But even if they were not big, they seemed to me very real and salient: there’s a breast. It was hard to imagine my flat front being sculpted into such fullness

Between the place where ground was broken for the line in 1906, near the foot of 28th Street, and the eastern terminus, in El Centro, there was never land more ill-suited for train tracks.

Recently, Padres owner John Moores complained of "a huge streak of populism in San Diego" that, he claimed contemptuously, had contributed to ballpark delays. Similarly, in early 1997, when Herbert G. Klein, then top editor …

It was no accident, said San Diego clairvoyant Dr. James Capers, that movie mogul and occult aficionado Steven Spielberg attended his lecture in February, when Capers demonstrated his "spiritual gifts" at the Los Angeles Conscious …

In Special Forces, the ideal is that every soldier is fluent in one foreign language and able to limp along in two others. But in a standard infantry company it wouldn't be unusual for no …

The Union-Tribune, apparently intent upon shoring up the eroding credibility of San Diego schools chief Alan Bersin, gave a hero's sendoff to Veronica "Ronne" Froman, who abruptly left her lucrative job as Bersin's chief financial …

Drive up a short mile from the speedway known as Sunset Boulevard in West Los Angeles toward Will Rogers State Historic Park, and you'll instantly leave the rat race behind. This secluded spot on the …

“I can tell you up front, it’s not an addiction. Everybody says it’s an addiction, and I don’t believe that at all. It’s a sickness. Seriously.” Gary Pierwola is speaking. A retired National City cop, …

San Diego's ballpark misadventure is a textbook study of a public and private leadership structure that is utterly incapable of challenging a fatuously unworkable and wholly unethical idea. Those in the establishment who knew the …

"They were careless people...they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the …

Inside word has it that retired Rear Admiral Veronica "Ronne" Froman, hired back in August 2001 as chief financial sidekick to San Diego Unified School District superintendent Alan Bersin, will shortly be departing the district. …

Fear of kidnapping has long spurred the upper classes in Tijuana to build high walls around their homes and mansions. Some even purchase insurance policies that will pay ransoms. But the literary community, never feeling …

With five tiers and a total drop of about 150 feet, Tenaja Falls is the most interesting natural feature in Cleveland National Forest's San Mateo Canyon Wilderness. In late winter and spring, water coursing down …

Hi MA: Why does my bottle of Aquafina have an expiration date on it? What would go bad, the H or the two Os? -- Mort Schwartz, San Diego I think your Hs and Os …

Hey: Settle an argument with my friend. He says cramming for an exam doesn’t work. I say staying up all night studying and going right into the exam makes the information fresh in my brain …

Hey Matt: After watching a few serious downpours earlier this year and noticing long lines of ants along my driveway when it was dry, I wondered how they don’t drown during a big rain storm. …

Matt: Why do they call it the clap? Personally, I wouldn’t clap if I found out I had it…yikes! -- Gretchen, La Jolla Let’s hear it for the French! They gave us the clap. The …

Managed care is forcing patients to get creative. Last year, I got a letter from an internal medicine colleague who practices just a few blocks from me. She and two other women internists took the …

"The best thing we can do is to tell people to stay inside. They’re going to be better off there than if they tried to get out of Coronado.” This is especially true if it’s an airborne hazard.

San Diego Housing Commission director Betsy Morris is throwing a free lunch today for city council staffers. Insiders say the main topic on the agenda is the commission's proposed swanky new office tower at 11th …

The meek have not yet inherited the earth, but the nerds have taken over the world's financial system. Without meaningful reforms, the meek should refuse their inheritance, according to a superb new book, Infectious Greed: …

When I see an embedded reporter like, say, the late David Bloom of NBC (a great reporter and sorely missed), green in night-vision light, crouched behind a berm, whispering into his mike while guns and …

The following day, Court TV's Harriet Ryan wrote that when Westerfield's son took the stand, the usually stoic Westerfield's "body began to shake in an even more pronounced manner than it has at other points during the trial.

Not many small- or medium-size cities can boast of three mountain ranges within its border, but Glendale, California, does. Stretching east and north from the San Fernando Valley, the city takes in substantial parts of …

Hi Matt: Dinos got really, really huge. What was their life span anyway, on average...say, for a full-grown T. rex? They must have lived a long time to grow as gigantic as they did. -- …

Mattster: What does the handwriting on the wall say? Who wrote it? What wall is it on? Is it in pencil, crayon, spray paint? Why should I care what it says? -- Pardon Me, San …

T. Jefferson Parker stares out the window of his Fallbrook office. What he sees is eucalyptus. “And then,” he said, “beyond the eucalyptus, there’s the tangerine tree and the two orange trees and a lemon …

A slow migration has begun in my house. About six months ago, my oldest daughter, Rebecca, started borrowing my clothes. Rebecca has borrowed my clothes before. To play dress-up. Over the years, dresses and suits …

The first rule of counterguerrilla warfare is never set a pattern. This is so because the guerrillas are always watching for a weak point to hit. You can go anyplace and do anything two days …

It's only 35 or 40 minutes from downtown San Diego to the junction of Interstate 8 and State Route 79. And just a couple of minutes north of there lies the rural town of Descanso. …

When Richard Perle decided to step down last week as chairman of the Pentagon's influential Defense Policy Advisory Board, the move drew fresh attention to the shadowy organization. It turns out that two members of …

Oak Canyon, tucked into a relatively pristine corner of Mission Trails Regional Park just west of Santee, has come alive with a thin stream of gurgling water, owing to the recent decent (if not quite …

Hi Matt: There used to be a picture booth in the arcade inside Mission Valley mall-- one of the good, old-fashioned ones that printed a vertical column of four successive shots. My little sister and …

Dear Matt: What's the deal with this knack we humans have for hearing a song, especially a really annoying one, and then going around with it playing in our heads all day? And why does …