Patricia Purcell walked unsteadily into Courtroom 6 in San Diego's federal courthouse. Her face sagged from too little sleep, no makeup, and tension. Supporters in the courtroom for her sentencing hearing did a double-take. The …
January 26, 1995
Thursday, January 26
Patte and Len Purcell – 37 months in federal prison for getting caught up in the real estate market
Danny Welsh wrote March 1972 cover article in Life, “Tampering with Justice in San Diego,”
How did theSun get Cox’s interview of Wilson? ‘The Baltimore Sun reporter happened to be in town. But he knew Bob Cox and they sat down together one night just to play the tape.”
January 26, 1995
The severed head of Haydn, the boiled body of Mad Anthony Wayne
Dear M.A.: I seem to recall a few months back you discussed the sagas of the severed heads of Santa Ana, et al. I therefore naturally thought of you when I saw the enclosed, taken …
January 26, 1995
I bought four inches of Alaska from Quaker Oats
Dear Matthew Alice:Some 40-plus years ago, when I was a youngster, a major cereal company sponsored a promotion offering one square inch of free land in Alaska with each purchase of a box of their …
January 26, 1995
Thursday, January 19
These Eyes Have Seen Thousands of People Die: John McMullin's Mexico Mission
It isn’t as though the good reverend, Ed Everrett, both Baptist missionary and neon sign maker, never tried planting a kitchen garden in all the years Rancho Sordo Mudo had been growing and expanding in …
January 19, 1995
I would vote for Lauren Bacall as having the perfect mouth
There have been many big mouths. William Randolph Hearst. Mick Jagger. Desi Arnaz. Wallace Beery. Nat “King” Cole. MacDonald Carey. Fifties singer Guy Mitchell. Probably no one has a bigger mouth than Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler.
January 19, 1995
The mysterious Montreal Expos logo
Dear Omniscient One: I’ve asked all my buddies. Nobody knows. So you’re my last resort before I just accept it as one of those unknown mysteries that forever go unexplained. Please end my befuddlement. What …
January 19, 1995
The pluses and minuses of kombucha
Dear Matthew Alice: I’ve heard recently that the kombucha tea mushroom that everybody’s drinking is supposed to be bad for the sewer system. Is that true — Toni, South Park Pardon my typos. Haven’t quite …
January 19, 1995
Thursday, January 12
San Diego's Black Orchids
The Nickelodeon Cinema, I Street, Chula Vista. Ten o’clock Friday night. "Hello,” I say to three Chicana girls as we come away from the ticket “Are you going to see Mi Vida Loca? They nod. …
January 12, 1995
Good girls dying for love
He was, if not my first love, my first conscious attempt at love. I am tempted to say we were meant for each other. I am tempted to say: destiny scented the air of Mrs. …
January 12, 1995
Thursday, January 5
San Diego drummers play Cuban, West African music
From outside it sounded like a Santeria initiation. I heard the call of the bata drums, then the lead voice, followed by the chorus to Eleggua, the trickster orisha and the spirit of the crossroads: …
January 5, 1995
What keeps contact lenses on your eyes
Matt: Is it really possible for contact lenses to slide around to the back of your eye and get lost somewhere in your head forever? My mother tells me this is true. She says it …
January 5, 1995
American Indians were the first tobacco smokers
Dear Matthew Alice: Where did cigarettes come from? I mean, did somebody invent them or did they just evolve from ancient times or what? — Marlene Walter, Boston, MA Tobacco was originally wrapped in corn …
January 5, 1995
UPC bar codes — backwards and forwards
Dear Matthew Alice: Every time I’m in the grocery store, I always wonder how the machine that reads the UPC bar codes can tell what is front and what is back. They don’t line up …
January 5, 1995
Dive bars and eggnog —where they came from
Dear Matthew Alice: Where does the term “dive,” meaning a sleazy bar, come from? — Maria, El Paso, TX Matt: I know what “egg” is, but what’s “nog”? — Tom G., San Diego Some festive …
January 5, 1995
I was a substitute teacher at Pendleton, La Paloma, Fallbrook Elementary, Potter Jr. High, and Fallbrook High
I’m the substitute, so I sit at a stranger’s desk beneath a poster that displays a Ferrari in the driveway of a mansion. “The rewards of higher education,” it reads. A boy named Eric, who was called to the office during the first hour, is working on his test and talking to two girls, so after three warnings, I give him detention. “You bitch!” he shouts across the room.
January 5, 1995