Barbarella began keeping a blog, or Web log, in 2000. The following are selections from her website, http://barbylon.diaryland.com. 2003-11-04I AM Corybantic The word of the day is “corybantic,” defined by AWAD as “wild; frenzied; uncontrolled.” …
Jim's wife brought a bunch of deviled eggs, and I asked Jim how many of those Paul Newman would be able to eat. "I think 84. Wasn't it 42 eggs he ate [in Cool Hand Luke]?"
Was that hot dog you ate at Petco Park unsavory? Fans have complained about unsavory food at the new ballyard. Well, for years the company that provided you that hot dog has been trying to …
In 1986, the tiny Pequot tribe, which had no full-blooded members, started a bingo hall. In 1992, the Pequots opened Foxwoods Casino, which is now said to be the most lucrative single casino in the world.
It didn't take long for the San Diego City Council to take political advantage of the campaign "friend-raising" opportunities provided by the council's exclusive luxury suite at the new taxpayer-financed baseball stadium. Under a deal …
Hey Matt: I remember as a kid playing with Mexican jumping beans. What ever happened to them? And what made them jump in the first place? -- Speedy Gonzales, the net Matthew Alice: June bugs. …
From the shore of the Pacific Ocean, just west of Santa Monica, the fluted slopes of the Santa Monica Mountains rise like rumpled bedsheets after a night of tossing and turning. From a vantage point …
Fire in the California backcountry is an inevitability. Thirty years of fuel meant that when something happened, it was going to be big.
On November 18, 2002, pro skateboarder Neil Heddings drove his van to San Diego to pick up his two-year-old son, Marty. Heddings’s fiancée Christine Rams, their new baby, and Rams’s four-year-old son had come with …
'Timing is everything." Richard Nixon said it. Stand-up comics say it. Is Mayor Dick Murphy trying to be a comedian or a dour Dick Nixon? Or both? It's comical that with Murphy perceived as a …
For a while last week, San Diego's own 60-something porn star, Dave Cummings, was sweating blood. Dozens of L.A. porn companies, including the industry's largest, Vivid, shut down their sets after actors Lara Roxx and …
And, along with the same refrigerator Richard has been trying to dump as a grand prize, this year he put a $50 gift certificate inside it to tempt the winner into taking it.
Hey Matt: My wife has been blaming our water for her dry skin, split ends, etc., ever since her friend told her that San Diego has "really hard water." What the heck is "hard water"? …
Hey Matt: What makes fancy ketchup so fancy? Can you get plain ketchup? -- Bobby, the net There are officially designated fancy tomatoes, but no fancy ketchup. Fancy ketchup is plain ordinary ketchup in a …
Hey Matt: Why are nearly all automobile tail lights the exact same shade of red? Does it have a name? -- Matt, on 805 southbound Commuter-coma Red. Panic-stop Red. Screeeech! Red. Look Out! Red. Hey, …
For a taste of some fast-disappearing rural serenity in inland North County, try the following looping bicycle route through hills and valleys straddling the San Diego-Riverside County line. You'll gain and lose about 1300 feet …
It was the winter of 1980, and the employees of the now-defunct Hafer Steel Company in Grantville had to go onto the roof. "A helicopter came and asked whether or not we wanted to be …
Every time I do something new with my kids, I feel a little older. Last Christmas, Jack’s parents sent us a check for $200 with a note that read, “Please use this gift to do …
One night in the late 1970s, Miguel Ruiz, a young Mexican physician, fell asleep at the wheel of his car and crashed it into a concrete retaining wall. He lay near death for some days …
'Take me out to the bawl game?" At the same time city officials and Padres majority owner John Moores grinningly lapped up hurrahs at last week's Petco Park opening, they were getting a big Bronx …
Special religious diets in San Diego County's jails sometimes make prisoners who receive regular fare feel shortchanged. How else can you explain why several men in the system, who said they were white supremacists, once …
In a memo dated April 2, the day after an item here disclosing the existence of the city council's private luxury box at Petco Park, stadium manager Steve Shushan outlined a new official policy for …
One girl who looked like k.d. lang kept apologizing to a guy. She said, "Maybe next time I'll drink water instead of alcohol." Later I saw her run and tackle somebody in the grass.
Hello Matt: Me and a friend of mine were wondering, what is the strongest muscle in the body? I say the tongue, he says legs or arms??????? -- Christine and Christine's friend, the net Tongue? …
Matthew: When I was learning how to drive many years ago, my dad gave me a tip to help me keep from getting lost: East-west freeways/highways are indicated by even numbers and north-south by odd …
Heymatt: How come I've never heard about the Southern Lights? I've heard of the Northern Lights. -- Jay, In the Dark As usual, you haven't been paying attention. Northern Lights = Aurora Borealis. Southern Lights …
The day begins bright and clear. The springtime sun vaults into the sky over drifts of freshly fallen snow on San Bernardino Mountain's sunny south side and begins to melt them. Gravity pulls the tiny …
After 35 years, the San Diego Padres have a home of their own. Today, the local nine will jog onto the field and play their first regular-season game in Petco Park. It’s a mighty step …
"Much poetry is arbitrary, obscure, and inaccessible. It makes people feel stupid. That has a great deal to do with Modernism and Post-Modernism, even though many of the Modernists were great poets undeniably."
Fifty miles east of downtown San Diego, 12 miles south of Interstate 8, Buckman Springs Road, approaching from the north, ends at State Route 94 as it turns east after a mile-long northward jog from …
Act I Last week's surprise departure of Neil Morgan from the Union-Tribune after 54 years as a Copley scribe was shrouded in about as much confusion and contradiction as many of the columns he authored. …
Hey, Matt: I saw in the newspaper there is a car-o-rama for the latest new cars. Where does this o-rama business originate? -- Pat N. Paul, the net Mankind has always been a sucker for …
One guy showed up in his outfit, complaining about the traffic on the 805. I would love to have seen the other drivers' faces as he went by. Do they take you seriously with that face?
The 1194-foot mountain dubbed "Kwaay Paay" in Mission Trails Regional Park managed to escape the flames that swept through nearly half of the park's area in October 2003. The welcome if spotty precipitation we've received …
“How long have you been racing pigeons?” I asked Gene Hamilton. “Eighty years.” “That’s quite a while.” “Actually, it’s 80+ now. I’m 91.” “What got you started?” "Pigeons underneath a barn in Portland, Oregon. We …
Someone I look up to once told me I should always try to write as if I were writing to someone who had six months to live. Think of your reader, I was told, as …
Federal examiners are looking into possible "pay-to-play" shenanigans in the pension-consulting business. And one of the pension consultants being studied is Callan Associates, the San Francisco-based firm long used by the woe-beset San Diego City …
Cloud 9 is the only company in San Diego, so far, to make chauffeurs independent owner-operators. In the new approach, "There are responsibilities the drivers have. But hard workers should be able to do well."
For years, members of the San Diego City Council and their pals partied hearty in the so-called City Box at Qualcomm Stadium, chowing down on free hot dogs, steaks, chicken, wine, beer, desserts, and all …
Heymatt: Does the temperature have any bearing on how much sunburn/sun damage a person receives? If I'm outside on a sunny, cloudless 60 degree day, won't I get as much of a tan as I …
Yo Matt: How come so many Arabic words with a "k" sound are spelled with a "q" instead? Qaddafi, Qatar, Iraq, al-Qaeda, etc. Since these are Anglicized spellings and not Arabic ones, who decides on …
Deep Creek Hot Springs in the San Bernardino National Forest has been a minor magnet for hikers and other nature lovers -- eccentric and otherwise -- for decades. Volunteers have spent years fashioning rock-bound basins …
Hans came into the kitchen and screamed for everyone to be quiet. He then said, "I just found out there was a fight out front. If there's another one. I'm kicking everybody out!"