Eight a.m. The man glances around quickly. He saunters toward the high wall. Then, like a cat positioning for attack, leaps to the top. He hesitates for a moment, then is gone down the other …
March 28, 1996
Thursday, March 28
Baja's tough-love drug rehab
Surgery on yourself
Hi, Matt: From time to time you hear about people amputating their own leg or arm in an emergency. That makes me wonder, if somebody with no training can cut off a limb and survive, …
March 28, 1996
Socialist Dad loves Linda Vista paradise
Everyone who lived there knew the name meant “pretty view.” Maybe it wasn’t utopia. But it was a planned community for low-income people that, for a considerable period, managed to succeed. I lived there from …
March 28, 1996
Thursday, March 21
Mayor Golding and friends conspire to hide truth on stadium, convention center, library, sewer
"THIS TOWN IS RUN BY three guys in a phone booth. The only problem is to find out which three guys it is at any given time then find a way to slip them some …
March 21, 1996
Daddy longlegs are sign of a clean bathroom
For Matthew Alice: I seldom see daddy longlegs, but when I do, they are in the bathtub. Is there an explanation? — Lynne, San Diego As if it were any of our business, Lynne, you …
March 21, 1996
When you answer the phone and can't figure out who called whom
Dear Matthew Alice: A while ago I was at home when, as I strolled by the phone, it rang. I picked it up and said, “Hello?” Almost instantaneously, a female voice at the other end …
March 21, 1996
Dog hair sweaters are warmer and lighter than lamb's wool ones
Hey, Matt: I own four Bichon Frise dogs, and we get tons of hair when we comb them. It’s real soft and luxurious, and the wife and I have often remarked on how it would …
March 21, 1996
Quentin Bell's Bloomsbury Recalled
I said that unlike many historians of Bloomsbury, Mr. Bell treats Lady Ottoline with great kindness in his account of her. “Ah, I couldn’t do otherwise because she was very good to me really.”
March 21, 1996
Marjorie Reed leads me on the Butterfield Stagecoach route
Vallecito has always been Marjorie’s favorite. “In the ’30s, I’d come up here and walk up there along the old road through this valley. Oh, I'd find little tiny kids’ shoes — I think they were from the Mormon Battalion, probably.”
March 21, 1996
Thursday, March 14
Rita Bronowski recalls her life in the sun.
The English-Speaking Union, Physicians for Social Responsibility, and Planned Parenthood are among other groups that Rita has helped out. “I even had a big Clinton party here. I think he let us all down, don’t you?”
March 14, 1996
San Diego's Woodmen of the World
Matmail: At the old Pioneer Cemetery, or what's left of it, in Mission Hills there are several headstones with “Woodmen of the World” engraved on them. The Woodmen emblem sports crossed axes on a tree …
March 14, 1996
Those babies listed in credits for Toy Story
Dear M. A.: My friend Ernie says the list of “Production Babies” in the credits for Toy Story refers to all the kids born during the production of the film. I think it lists the …
March 14, 1996
Virgin wool — straight from the animal
To Matmail: The boys and I in the sheet metal shop were trying to determine the difference between virgin and regular wool. What gives? — Mike Malone, [email protected] The royal family had Princess Di inspected …
March 14, 1996
Ocean Beach motor homers – gypsies with sand between their toes
Although Wolfman’s rig is registered, he has no insurance. “I drive real slow and careful.... I don’t even want to talk about it. You talk about the devil, and he’ll be knocking at your door.”
March 14, 1996
Thursday, March 7
Why don't doctors want to take Medi-Cal patients?
“As a rule, Medi-Cal patients are the most demanding as a group of patients. They pay nothing for their services, and they expect everything. They are the group that’s most likely to complain about everything.”
March 7, 1996
The ethylene glycol in snow globes
I Dear Matthew Alice: I’ve always wondered, how do they make those snowball things, where you have a scene in a bubble and it snows when you tip it over? And what do they use …
March 7, 1996
Fargo takes me home again
It’s silly of me, I know. It has got nothing to do with what’s on the screen. But one of my earliest reactions to Fargo — my feeling about it before I even saw it …
March 7, 1996