Needles and veins: Our February 21, 1994 issue had a doozy of a cover photo: a stark black and white image of someone shooting up. The story was about Victoria’s heroin problem, which was starting to get some attention around that time. As part of the feature story, we interviewed a drug user (who didn’t give his real name, but went by “Robert”). He was in his early twenties and used LSD weekly and assured us that it’s “just a phase” and he’ll “grow out of it.” Our door is open for a follow-up interview now, 20 years later, if he’s out there reading…
Yup, a hot pink headband: An article titled “Theft at Interurban” detailed how a man held up the Interurban bookstore on a Friday afternoon. The suspect, who was apparently, and inexplicably, wearing a “hot pink headband,” indicated that he had a gun and took the store’s cash.
Haunted by the ghost of Rocktoria: Local radio station 100.3 The Q used to run a contest every year where local bands would compete to be placed on their annual Rocktoria compilation CD. That’s all fair and good, but, man, over time “Rocktoria” became a dirty word. I once wrote a story about the “curse of Rocktoria” that ended with me being confronted by a Rocktoria winner in a stairwell in the Fisher Building… but that’s a story for another time.