To Matmail: I couldn’t help but notice that all products bearing the official endorsement of the 1996 Olympics have a notation that reads “36 USC 380.” What kind of subtle transmission are they trying to …
March 28, 1997
Friday, March 28
Olympics will sue you down to your boxers
Thursday, March 27
California's revolving door of imprisonment
Even as a young teenager, Charles Goshen figured he would end up in prison. Abandoned by his father, he grew up in Compton watching his stepdad abuse his mother. A babysitter molested him. His mother …
March 27, 1997
Where helium for balloons comes from, where cows get their calcium
Okay, Matt: Where do they get the helium from that they compress for making helium balloons? I took some general chemistry and seem to remember that helium is a noble gas and therefore very unreactive, …
March 27, 1997
San Diego on $520 a Month
Until December of last year, 51-year-old Jaime Nieto made $10 an hour working for a construction company "doing their ironwork needs. That's my trade - security. Window-guards, rails, gates, fences. But that company works on …
March 27, 1997
Qualcomm paid $18 million for the stadium name for 20 years
Next month it will be Qualcomm Stadium, but ten years, five years, maybe even one year down the road, San Diego sports fans could be trooping down to watch the Chargers play at the Bud …
March 27, 1997
34.1 percent of Clinton's judges have been millionaires
Clinton's nominees to the federal bench are drawing heat for making too much money. According to a survey conducted by the Washington-based Alliance for Justice, 34.1 percent of Clinton's judges have been millionaires, in comparison …
March 27, 1997
A baby too eager to begin life outside the womb
JUST A COUPLE MORE PUSHES AND CHERYL, A 31 -YEAR-OLD JAZZ DANCER, WOULD HAVE HER FIRST BABY. I MET HER THE DAY BEFORE WHEN SHE CAME TO OUR SERVICE AT MARY HITCHCOCK MEDICAL CENTER. SHE …
March 27, 1997
Divorce, then an unlikely conversion to Catholicism
I was in first grade, my mom told me that I ’d been invited to play at Jenny’s house and that after school I should take the bus as usual but get off with Jenny. …
March 27, 1997
Thursday, March 20
How UCSD Medical School transformed a young man into a doctor
During the first year of my residency in family practice in Maine, I came home to Los Angeles for Christmas. The climate switch in the seven-hour cross-country journey, from minus 10 to 86 degrees, didn’t …
March 20, 1997
Trap doors inside freeway overpasses
Matt: While navigating through myriad “seismic retrofit” hazards on area freeways, I've noticed several trap doors on overpasses, with ladders leading inside. I've always assumed overpasses to be solid concrete. I've heard that in Switzerland, …
March 20, 1997
I hope they don't hurt bees when taking their pollen
Matt: Bee-ing a concerned smoothie drinker, me and a few colleagues were wondering what the actual process was in collecting bee pollen. Most juice consumers use this product in our smoothies from the local juice …
March 20, 1997
Carl Stalling and Raymond Scott — composers of Looney Tunes music
Matmail: We've all heard the theme music for “Loony Tunes” cartoons on TV and at the movies. Was this music composed for “Looney Tunes,” or was it taken from a classic piece of music (excerpted)? …
March 20, 1997
UCSD nurse threatens William Rehnquist
Susan Viola Klat, until recently a night-shift nurse at UCSD Medical Center in Hillcrest, is now sitting in a Washington, D.C. jail. Three weeks ago she was convicted of making threats against William Rehnquist, chief …
March 20, 1997
Ken Moser of San Diego Baykeepers spies on Southwest Marine
It's a perfect morning for spying. The water glints metallic blue in the sun. Marietta, the harbor cruise boat, slicks by, crammed with Zonies on its upper deck. You can hear the female guide's voice …
March 20, 1997
Douglas Barnhart gets contract for Chargers cantilevered seats
Over the past two years, Poway contractor Douglas Barnhart, along with 13 relatives and employees, pumped $2745 into city councilwoman Barbara Warden's campaign war chest. During the same period, the Barnhart group gave a total …
March 20, 1997
Men will rise to the level women demand of them
"....and there's his scrotum. It's a boy." As the doctor said this and pointed an arrow labeled "boy" at the white dot on the ultrasound, a wave of pride hit me. Yes, I admit to …
March 20, 1997
Thursday, March 13
Psychic Theodore Graham-Rogers, head of county probation
I am lying on the floor of my office, eyes closed. For weeks I’ve been talking to people who knew Theodore Graham-Rogers. I’ve been reading things he wrote during the 20-year span from 1947 to …
March 13, 1997
How chicks breathe inside their eggshells
Matmail: I was getting ready to cook up some eggs the other day, and I started wondering...how do the little chickens breathe inside the shells before they’ve hatched? It seems like a long time for …
March 13, 1997
An out-of-control ticktacktoe game
Dear Matthew Alice: A large, white, official-looking X has been painted in the bike lane on northbound 101 in Encinitas, in front of D.B. Hacker’s restaurant (101 North Highway 101). Who painted this X, and …
March 13, 1997
The Chouest ship dynasty
Dear Matt: Who/what are the “Chouest” ships (the Laney Chouest, Dolores Chouest, Cory Chouest, Amy Chouest) — red and brown, with mini-subs on board, which go in and out of the bay? What do they …
March 13, 1997
The truth about ostriches' heads in the sand
Mattster: Where did the idea come from that ostriches stick their heads in the sand when they’re frightened? Do they really do that? How do they keep from inhaling the sand? — Curious Person, San …
March 13, 1997
San Diego concert promoter Bill Silva gets a sweetheart deal
Three months after he cohosted a "birthday party" fundraiser for City Councilwoman Valerie Stallings's 1998 reelection campaign, veteran San Diego concert promoter Bill Silva has been given what critics are calling a sweetheart deal to …
March 13, 1997
Keith Kimura pulled unconscious from BUDS training tower and dies
The buzz took longer than usual to reach me. A Navy seal named Keith Kimura was pulled unconscious from 60 feet of room-temp, gin-clear water on 10 January 1997 and died the next day at …
March 13, 1997
Expansion of Chargers stadium pitfall for Golding senate campaign
How does Susan Golding hope to become a U.S. senator? By raising millions from San Diego's biotech fat cats. That's part of a plan revealed by Golding handler and ex-boyfriend George Gorton in an interview …
March 13, 1997
Thursday, March 6
An unhampered look at Carlsbad's Army Navy Academy
Societies have often tried to whip their young into adulthood with calculated brutality. Yet even this, intolerable as it is, probably causes less pain — and may even give rise to less brutality in the …
March 6, 1997
Random toilet flushing
Dear Matthew Alice: This morning I heard a rumbling sound in my unoccupied bathroom and went there to find that the noise emanated from the toilet bowl. The water in the bowl was trembling, the …
March 6, 1997
Pets and their ability to watch TV
Matt: I swore my cat Pete watched the movie Balto with me. My friend denied the possibility, saying, “Cats have only the ability to see three-dimensional images” I've seen lots of dogs watch TV, why …
March 6, 1997
The weird signs of San Diego
To: Matmail: I’ve always wondered about those signs you occasionally see on the freeway that say “Landscaping Ahead.” Why does Caltrans feel the need to alert drivers to upcoming ice plant?— Ann, Mission Valley Just …
March 6, 1997
Special handling of Junior Seau pays off
The crowd, 5000 strong, roared when he was introduced at the Chamber of Commerce rally called to oppose the referendum effort to put the Chargers contract before voters for their approval. Tiaina Baul Seau Jr., …
March 6, 1997
Did Ticketmaster Squeeze Ringling Brothers?
Ticketmaster's legal problems may have disappeared from the headlines, but they are far from over. The country's biggest sports and entertainment ticket broker is once again facing an antitrust action in court, this one brought …
March 6, 1997
Larry Lawrence and wife Shelia turned up on Bill Clinton's White House stay-over list
The Navy is asking 16,000 sailors some intimate questions as part of a detailed survey of pregnancy aboard ship. Called "Navy Survey of Parenthood and Pregnancy" and drafted by the Navy Personnel Research and Development …
March 6, 1997
Striving toward Being: the letters of Thomas Merton and Czeslaw Milosz
Merton and Milosz met face to face twice, once at Merton’s monastery and once over lunch in the Bay Area. “He said that Merton was very pleasant, very down-to-earth, somewhat surprisingly unstuffy for a monk.
March 6, 1997