Pacific Beach

If you view the galaxy of beach restaurants through a telescope, you'll notice the new Guava Beach climbing toward the zenith, while McCormick's star is on the wane. Guava Beach Bar & Grill almost amounts to a genuine reincarnation, since it marks the return to the spot by off-and-on restaurateur Joyce Schneider, who operated the rather classy Debauchery in the same Mission Beach building in the 1970s.

Australian lifeguard Peter Hickey's tanned face turned ablaze like a Hollywood spotlight. The promoter of an obscure ocean sport with questionable market value, Hickey just heard Pacific Beach probably would be jammed with thousands of college students Sunday--the only day he could stage the Pacific Surfboat Rowing Challenge without conflict from another beach-related event.

Hip-hop music, rap with a body-whomping bass, apparently delivered a knockout punch to the Jazz Note in Pacific Beach, one of San Diego's two top jazz venues. (The other is the Horton Grand Hotel downtown.) After shows July 24, 25 and 26, Jazz Note operator Steve Satkowski decided to close and search for a new location, citing noise and crowds at the Club 860 downstairs, which features hip-hop, as a primary reason.

Sunday proved to be a day of extremes in San Diego County, with residents flocking in near-record numbers to area beaches, churches and restaurants, and avoiding shopping centers and most of their customary haunts altogether. With unseasonably warm weather fueling summery conditions, an estimated 87,000 people turned up at beaches between Point Loma and Black's Beach near La Jolla, officials said. City lifeguards staged more than 100 rescues made necessary by savage rip currents.

A retired speech therapist was stabbed to death in his Pacific Beach townhouse Wednesday night, San Diego police said. A neighbor found Philip Bennett, 60, in his robe, lying on his bed about 8 p.m. Bennett had been stabbed in the throat several times, homicide Lt. John Welter said. A kitchen knife lay on Bennett's chest, said the neighbor, who asked not to be identified. Police are looking for Bennett's white Toyota Camry, with California plates 1SQJ012.

As warm days and a mild swell ushered in spring break this week in San Diego, beach-goers turned out in near summer-like numbers. But, after scores of rescues from seasonal rip currents, lifeguards on Wednesday were warning swimmers to be leery of the water. On Wednesday, San Diego city lifeguards at Mission Beach rescued more than 50 swimmers, body boarders and novice surfers, said Sgt. John Everhart of the central area lifeguard station.

With her brightly polished fingernails and bedroom filled with stuffed animals, Melissa Litten is much like any other young woman of 20. She loves to have visitors, enjoys swimming and has a part-time job to make pocket money. But Litten, who is severely retarded and has cerebral palsy, will probably never be able to care for herself without help from others. Her disability at first made everyday tasks such as brushing her teeth, making her bed and getting dressed in the morning a real challenge.

By the time they reach legend status, jazz musicians seem to fall into one of two mind-sets. One is the ego-driven, I-told-you-so camp, occupied by players who only wonder why the world took so long to come around. In the other camp reside players thankful for a long, productive career. Guitarist Laurindo Almeida, who plays this Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights at the Jazz Note in Pacific Beach, represents in the fullest this healthier state of mind. He is the humblest of legends.

Summertime weather blew into town on Santa Ana winds Sunday, sending thousands of San Diegans to the beach despite sewage contamination warnings and winter water temperatures. The mercury reached 85 degrees in Del Mar and Chula Vista and 84 in San Diego as Santa Ana winds gusted to 40 m.p.h. in the mountains and blew sand and dust in the desert, causing problems for motorists. Warm, sunny days are expected to remain for the rest of the week. The 20-mile-long ocean quarantine from the U.S.