Hey, Matt: I work in a convenience store. About half of the transactions are paid for using a credit card. Sometimes the cards are not recognized by the card reader. If this happens, I put …
June 14, 2007
Straight from the Hip
Archived articles
Bag That Card
Marbles -- Gone
Matthew Alice: How about "lose one's marbles"? Where is that from? -- Ken, M.A. comments board Ken was browsing through some archived info from our stable of word nerds when he came up with this. …
June 14, 2007
Ostrich Heights
Hey, Matt: Where I live in University Heights there are signs everywhere on sidewalks, monuments, and such that say "University Heights" with an ostrich below. What's the deal with the ostrich? -- Dale in UH …
June 6, 2007
Fake Snake Advice
Heymatt: Is it true that snakes won't go where geraniums grow? There has never been a snake anywhere near my geraniums, but I am only one person in a world of flowers. -- Snakeless in …
June 6, 2007
Toasters in the Pool
Matt: Since water supposedly conducts electricity, why aren't people from coast to coast electrocuted when lightning strikes the ocean? We ask this since there is a slurry of revelers below the windows of our apartment …
May 31, 2007
Truth and Pudding
M.A. Where did we get the stupid expression, "The proof is in the pudding"? It doesn't make any sense to me. -- Wondering, San Diego "Stupid," like, why's the proof in the pudding and not …
May 31, 2007
Full Cartoon Value
To Whom It May Concern: I have enclosed two comics from the Sunday Union, along with the same comics from two other Sunday papers that I read. Please note that the local paper doesn't have …
May 31, 2007
Lumpy Coffee
Yo, Matt: Me and the boys here in Corporate Hell are pondering the Mystery of the Powdered Coffee Creamer. When I sprinkle the sinister powder on top of my hot coffee, it kind of coagulates …
May 24, 2007
Pee-tunias
Hi, Matt: My friend has the unique habit on certain beer-drinking occasions and/or golfing events of urinating in public. He says the trees and the flowers, well...they "like it," that human urine is a "positive" …
May 24, 2007
Pistachios!
Dear Matt: Now that I am approaching the big 5-0, there is a question burning in my mind. As a kid growing up in San Diego, I could never get away with sneaking pistachios because …
May 17, 2007
Sony-san
heya matt... A friend of mine (who's more often right than wrong) claims that Sony Corporation was originally founded by Shell Oil of New York during the occupied-Japan period after WW2. I find it hard …
May 17, 2007