you will be providing or if you have any questions.
Kearny High Opens Football Season with Win
It was the middle of August, the warm summer weather was a far from the kind normally associated with a traditional football season, and opening day for the school was still 3 days away, but none of that stopped Kearny High fans from enjoying the first game of the prep season this past Friday. The Kearny High Komet football team opened up the year with a 26-12 victory over the San Ysidro Cougars.
Leading the Komets was junior QB Brodie Stump, who completed 19 of 28 passes for 233 yards. He also connected for 3 touchdowns. Stump is coming off a sophomore year that saw him get off to an impressive start before getting sidelined for the rest of the year due to a broken collarbone.
Kearny’s next game will be at Monte Vista High School this Friday, followed by another away game against Southwest High on September 1. The next home game will be on Thursday September 7 against Maranatha Christian.
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The Linda Vista Update is a weekly digital newsletter that publishes informative, interesting and fun news about Linda Vista and its neighboring communities. Readers can go back and read all previous issues of the Linda Vista Update by going to the newsletter archive here.