Not-so-free speech cancelled

San Diego has long been known as a conservative town. Very conservative. Sizzling growth over the past decade or so may be reshaping the old image. One sign: Today's Union-Tribune (forever sneered at by many as a parrot for far-right-wingers and the local establishment) carries a small item about a "Speakers Series" biting the dust before a word was uttered. Poor ticket sales ($60 each) were blamed for the cancellation of the series, which was to be highlighted by former NY mayor Rudy Giuliani and political shouter Ann Coulter. Bob Dole and not-so-conservative James Carville and Wesley Clark were also on the bill. Maybe the conservatism is morphing into ennui.

Rough Ride: Segway bumps into total recall

I haven't seen much comment about the big recall of the much-ballyoo'd Segway this week. The company is calling back ALL 23,500 of the wheely toys that it has ever sold because of what's termed a software glitch that can cause the wheels to reverse course and maybe toss the driver off. What I find most interesting is that after all the hype only 23,500 Segways have been sold since 2002. That doesn't seem like very many worldwide. But then, they cost from $4,000 to $5,500 a pop. Even selling that few is a lot of money. A lot of money.