In the early 90s, there was a columnist for the San Jose Mercury News
newspaper who wrote humorous reviews of lounges and bars in the Bay
Area.  As I recall, he had a long Polish-sounding last name.  (It
ended in -ski?).  It appears he no longer works for the paper.  What
is his name?  I am curious if he is still writing, and where?

---

Request for Question Clarification by pinkfreud-ga on 26 Oct 2006 22:28 PDT

Are you thinking of David Plotnikoff?

http://www.emeraldlake.com/portfolio/clubland.html

---

Clarification of Question by vida-ga on 29 Oct 2006 16:29 PST

yes yes yes.  Thank you.  Plotnikoff.

I'm glad to have been able to help you identify your columnist As David Plotnikoff.

Although I live nowhere near California, I've enjoyed reading David
Plotnikoff's columns in the San Jose Mercury News. Here's hoping Dave
comes out of retirement eventually!

Byline: David Plotnikoff
http://www.emeraldlake.com/portfolio/portfoliomain.html

My Google search strategy:

Google Web Search: "mercury news" plotnikoff
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22mercury+news%22+plotnikoff

Best regards,
pinkfreud

To add to pink if this is the right track...

http://www.emeraldlake.com/davefaq.html

Where he states: 
Q: What do you do?
A: At the moment I'm a full-time dad to a two-year-old. I contribute
absolutely nothing to the gross national product. Although some of the
products I handle every day would be deemed gross by many non-parents.

Q: Would you want to return to writing about music?
A: No. I think as a cultural force pop music is bankrupt, played out.
It's a product that sells well, but because of the splintered nature
of the industry and the prohibitive costs of marketing, it no longer
has the ability to really *mean* much of anything, in a larger sense.
Yes, rap and hip-hop may be the big exceptions here. But they
certainly don't speak to me and I don't feign interest in
understanding them.

Q: So what would you like to write about? What holds your attention these days?
A: I was hoping you'd ask. Looking at the portfolio, I see that some
of my best times professionally came when I was writing about people,
groups and places on the margins. There was a wrought-iron-tough
blue-collar bar in San Francisco that I wrote about way back in the
day for the nightlife column. "There's always something interesting on
the bad side of town," was its slogan. And that's how I feel today --
play the edges and the corners.

That's it!  David Plotnikoff!  I always enjoyed his columns, and
wondered where he disappeared to.  Thank you.