I felt crazy asking for directions to her house. Over the phone, Lee began, “Get on 8 west, at the Sports Arena exit you make a left, then when you get to West Point Loma …
November 30, 1995
Thursday, November 30
Sightless in Loma Portal
Who fishes from the Imperial Beach Pier
The mackerel’s wide-angle eyes are attracted to shiny, moving objects. “Mackerel are top-fish. They’re hunting, they bite. Not like bottom fish, which have lips and suck, looking for dead stuff or leftovers,” says Rita.
November 30, 1995
Gloria Penner's un-Southern California voice on KPBS
“Are you trying to guess how old I am? Look, I don’t like giving my age, not out of vanity, but because people like to pigeon-hole people by age. And I don't like being pigeon-holed.”
November 30, 1995
Why the CIA piloted A-12 Blackbirds
Matthew Alice: Everybody has seen that big, black jet in front of the Aerospace Museum, but most people don’t realize that the spy plane is an A-12 model Blackbird, which was piloted by the CIA, …
November 30, 1995
Wednesday, November 22
San Diego Orchids & Onions winners, 20 years later
“We build our buildings and then our buildings build us.” The thought belongs to Winston Churchill, and I don’t think anyone would argue the point that the "built environment,” as it is referred to these …
November 22, 1995
When sneakers were known as creepers
Matthew: Any truth to what I heard, that British Bobbies were the first to wear sneakers to help them sneak up on Jack the Ripper? —Webwalker, somewhere on the Net Hey, Matt A.: Some of …
November 22, 1995
This is not The Dating Game. I am not Chuck Woolery.
Dear Matthew Alice: I have fallen in love with Jewel Kilcher and would like her address and daytime phone. Thank you. — Idey, Blacksmith Union/KCR Then I publish it and she’s so hassled by music …
November 22, 1995
Edison's breath in the Henry Ford Musem
Matthew: I’ve heard from some semi-reliable friends that Edison’s breath is in a container in some museum. Does this qualify for your Famous Body Parts file? What information do you have on this? Why would …
November 22, 1995
Thursday, November 16
Scripps scientists see cause for alarm in California Current
The blue whales and the soaring plankton bloom, along with the tapering off of water temperatures in the past four months, seemed to call into question the idea that life in the California Current might be diminishing.
November 16, 1995
The suicidal Munchkin in the Wizard of Oz
Dear Matthew Alice: In The Wizard of Oz, when Dorothy and the Scarecrow have just befriended the Tin Man, and the characters skip down the path, a cryptic figure among the blue-tinted forest backdrop seems …
November 16, 1995
No flies in China, no birds in Disneyland
Oh Venerable and Sagacious Matthew Alice, Smoother of Furrowed Brow, Soother of Say, I Pray for the Quenching of Query Long Unsettled: I went to high school in Stuttgart, Germany in the late ’60s. At …
November 16, 1995
Thursday, November 9
The meaning of the T in T-shirt
Matt: What does the T in T-shirt stand for? — Just Wondering, San Diego T-shirts got all the deep thought they deserve. The T stands for T, the shape of the shirt when spread out …
November 9, 1995
What the sixth sense is
Dear Matthew Alice: In school I was taught about our five senses: sight, smell, hearing, taste, and touch. The sixth sense is relegated to inexplicable knowledge or other shadowy mental abilities. I propose that our …
November 9, 1995
How the Post Office thwarts counterfeit stamps
Mail Matt: Can the post office tell what kind of stamps I use? I contend that their scanners can track the use of specific types of stamps to help cut down on forgeries. My girlfriend …
November 9, 1995
The chronology of 8-tracks, regular cassettes, the Brady Bunch, and the Partridge Family
Attention Matthew Alice! What came first, the cassette car stereo or the eight-track car stereo? My friend and I seem to remember cassette tapes going before eight-track tapes, but we think we remember eight-track players …
November 9, 1995
San Diego cops and firemen work arson together
Carle shows me into his office, which is windowless and paneled with fake pine, like a 1950s rumpus room. Its main feature is a grease-pencil board listing 14 arson fires since February, all in the …
November 9, 1995
Whitman's Samplers vs. See's
Dear Matthew Alice: Why is it See's chocolate boxes do not have a grid deciphering the flavor of each piece of candy? Is this some kind of perverse experiment Mary See perpetrates on the unsuspecting …
November 9, 1995
Reflections on the father of Paul and Alexander Theroux
We were not allowed to talk about money at the table, crush the counters of our shoes, leave dirty silverware on the sideboard, or refer to our mother as “she,” which he found particularly disrespectful.
November 9, 1995
Thursday, November 2
Has Bishop McKinney fleeced his flock?
George McKinney likes to recall how he started his church with $75 borrowed from the Beneficial Finance Company. He used the money to rent the basement of an Encanto pizza parlor and within a short …
November 2, 1995
The once-secret FBI files of Morrison, Hendrix, and Joplin
I have an acid-soaked friend who claims it’s well known that Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin, and Jimi Hendrix were killed by Nixon’s CIA for all the obvious reasons. I not only have never heard this …
November 2, 1995
Sirhan Sirhan and Del Mar mafia
Dear Matthew Alice: Did Sirhan Sirhan ever work at the Del Mar Racetrack? I read that Sirhan was recruited to kill Robert Kennedy by [local Mafia members]. Sirhan allegedly had help from Thane Eugene Cesar, …
November 2, 1995
San Diego, Inc.
Hey, Matthew: Fact: The City of San Diego is a private, for-profit corporation chartered by 12 men just before the turn of the century. So is it true that there is $7 billion sitting in …
November 2, 1995
The conspiracy behind the nine-minute snooze button
Dear Matthew Alice: It must be a conspiracy. That can be the only explanation. Why are all alarm clocks’ snooze features set to nine-minute intervals? Why not five? Ten? Fifteen? — Ivan Cervantes, on the …
November 2, 1995
When Elvis came to San Diego
Tuesday, August 16, 1977, Escondido, California “The King is dead.” Danny and I are in a men’s store in Escondido, a store I used to browse when I first loved Elvis and Danny’s father. Don’t …
November 2, 1995