Is the ballad still valid? Even in the half-light of the Palace Bar at the Horton Grand Hotel in San Diego's muted Gaslamp District, I can see nothing but mock seriousness in Charles McPherson's movie-star …

Dear Matthew Alice: We have been taking a survey among our male relatives, friends, lovers, and boss and have been unable to ascertain why men’s briefs are made with that crazy “tunnel” sewn into the …

If anyone ever writes a Guidebook to Supernatural San Diego, one chapter will have to be set on the bluff in Encinitas where the coastline takes a bend eastward. The Self-Realization Fellowship owns about 13 …

Dear Matt: My friend and I were having a discussion about life in general, and we decided that we need to know why there is any stuff in the universe. Why is there anything instead …

Dear Matthew: On vacation recently, I saw a machine that for 50 cents squashed a penny into a thin copper disk with a picture of the Golden Gate Bridge on it. I remember my dad …

Dear Matthew Alice: My in-laws recently came to visit from Ireland. When my mum made the remark, “That’s a Yank for you!” I said something derogatory regarding Micks. Where did we assume the name Yankee …

Unlike, say, rock-and-roll bands, classical musicians in a quartet are not required to exhibit personalities as they perform. A tuxedoed homogeneity and a serious sameness of expression will do nicely, thank you. If the performers …

Dear Matthew Alice: Where did the expression “mad as a hatter” come from? What’s a hatter, and why is a hatter so pissed off? — Don’t Get It, San Diego You sure don’t, Don’t. The …

Since the merger on February 2,1992, 11 people have left the U-T sports department. One distraught sportswriter says he spends the first hour every morning chanting to himself, “Don’t quit today. Don’t quit today. Don’t quit today.”

I saw nothing unusual about a Chinaman kid dabbling in flamenco guitar. I liked it. Then Jackson Burgess, a writer from the South, sat down next to me as I practiced one afternoon. Teacher to …

Dear Matthew Alice: We know that the hatred of women is “misogyny,” but what is the word for the hatred of men? — Lovers of All, San Diego An interesting commentary, I’d say, when we …

Dear Matthew Alice: The other day I was walking across the street when this guy in his little yuppiemobile practically kneecapped me as he drove by. I gave him my best glare, and he yelled …

Dear Matthew Alice: On the editorial page of the San Diego Union-Tribune, the paper lists the names of its publishers, past and present. However, between John D. Spreckels (publisher, 1890-1926) and Col. Ira Copley (publisher, …

Some critics have been adoring: "David Baze is simply a great artist." Others complain: "David Baze's paintings reek of emotional estrangement. Men and women rarely commune in these light-infused scenes — their bodes are neighbors, …

Dear Matthew Alice: When coinage was made of gold or silver, unscrupulous individuals used to “clip" or “shave” off small amounts, pass the coin as legal currency, then sell the accumulated shavings for a profit. …

Dear Matthew Alice: I’ve checked the library; I have asked experts, but I can't find the answer anywhere. So as a last resort, I seek the wisdom of Matthew Alice. At what point in history …

Dear Matthew Alice: Why do soft things, such as bread, get hard when they get stale and hard things, such as crunchy cookies or cereal, get soft when they get stale? Will they both eventually …

When the great flu epidemic hits, with their best lands compromised, somehow the spirit of the Little Landers disappears. Even the energetic William Smythe leaves his beloved village after the death of his wife.

“This mountain is an anomaly. A piece of Northern California sticking up out of the California desert floor. Water is the basis for all our wildlife up here. We live here.”