RIGHT OFF, no sooner than five minutes after we stepped onto Pioneer Park’s green lawn, we met up with an elderly black-and-tan fellow gone white at the muzzle and sporting a red-and-white stripped Dr. Seuss …

Although dachshund owners may not say so to acquaintances, most of us sleep with our dogs. They, after all, were bred to burrow and take naturally to quilts and comforters.

On the second floor is a character I recognize. I’ve seen this individual bicycling around town, along Pacific Coast Highway, and in Ocean Beach. Today this person is reading an instructional book on Mandarin Chinese.

Dear Matthew Alice: A friend and I have had a long-standing argument regarding why the sailors of old pierced their ears. Nowadays everybody and his uncle does it, but I believe it was because, on …

Matt: Do our eyes grow, or are we all born with a full-sized set? — W.B., San Diego The usually all-knowing, all-seeing Matt Alice was blindsided on this one. Growing eyeballs? What nonsense, I figured. …

Dear Mr. Alice: I love crossword puzzles. Someone once told me they were invented during World War II to send coded messages. I think that’s wrong, but I don’t know the real origin. Can you …

The hills of La Jolla have long been full of thieves and liars. Cliff Graham was a classic of both genres. Compact, red-headed, with bulging biceps, he was admired by his ski buddies for his …

Spotted with weather-beaten piñon pines, Villager Peak in the southern Santa Rosa Mountains rises nearly a mile above the lowlands of Anza-Borrego Desert. Serious “peak baggers” from around the state are drawn to its summit, …

Dear Matthew: Do insects sleep? Are there any regular animals that don’t? I guess I mean mammals, birds, and reptiles. — Carolyn Kurtz, Valley Center Well, personally, I haven’t gotten a solid eight hours since …

Matt: How can O.J. Simpson be sued for wrongful death when we legally have to assume he didn’t do it? I can understand such a suit if the criminal court declared him guilty, but he …

To Whom It May Concern: Have you ever noticed that comic readers in San Diego don’t receive the artist’s full comic? Notice the missing panels in “Peanuts” and “Doonesbury” in the enclosed Sunday comics sections …

I hesitate before starting with this particular deal. I want to begin with what for me was a simple fact but what to others may seem a tiresome metaphor. The psychiatrists didn’t invent this metaphor, …

Ground zero for Professor Michael Schudson is his office on the UCSD campus. What appears to be a den of isolation is in fact an intellectual Grand Central Station. But the molecules bouncing around this …

Dear Matthew: Does handwriting have an accent? I mean, can graphoanalysts tell where you’re from by your writing? — Brian Bosque, San Diego Figure people from the South form big, slow, loopy letters? New Yorkers …

Was it a coincidence this summer when 8000 tilapia-loving pelicans, including the endangered brown pelican, suddenly died on the beaches of the Salton Sea, the biggest pelican die-off in recorded U.S. history?

Matthew Alice: A while ago I saw a high-powered hose being sprayed on high-voltage electric line harnesses. Is this bad? I also saw heavy cables being laid into the concrete at Lindbergh Field in a …

Matthew Alice: What is the correlation between all these Christian ministry TV shows and their exaggerated hairdos, outlandish way of dress, and bordello-like sets (i.e., Tammy Faye and the lady with the pink hair)? Does …

Matthew Alice: I was in the ladies’ room at work recently when a few of us began discussing why it is that men have the peculiar habit of taking reading material (magazines, newspapers) into the …

“Have you ever heard of the Whole Earth Festival? I was going to them way back before I was a Christian." Speaking is Steve Behncke, a do-it-yourself Christian missionary, who lately has been preaching the …

Dear Matt: While my husband and I were watching the Democratic convention, I commented on how Chelsea Clinton had blossomed. I began wondering whether or not she's allowed to date. My husband says absolutely not. …

To: Matmail: Once again we mere mortals approach the sacred oracle at “Straight from the Hip” with a question that has no real purpose except our great thirst for your knowledge. We have a question …

Do bacteriologists, physicians, and persons similarly knowledgeable concerning “germs” lick envelopes, whether from the post office or received in advertising mail? — R.N. Morgan, Hillcrest So you’re suggesting not only are we guaranteed to lose …

There were two Mr. Wrongs in quick succession. I had given up. I knew he was the right one, but I didn’t want to meet him because he would be the wrong one.

This is a tale of two cities, both in north San Diego County. One is a small agricultural town surrounded by orange groves and avocado orchards thriving in fertile soil and abundant California sun. Pickup …

Outside my American window, the weasel was winding himself through the bird of paradise and dashing into plastic conduits. We put the conduits there for our own use, but the animals use them as subway tunnels.

Paul told me that if he had read my novel Darconville’s Cat in high school, he would never have started to write. And in a way, I began to write in order to catch up to him.

Matt: What information is entered into the computer by the customs officer when I return from TJ? What do they do with this information? — Mike888, the Net No surprise, the main thing is your …

Dear Matthew Alice: I don’t understand how loofah sponges work if it takes seven years to completely replace all our body cells. If we scrape them off, how do they come back so soon? — …

To: Matmail: I was born and raised in San Diego and have seen many changes. One thing that has remained constant until recently has been the Stadium Way/Friars Road overpass drummer. I remember as a …