Of all the amenities that a community needs and wants, among the most important are shopping and dining opportunities. That may sound shallow, but these days shopping is a sport and eating […]
Retorts: Trader Joe’s? Amazon? BevMo?
Watson’s is nostalgia and great food
By Jim and Marilyn Tortolano If you’re looking for the kind of entertaining dining experience that can appeal to just about all ages and conditions, sometimes you’ve got to go back to […]
New superintendent destined for role
By Jim Tortolano When you think of destinations, what might come to mind is a resort, an historic wonder, or perhaps a famous city. But would you envision a school district in […]
Retorts: Time of the rockets’ red scares
Have a heart. The July 4 season is just about on us, and what we see and hear is the proliferation of fireworks, both legal and illegal. For the next week or […]
Retorts: Wear your achievements proudly
Note: This is a classic Retorts column from 2011, originally published in the old Garden Grove Journal. History is full of the exploits of great leaders, warriors and scientists. Society rewards them […]
Retorts: New birth in the old home town
A decade or so ago, the city launched a public relations campaign for the Big Strawberry called “Renaissance Garden Grove.” It was well-intentioned but clunky, and never really got much traction. But […]
Retorts: Cruising back into my history
One of the strange new cultural phenomena of the present day is the turning away of newer generations from the car culture, which had been a focus of Americana for nearly a […]
Gal Gadot is simply “Wonder”-ful
By Jim Tortolano Several actors have played Superman or Batman or Spiderman in films. Good performances, bad ones, it seems like these iconic superheroes are in some ways uniforms and myths who […]
Retorts: The up side of feeling down
All things considered, there are a lot of good things about feeling bad. I don’t mean a life-wrecking tragedy, or an arrow in your foot. I’m thinking more about your garden-variety stomach […]
An “American” contender for top burger
By Jim and Marilyn Tortolano When another news outlet in Orange County proclaimed that a Huntington Beach restaurant had the second-best burgers in the OC, and the best fries, that caught our […]
