If you meet a swordsman in the road, show him your sword.But if you meet a man who is not a pigeon racer, do not show him your pigeon.— old Zen sayingOkay, say you spend …
April 25, 1996
Thursday, April 25
Lemon Grove to Casa Grande — the Kentucky Derby of bird racing
Union-Tribune's Self-ish History
The San Diego Union-Tribune harbors “unprofessional, childlike, head-in-the-sand attitudes toward events and ideas." The paper has "bad journalistic habits, plus [a] tendency to sound the bugle call to action whenever it feels its ideological tenets …
April 25, 1996
The top and bottom of eggs
Dear Matthew Alice: My girlfriend and I got into an argument about eggs. I said that the narrow part of the egg is the bottom. She thinks that the fatter part of the egg is …
April 25, 1996
President Clinton says he reads about 250 books a year
My library, which is more than a couple of thousand volumes, has been accumulated over a 35-year period. It’s the most diverse personal library that I’ve ever seen, and that includes the libraries of friends …
April 25, 1996
Polarized sunglasses are like dropping acid
Matt: Okay, so I’m driving along. It could be Anytown USA. Sun is out. Gotta have the sun out. I’m wearing my shades. I notice that a lot of cars around me have these weird …
April 25, 1996
Why the Pope picks the saints
Dear Matthew Alice: Are there any saints in the Bible? I don’t recall reading about Saint Abraham or Saint Lot. A Catholic friend said that Peter was the first pope and thus the first person …
April 25, 1996
Thursday, April 18
San Diego composers Gillis, Bastien, Groupe, Reynolds, Sollberger, and Ward-Steinman
“I have always been interested in music.” says composer Ron Gillis, founder and artistic director of the San Diego Choral Artists. “As a kid I always walked around with tunes in my head. I thought …
April 18, 1996
Armadillos swallow air for buoyancy
Mr./Ms. Matthew/Alice: Perhaps you could resolve a lingering dispute between a friend and me. He insists that armadillos cross streams by holding their breath and walking along the bottom until they reach the other side. …
April 18, 1996
Many questions about Fargo
Dear Matthew Alice: In the movie Fargo, Margie’s husband, Norm, is painting in a competition for wildlife postage stamps. Is this something artists get paid for or work worth doing because of the honor of …
April 18, 1996
Reader writer tries to get in the Navy
Al suggested I get into the nuclear field. It required a high score for entry and entailed a lot of training— more than two years — but would translate to a marketable skill in the civilian world.
April 18, 1996
Jimi Hendrix Told Me Not to Scream
What woke me was a hand over my face, over my mouth and nose: the pressure, the instinctive still-asleep panic of being unable to breathe; someone’s hands yanking my arms over my head; a body on mine, knees crushing my chest and stomach.
April 18, 1996
Thursday, April 11
The Star Bar, hidden away in an ungentrified spot near Horton Plaza
"The universe is a bar," Buck says between swigs of beer, in one of those lines that led the late poet William Stafford to observe, "Everyone wanders into poetry sometimes." If Buck hadn’t just told …
April 11, 1996
Golf course concessions own the golf balls
To: Matmail: The City of San Diego owns how many golf balls? — A. Pismo Clam, La Jolla Okay, I’ll bite. My answer is zero, but something tells me Senor Clam is already preparing his …
April 11, 1996
DNA — right, left, and twisted
Dear Mat: Since even a minute quantity of somebody’s blood can be analyzed to determine the person’s DNA, what happens when somebody’s entire blood has been replaced by someone else’s blood during a transfusion? — …
April 11, 1996
Pennsylvania soldiers on
Dear Matthew Alice: I lived in Pennsylvania in the 1960s. One of the things that I remember about the place is that there were underground coal fires that had been burning for years. Have they …
April 11, 1996
The story behind marischino cherries
Dear Matthew: A cocktail waitress at Milligan’s told me that a maraschino cherry will stay in your stomach for four years. Something to do with the preservatives. This seems unlikely, at best, but it raises …
April 11, 1996
Thursday, April 4
The power struggle in the Mexico City dump has driven them north to Tijuana
Five a.m., and the sounds of sleeping fill the house. Dona Juana rises first, climbing from the slumping bed as Don Manuel snores lightly, the swollen knuckles on his left hand glistening in the dull …
April 4, 1996
Humphrey Bogart was not the Gerber baby
Last December, my wife and I successfully completed the adoption of a baby boy from an Eastern Bloc country. We have both decided that he is officially the cutest child in the entire world. In …
April 4, 1996
Western Swing — California's official dance
Matt: I just read somewhere that California has an official state dance, the Western Swing. Can this be possible? — M.J., San Diego In Sacramento, all things are possible. But right at the top, to …
April 4, 1996
Giving the finger goes back to Caligula
Mr. Alice: When and where did the displaying of one’s middle finger to another originate, AND is there an “official” or “proper” name for the gesture, AND how did it come to represent expressions of …
April 4, 1996