Melancholy Tuesdays for a while

Maybe a better title for his column would have been, “From Rum

Runners to Rum and Cokes.� Either way, “The Verdict� provided us with

a first-hand glimpse into the history of Newport Beach through the

eyes of one Robert Gardner.

A jurist well-known for his witty and eloquent court opinions and

who once served on the Supreme Court in Samoa, Gardner is a

storyteller supreme -- not to mention a world-class body surfer who

once wrote a book about riding The Wedge.

It would be difficult for even the best fiction writers to come up

with the characters that populated Gardner’s weekly tales that he

culled from his time on the bench or his time growing up in what he

called “Bawdy Balboa.�

Many may have heard of the popular book, “Tuesdays with Morrie,�

by sports writer Mitch Albom.

Here in Newport-Mesa, “Tuesdays Without the Judge� is going to be

hard to get used to.