Patricia Purcell walked unsteadily into Courtroom 6 in San Diego's federal courthouse. Her face sagged from too little sleep, no makeup, and tension. Supporters in the courtroom for her sentencing hearing did a double-take. The …

How did theSun get Cox’s interview of Wilson? ‘The Baltimore Sun reporter happened to be in town. But he knew Bob Cox and they sat down together one night just to play the tape.”

Dear M.A.: I seem to recall a few months back you discussed the sagas of the severed heads of Santa Ana, et al. I therefore naturally thought of you when I saw the enclosed, taken …

Dear Matthew Alice:Some 40-plus years ago, when I was a youngster, a major cereal company sponsored a promotion offering one square inch of free land in Alaska with each purchase of a box of their …

It isn’t as though the good reverend, Ed Everrett, both Baptist missionary and neon sign maker, never tried planting a kitchen garden in all the years Rancho Sordo Mudo had been growing and expanding in …

There have been many big mouths. William Randolph Hearst. Mick Jagger. Desi Arnaz. Wallace Beery. Nat “King” Cole. MacDonald Carey. Fifties singer Guy Mitchell. Probably no one has a bigger mouth than Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler.

Dear Omniscient One: I’ve asked all my buddies. Nobody knows. So you’re my last resort before I just accept it as one of those unknown mysteries that forever go unexplained. Please end my befuddlement. What …

Dear Matthew Alice: I’ve heard recently that the kombucha tea mushroom that everybody’s drinking is supposed to be bad for the sewer system. Is that true — Toni, South Park Pardon my typos. Haven’t quite …

The Nickelodeon Cinema, I Street, Chula Vista. Ten o’clock Friday night. "Hello,” I say to three Chicana girls as we come away from the ticket “Are you going to see Mi Vida Loca? They nod. …

He was, if not my first love, my first conscious attempt at love. I am tempted to say we were meant for each other. I am tempted to say: destiny scented the air of Mrs. …

From outside it sounded like a Santeria initiation. I heard the call of the bata drums, then the lead voice, followed by the chorus to Eleggua, the trickster orisha and the spirit of the crossroads: …

Matt: Is it really possible for contact lenses to slide around to the back of your eye and get lost somewhere in your head forever? My mother tells me this is true. She says it …

Dear Matthew Alice: Where did cigarettes come from? I mean, did somebody invent them or did they just evolve from ancient times or what? — Marlene Walter, Boston, MA Tobacco was originally wrapped in corn …

Dear Matthew Alice: Every time I’m in the grocery store, I always wonder how the machine that reads the UPC bar codes can tell what is front and what is back. They don’t line up …

Dear Matthew Alice: Where does the term “dive,” meaning a sleazy bar, come from? — Maria, El Paso, TX Matt: I know what “egg” is, but what’s “nog”? — Tom G., San Diego Some festive …

I’m the substitute, so I sit at a stranger’s desk beneath a poster that displays a Ferrari in the driveway of a mansion. “The rewards of higher education,” it reads. A boy named Eric, who was called to the office during the first hour, is working on his test and talking to two girls, so after three warnings, I give him detention. “You bitch!” he shouts across the room.