Dinner at Tapenade Restaurant is a memorable experience. The cordial ambience, the feel of that which is unmistakably French, and service like a brilliantly engineered heist: the help comes and takes you from your worries, …
March 11, 2004
News & Stories
Waiters at Tapenade and George's at the Cover plus one from Broken Yolk
Baby Scatters Chips
When Sean Penn finally won his first Oscar (after three previous nominations), a woman asked, "Is there a seven-second delay?" Penn has been known in the past for cussing, and even punching, reporters
March 11, 2004
Best pols money can buy
In the final days before last week's San Diego city primary election, some last-minute big money was quietly delivered to incumbent mayor Dick Murphy and deputy city attorney Leslie Devaney (running to succeed her termed-out …
March 11, 2004
City of Fools
The world's greatest writers -- Cervantes, Marlowe, Sir Walter Scott -- wrestled with this enigma: is the fellow who causes calamity a knave or a fool? When a promoter drives his investors into poverty and …
March 11, 2004
Lifelike Tijuana
There are three wax-figure museums in all of Mexico. Two of them, Mexico City's and Tijuana's, owe their existence to Ricardo Parra Montes. "I was the director of tourism for the Mexico City government in …
March 11, 2004
The clash of the roach coaches
Matolo: Who determines turf for industrial catering trucks companies? You never see two trucks there from different caterers. How do these folks decide who gets what company to sell to? I envision midnight turf wars�sabotage�caterlords�cement …
March 11, 2004
Who invented skyjacking?
Heymatt: Who hijacked the first airplane? Just curious. Not planning anything. -- Nameless, of course Jetjacking is an art we've been perfecting for 74 years. The first recorded incident was in Peru in 1930, when …
March 11, 2004
Earthquake, aftershock. What's the difference?
Matthew: I'm confused.What's the difference between an earthquake and an aftershock? Sometimes we have an earthquake only to be told it's an aftershock of an earthquake two years ago. How can they tell? -- Shaken, …
March 11, 2004
Clover leaves
Matt: How rare is a four-leafed clover? Is there such a thing in real life? Why is it associated with good luck? -- S.L, P.B. A four-leafed clover is an occasional mutation growing amid the …
March 11, 2004
Absolutely the last poop question we'll ever answer.
Heymatt: Why do we call urination pee and defecation poop? -- Too embarrassed to sign his name Okay, I swear this is the last poop question we'll handle until, well, until we get another one. …
March 11, 2004
New growth is quickly overtaking the fire-blackened landscape in Crestwood preserve, just east of El Cajon.
Last October, the rocky, brush-covered slopes of the Crestwood Ecological Reserve, east of El Cajon, were swept by the same flames that devastated the communities of Crest and Harbison Canyon. Now, some five months later, …
March 11, 2004