It all starts on Clairemont Mesa Boulevard. "Au revoir, Jerome! Au'voir, Stefanie! Sois gentille, Laura!" Mme. Calvel waves to the yellow bus as it warms up outside the French preschool CLTl on Claremont Mesa Boulevard, …
June 29, 1995
Thursday, June 29
San Diego’s newest educational experiment, the Ecole Francaise
Richard Ford's Independence Day
“I’ve known [San Diego's] Oakley for going on 30 years. One thing he taught me was how to conduct myself as a writer. which is to say, ’Never to be jealous, never to be envious, never to be spiteful.'"
June 29, 1995
Alcoholics Anonymous meet in San Diego
AA has been swamped by people sent to the program by courts: people arrest for drunk driving or other alcohol-related crimes.
June 29, 1995
Trumpets breathed life into mariachi music
Plaza de Los Marichis is a small fork in the road at Avenida Articulo 123 and Commercio in Tijuana. It is walking distance from Revolucíon and the border. Busy streets run in a Y around …
June 29, 1995
Thursday, June 22
Former Eckankar re-visits the movement
"We use more discriminating intelligence when we buy a used car than when we buy a religion,” says philosophy professor and cult-buster David Christopher Lane. “Buying a used car you at least look underneath the …
June 22, 1995
Where we get O.K. from
Dear Matthew Alice: What does the term O.K. stand for? We’ve all used it as long as we could talk, I’ll bet 90 percent of us haven’t a clue as to what it means. For …
June 22, 1995
Hey, Mr. Deejay, what's that powder on your face?
Ten minutes later my guest arrives, John Cale, never my favorite member of the Velvet Underground, always struck me as a method actor, ugh, though some people thought of him as a progenitor of punk.
June 22, 1995
How ABS brake systems work and why San Diego cops don't like them
Dear Matthew Alice: How does the ABS system work on my ex-girlfriend's new Mercedes? And when she has to mash down on the brake pedal if, say, someone were to pull out in front of …
June 22, 1995
Medical intern training at Grossmont Hospital
“To have your hand in someone’s belly, helping surgically correct something that will allow them to live or palliate their pain, it’s an...experience. Especially if you know the person. Your eyes, your hands, all your senses are involved.”
June 22, 1995
Never Run from a Mountain Lion
As one who roams the backcountry quite a bit for this column and for other projects, I was shocked, saddened, and a little unnerved to learn of last December’s fatal mountain lion attack on birdwatcher …
June 22, 1995
Thursday, June 15
Jan Dravecky’s pitches were clocked as high as 85 miles an hour
Eric Show died of an overdose of heroin and cocaine. He was buried in a green coffin, with a cross around his neck. Also in the coffin were his guitar, his baseball glove, and a ball.
June 15, 1995
Robert Faggen on his Paris Review interview with Czeslaw Milosz
“On one visit, Milosz came off the plane and wanted to tell me about The Maverick Poets, published by Gorilla Press in San Diego. He recited from ‘Notice’ by Steve Kowit, who edited the book.
June 15, 1995
If identical twins married identical twins...
Dear Mr. Alice: I was wondering, if a set of identical twins married another set of identical twins of the opposite sex, and each couple had a child, would the two children look alike? — …
June 15, 1995
Why Lincoln faces right on the penny
Dear Matthew Alice: Of all contemporary U.S. coins, it seems rather curious that the Lincoln penny profile is the only one facing right. Does this have any political significance? Is Lincoln the only one representing …
June 15, 1995
Gardener's advice: let strong color breathe
As time goes on, my garden becomes more defined. I like flowering trees and bushes, and climbing roses, for example, more than annuals, or herbaceous boarders. I’m sorry, I don’t like much color; I’d rather …
June 15, 1995
Dad was the last man in California trained to run a Union-Pacific steam-driven train engine
No sleep comes, even after Mom’s sour-milk kisses goodnight. My sister, buried beneath a Day-Glo paisley bedspread matching mine, quiets or whispers to the cat. Mom-breath lingers on my upper lip, both comfort and disquieting …
June 15, 1995
Thursday, June 8
Encyclopedia Britannica tries to catch up in La Jolla
There is a room in La Jolla office building that is so banal yet so significant that it merits a pilgrimage. The building is at the bottom of the hill crowned by the VA Hospital, …
June 8, 1995
Why earth's air moves faster than earth itself
Dear Matt: I posed this question to a TV meteorologist (not in California), and all I got was a lot of gobbledygook that didn’t answer my question, which follows. Relative to the sun, our earth …
June 8, 1995
Neil Morgan biography of Ted Geisel (Dr. Seuss) skipped the dark side.
Longtime followers of the Union-Tribune and its predecessor, the Evening Tribune, are familiar with the gentle musings of ex-Trib editor Neil Morgan, and the way he pulls his punches for what he calls the “friends” …
June 8, 1995
The danger of swallowing toothpaste
Why does my tube of toothpaste say not to swallow any, and what would happen if I ate a whole tube? — Mr. Chuck Jones, P.B. Smear it on toast, add a shot of Scope …
June 8, 1995
Jewel started playing to drunks when she was eight
Suggest to a 20-year-old that she might be naive, and you’re likely to get your head chewed off. Ask Jewel Kilcher how she got signed to a major label and she answers, “I think angels, …
June 8, 1995
Thursday, June 1
Gaslamp's Grand Ole Money Pit
The Roses “are really having so much fun” with the Horton Grand, said Dori Rose, as she tends to details like finding enough soup spoons for the once-depleted kitchen or bringing in new bedspreads for worn ones.
June 1, 1995
Martin Amis — the nearest thing to a Nabokov for punk generation
The English press follows Amis like Roseanne. Londoners know that Martin’s brother endures stunning depression, that his sister is a drunk, that Sir Kingsley can’t be left alone a minute.
June 1, 1995
The truth about Vonnegut's iguanas in Galapagos
Dear Matthew: In his novel Galapagos, Kurt Vonnegut describes the dining habits of the iguanas in the region. Basically, he says they make their way down the rocky cliffs to the sea, where they eat …
June 1, 1995
The smallest fine print can be
Dear Matthew Alice: Is there a legal minimum that the fine print in documents, etc., must be? — Mimi Labrucherie, USD Mr. Master of Great Wisdom & Knowledge: You’re always told to read the “fine …
June 1, 1995
Alexander Theroux answers charge of plagiarism in Primary Colors
I have quoted to myself enough passages from Dante, Othello, The Changeling, The Dunciad, Swift and Yeats, skip-rope rhymes, Lord Byron, Burma-Shave jingles, “Lycidas,” Proust, Gerard Manley Hopkins, and Great Expectations to have tried to make them mine.
June 1, 1995