Mail Matt: Can the post office tell what kind of stamps I use? I contend that their scanners can track the use of specific types of stamps to help cut down on forgeries. My girlfriend …

Attention Matthew Alice! What came first, the cassette car stereo or the eight-track car stereo? My friend and I seem to remember cassette tapes going before eight-track tapes, but we think we remember eight-track players …

Dear Matthew Alice: Why is it See's chocolate boxes do not have a grid deciphering the flavor of each piece of candy? Is this some kind of perverse experiment Mary See perpetrates on the unsuspecting …

I have an acid-soaked friend who claims it’s well known that Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin, and Jimi Hendrix were killed by Nixon’s CIA for all the obvious reasons. I not only have never heard this …

Dear Matthew Alice: Did Sirhan Sirhan ever work at the Del Mar Racetrack? I read that Sirhan was recruited to kill Robert Kennedy by [local Mafia members]. Sirhan allegedly had help from Thane Eugene Cesar, …

Hey, Matthew: Fact: The City of San Diego is a private, for-profit corporation chartered by 12 men just before the turn of the century. So is it true that there is $7 billion sitting in …

Dear Matthew Alice: It must be a conspiracy. That can be the only explanation. Why are all alarm clocks’ snooze features set to nine-minute intervals? Why not five? Ten? Fifteen? — Ivan Cervantes, on the …

Mr. (or Ms.) Alice: Now that the trial of the century has ended, and Mr. Simpson has apparently convinced the jury that the hat and gloves probably weren't his, what happens to those items and …

Matthew Alice: This is the second time I find myself typing a letter to you about the same subject. I sent the first letter some months ago. I had written you about the illegal drug …

Don’t let me down! We’ve got a lot riding on this one, Mr. A. I could win myself an entire Saturday with my husband in tow, doing the “sacred DO list.” On the other hand, …

Mr. Alice: In the past, you’ve talked about how the big black birds we see in San Diego are ravens, not crows. Well, lately, I’ve had lots of big, noisy black birds in the trees …

Dear Ms. Alice: I understand that the Africanized bees are on their way, but for the first time anyone can remember, we have NO (zero, zip) feral bees in our garden. I understand that commercial …

Dear Matthew Alice: I would like to photograph you. Please entertain this request. — A.S., San Diego Well, I’d probably open with a little juggling — a slide rule, a nectarine, and a flaming volume …

Matthew Alice: In the bizarre world of boxing, occasionally a fighter will die from injuries received during the bout. From a legal standpoint, do boxers sign away their lives as a condition to get in …

Dear Matt: My friend says there’s a Club Med in China. Can this be true? — Doubtful, El Cajon There was. And there will be. But there isn’t one now. In the late ’80s Club …

Dear Mr. Alice: My friend James and I have discussed the possibilities and can reach no logical conclusion. We simply wish to know the meaning of X as it is used in LAX or for …

Dear Matthew Alice: My pa sez, if ya read it in the Reader, it gots ta be true. So I have enclosed the following example of mathematics [list of winners to Reader puzzle #869], and …

Dear Matthew Alice: Was Olivia Newton-]ohn ever kissed by Albert Einstein? — Milton F., Normal Heights Usually I don’t much care which way the facts fall. True, false; you’re right, you’re wrong — as long …

Do animals cry? — Michael Lopez, Imperial Beach Uh-oh.... ROCK [me] HARD PLACE. This is potentially as volatile as those vegetarian questions. Well, here goes. Most people involved in the animal sciences will say no, …

dear matthew-alice: what are the rules concerning the dropping of the title “junior” after a name? obviously, while the father is still alive, it makes sense, but what the hell do we do with someone …

Dear Matthew Alice: When they put a criminal to death by lethal injection, do they swab the injection site with alcohol? —Steven R. Finz, Hillcrest Can’t believe I took this one seriously. Anyway, it’s darned …

Matthew Alice: Is it possible that ice purchased in Baja melts faster than ice purchased in the United States? We were camping in Ensenada recently, and some friends said ice purchased there did not last …

Dear Matthew Alice: In the movie Tombstone, Doc Holiday says, “I’m your huckleberry.” In the song “Moon River,” Perry Como sings, “I'm your huckleberry friend.” And of course there’s Huckleberry Hound and Huckleberry Finn. What …

Dear Matthew Alice: I have always wondered what the sign on bridge overpasses “Trucks OK” over the number-two lane means. — Craig J. Hamren, National City By law, trucks are not OK on highways outside …

Matt: Who's in that Barney suit? What are his or her acting credentials? Royal Shakespeare company? The Actors Studio? — Master Thespian, San Diego The New York School of Mime and Aggravation, maybe. Barney is …

Dear Matthew Alice: Could you clear up an argument? I commented that during the love scene in The Piano, it was not authentic for Holly Hunter to have nicely shaved legs. After all, it’s a …

Dear Matthew Alice: You’d be doing generations of us an immense favor if you would finally put to rest all these eternal stories of the Fish carburetors, the guy with the water-separation pill, all of …

Hey, Matt: What exactly is plasma? I don't mean the stuff that comes from our bodies, but the fourth state of matter. Cosmic stuff. The stuff that ex-X-man Havock shot out of his chest and …

Dear Matthew Alice: Why are the bases of some trees (mostly palm trees) painted white? — Michelle S., Chula Vista This mysterious arboreal graffiti actually has a practical purpose. In hot climates, white latex exterior …

If you clip a cat's whiskers, will this cause a permanent loss, or will the stubs grow out again to their proper length? Or will each stub fall out and a new bristle grow in …

Matthew Alice: As the mother of young children, I’ve always wondered, why do small children and infants sweat only on their scalps? — Sherry Valencia, San Diego Um, didja peek into the Dr. Dentons and …

Dear Matthew Alice: My friends and I have discovered we all have something in common: frequent anal itching. My roommate explained to me this was caused by bugs that could be seen if a piece …

Dear Matthew Alice: I have a shirt that has a pocket on the left upper front that has a buttonhole and stitches down one side (top to bottom) about the width of a pencil. I’ve …

Dear Matthew Alice: A few years ago, some of our socially prominent La Jolla citizens were sent to the slammer for running a Ponzi scheme, which pays off early investors with money from new investors. …

Matt: Has surfing ever been or will it be an Olympic sport? — [email protected] Funny you should ask, mhfractal. Just this past April the International Olympic Committee gave provisional recognition to a spate of sports, …

Dear Matt: Exactly what is shock therapy, and does it work? If so, how? What is it supposed to fix? — Bill Hunt, [email protected] Shock therapy? Well, just last week we took Ma Alice to …

Dear Matt: Why does “the hair of the dog” theory work for hangovers, and where did the expression come from? — Dog-bit Don, El Paso, TX Howdy, stranger. Take that homespun theory to its logical …

Matthew Alice: When did we start using time zones, and before time had a phone number, how did we know what time it was? — Jamie, El Cajon Since 1883 the world has had 24 …

Dear Matthew Alice: Last weekend I went with my significant other to one of those night entertainment spots where they have quite a few of those "black,lights,” the ones that give off a purplish glow …

Hey, Matt: Why is it that whenever people listen to music they have to tap their toes or somehow keep rhythm with it? — X Cleveland, San Diego Dear Matthew Alice: My boyfriend does his …

Dear Matthew: Where the heck did the phrase “going to hell in a handbasket” come from? It doesn’t make sense to us and has been bad for business. — Handbasket Makers of America, La Jolla …

Dear Matthew Alice: Say I trap a fly in my car when I go down the highway doing 65 mph. Why doesn’t the fly get smashed against the back window, assuming flies can’t fly 65 …

To Whom It May Concern: Why can the smell of popped popcorn, whether popped fresh or burnt, be smelled farther away than other foods? Is there a fact behind this question, or is it just …

Matthew Alice: It’s time to settle an ongoing debate between my brother and I which started one evening when we were making up a batch of spaghetti for our kids. The pot of water was …

Being that next year is an election year, I ponder this question to you: Can convicts vote? — N. Carcerated, Vista Being that I need to ponder your grammar, why don’t you ponder this one. …

Dear Mr. Alice: I’ve always wondered about that most vulgar of English vulgarities, the F-word. I remember my fifth-grade teacher claimed it stood for Fornication Under Consent of the King. What is its true semantic …

Matthew Alice: If you want to double the amount of product from a reaction, you have to double the amount of reactants. In other words, if you want twice as much green paint, mix twice …

Dear Matthew Alice: What does the term O.K. stand for? We’ve all used it as long as we could talk, I’ll bet 90 percent of us haven’t a clue as to what it means. For …

Dear Matthew Alice: How does the ABS system work on my ex-girlfriend's new Mercedes? And when she has to mash down on the brake pedal if, say, someone were to pull out in front of …

Dear Mr. Alice: I was wondering, if a set of identical twins married another set of identical twins of the opposite sex, and each couple had a child, would the two children look alike? — …