1. The Story of Hernando Alonso Ciudad de Mexico, 1528 — A bell clangs and he, with the great difficulty of an old man with stiff limbs and creaking bones, sits up in the dark, …
July 31, 1997
Thursday, July 31
Tacos and manna: Tijuana's Jewish community
Our man at Hillcrest bar parses the legend of Andrew Cunanan
Twenty-four hours later, it was official. The loose cannon full of secrets had safely - for the closeted, the monied, and the nervous - checked out of the equation.
July 31, 1997
Watching the Bishop School's response to Cunanan media has been like watching a tortoise retract into its shell
'What do you make of the whole Cunanan story?" I asked. The bartender at the Whaling Bar in the big pink La Valencia Hotel leaned toward me. "I'm glad he's dead. That way, we won't …
July 31, 1997
Susan Golding has Alex Spanos and John Moores (Padres) on her Senate team
How much does it cost to shut down expansion of a convention center? Late last month the City forked over $250,000 to contractor Golden Turner to stop expansion work that hadn't even begun. Sources say …
July 31, 1997
Matt Lickona on his son as chunker
I want to eat my baby. I want to press him to my chest until he is a part of me, which of course he already is. This is love — seeking union with the …
July 31, 1997
Homes build right on San Diego's Highway 163
"When they were first building these houses, we would go up the freeway and say, 'Who the hell would ever buy a house over there?’ and we ended up buying one," says Patty Williamson of …
July 31, 1997
Thursday, July 24
The danger to San Diego filtration plants
It’s an unthinkable accident: a tank rupture sends a gigantic plume of deadly chlorine gas down the valley, blanketing schools, homes, churches, and anything else in its path with a green cloud. Thousands are killed. …
July 24, 1997
San Diego Cambodians speak about Pol Pot
"He should be killed! We want him dead!" says Mr. Sokha, in the Trieu Chau restaurant. "Don't bother with a trial. Three million people died because of him. We want to know he's gone."
July 24, 1997
Lemon Grove 7th grader homeschools to read A Clockwork Orange
Once upon a time, a "plain" girl lived a "regular" life in a "normal" town. She began listening to Danzig, dyed her hair black, and stopped wearing pink. That girl was - and still is …
July 24, 1997
Why magazines pressure you to renew your subscription
Dear Matthew Alice: Why do I keep getting subscription cards in all the magazines I already subscribe to? Isn’t this a tremendous waste of paper and trees? If I am a subscriber, why would I …
July 24, 1997
San Diego's suspicious and cautious stamp-collecting subculture
The artist responsible for these philatelic collages, Teri Hoefer, is a 25-year-old SDSU student who also plays electric violin for a rock-and-roll band called Go Go Go Airheart, or sometimes Go Go Go Versus Airheart.
July 24, 1997
Exactly how superior a dog's sense of smell is
M: While sipping on a cocktail, my Uncle Crazy was babbling scores of unproven facts when out came the claim that our best friend, the dog, has a sense of smell 200,000 times better than …
July 24, 1997
Ice cream is the very promised land, the El Dorado for reverie
In 1899, 5 million gallons of ice cream were sold in the United States; by 1909, 30 million gallons; by 1919, 150 million gallons. The most recent figures show that Americans annually eat 23 quarts.
July 24, 1997
Thursday, July 17
Booze and death for the Fletchers in Borrego Springs
At midnight on August 24, Kent rang the doorbell at the Fletcher Hills house of his grandfather, Ed Jr. The housekeeper testified that Kent asked to come in the house and sleep, but she told him that was against his grandfather’s orders.
July 17, 1997
San Diego port commission gives $250K to GOP convention after Gerald Parsky plea
The Republican chief of staff of the congressional Joint Taxation committee is drawing heat for traveling so much on somebody else's tab. Kenneth Kies, a former tax lobbyist, accepted 46 free trips from private groups …
July 17, 1997
San Diego Mormons explain longevity
That the children may live long, And be beautiful and strong, Tea and coffee and tobacco they despise Drink no liquor, and they eat But a very little meat... - from a 19th-century Mormon song …
July 17, 1997
Arkansas Dems hire San Diego's Bill Lerach
Just another Arkansas Bill In Arkansas, it's always smart to do what the natives do. That seems to be the policy adopted by San Diego's Milberg, Weiss, Bershad, Hynes and Lerach, the lawyers famous for …
July 17, 1997
I planted a moonflower after burying my father
During the next several days, the worms ate their way through my radishes, arugula, and beets. They munched happily — I watched them — on my sunflowers and on my moonflower vines. They ate the leaves in a clean, irregular fashion.
July 17, 1997
Why earplugs don't affect your hearing under water
Matthew Alice: Why can I still hear underwater when I wear earplugs to keep water out of my ears? — Jake, swimming I can understand your confusion. You certainly can’t smell underwater when you wear …
July 17, 1997
San Diego’s zoo, Disneyworld, Florida's Sea World used PolyTrap
Dear Matt: Several years ago, I heard San Diego’s zoo was using an ingenious, environmentally sensitive spray developed originally to minimize desiccation of cuttings, called PolyTrap. Based on bubble gum’s chief ingredient, it would effectively …
July 17, 1997
What you must do if you find a human skull.
Matt: If I'm digging in my back yard and I come across a human skull, do I have to report this to anyone, or can I keep it? Does it matter how deep I find …
July 17, 1997
San Diego police kill Willy Velechovsky on Loring Street
'I want this to come out in print," says Walter Velechovsky. "What happened to my son. Why they could blow him away. I haven't even had the guts enough to ask my daughter what happened. …
July 17, 1997
Thursday, July 10
San Diegans at the Renegade explain country music
4:00 p.m. Saturday evening: “Honky Tonk Heroes” Where did it go? Good Lord only knows. Seems like it was just the other day. (Waylon Jennings, 1973) The Renegade Inn is many things, but you don’t …
July 10, 1997
August Kleinzahler, Sherman Alexie, Stephen Dobyns, Richard Wilbur, Luis Urrea write about love
“Not long ago, after a reading, a woman asked me to sign her bare breast. I think that she was looking for a strange secular blessing that readers feel has singled out the writer.”
July 10, 1997
What Jimmy crack corn means
Matt: Lately I’ve been throwing out the phrase “Jimmy crack corn, and I don’t care” while amongst friends for humorous/irritating effect. I’ve just realized, however, that I’ve no idea where this phrase came from (an …
July 10, 1997
The popularity of Acme as a brand name
Matmail: Is there an Acme Corporation? Why does Wile E. Coyote buy from them and only them? Is it because they are an American company? — R. Runner, @ibus.com I always figured Wile E. must …
July 10, 1997
Why webs don't stick to spiders
Mattmeister: I spent part of my weekend kicking back and staring at a spider spinning a gigantic web. Pretty entertaining. Later I tried to knock the web down and it stuck to my hand. If …
July 10, 1997
Thai authorities want to deport Phra Yantra from monastery north of Escondido
Thai authorities say they aren't giving up on trying to deport Phra Yantra, the controversial Buddhist monk who now lives in his own monastery north of Escondido. Two weeks ago, a U.S. judge granted Yantra …
July 10, 1997
What an aglet is
Dear Matty-Matt Guru Man: Us constantly curious Norwegians would like to know what the God-given name for the little plastic thingy on the end of your shoelace is. The entire Tolo clan is anxiously waiting. …
July 10, 1997
Scott Barnet calls San Diego City Council $1.5 billion budget fiscal insanity
The San Diego City Council recently adopted the city's $1.5 billion budget, drawing criticism from some quarters that the new spending plan wastes millions of dollars and will result in huge future sewer and water …
July 10, 1997
San Diego's porno king Donald Wiener denies owning part of Baby Rock
The cover story in the February 24 issue of U.S. News and World Report dealt with the "inferno next door," the narco-corruption in Mexico. In the story, reporter Linda Robinson wrote that "trafficking has become …
July 10, 1997
Andrew Cunanan sighted in Oklahoma City
Fugitive Andrew Cunanan, the 27-year-old Bishop's School graduate accused of slaying four during a coast-to-coast killing spree, has been sighted in Oklahoma City. FBI sources say the former Hillcrest resident, who hung around with wealthy, …
July 10, 1997
Thursday, July 3
San Diego fireworks fans in a county that forbids them
For the past few days, Americans in other cities have been flocking to stands and stores and roadside tents, where they've been loading up on fireworks. In places like Birmingham, Alabama, and Cheyenne, Wyoming,* and …
July 3, 1997
I bought a pig because I wasn't quite ready for children
My pig discovered glass today. He understood there was some insurmountable clear space he didn't understand, nor could he get through. Nothing more complicated than a sliding glass door to you and me, but to …
July 3, 1997
When my wife started labor, we went to the San Diego Zoo
When Deirdre went into labor at around noon on May 5, she did the dishes and put in a load of laundry. We called our parents to let them know and to ask for prayers, …
July 3, 1997
Why San Diego city manager Jack McGrory quit the Susan Golding team
In the end, it was a fatal combination. The gawky, jock-obsessed control freak and the ambitious small-town politician. Jack McGrory and Susan Golding. They were an odd pair, thrown together by political circumstances. Golding, elected …
July 3, 1997
Hotel del Coronado plans horrify locals
Does Bill Clinton's favorite hostelry, the Hotel del Coronado, need saving? By all appearances, the 109-year-old, 692-room historic landmark is doing fine. Depending on whether you talk to the town's mayor or the hotel's manager, …
July 3, 1997
Andrew Cunanan moved $15K/day through bank
The Chicago Tribune has reported that Andrew Cunanan, the gay Bishops School graduate suspected of conducting a nationwide killing spree, deposited and then withdrew large sums of money from two San Diego banks in the …
July 3, 1997