Back in February, while gas prices were soaring and radio talk-show host Roger Hedgecock was railing against big oil, a group of San Diego city councilmembers and their aides traveled to Long Beach for a …

There are at least as many ways to climb Cowles Mountain, the highest elevation within San Diego's city limit, as there are digits on your hand. Perhaps the least popular but no less fun approach …

Darth Vader is waving a light saber and a charred Styrofoam ball on a chain in front of Planet Hollywood at Fourth and Broadway. The dark lord, black robes flowing in the wind, is shaking …

Last week, amid great fanfare, President Ernesto Zedillo opened Telmex's San Diego telephone operations base. This, he said, was the beginning of a new era in cross-border cooperation. So how come I'm standing by this …

Has the tide turned against the plan to build a baseball stadium downtown? Although approved by voters last November in a so-called "advisory" election, cracks have begun to appear, most of them due to blatant …

Derek had become quite upset when Frieda drew me aside. ButFrieda had no intention of keeping this information from Derek; she later told him precisely what she had told me. Still, some game was afoot.

Hey, MatMan: Sometimes after getting off work in Kearny Mesa, I'll jump off I-15 at Pomerado on my way home to the great big city of Poway. Shortly after leaving the freeway, just before USIU, …

Nearly an hour went by before I made an astonishing discovery. Derek’s forehead and hairlines were an exact replica of Irving’s. I felt as though I were again sitting at a table with my father.

Big Spring, tucked in a tributary of Tubb Canyon on the west side of Borrego Valley, is one of the more reliable water producers in the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. As such, it is an …

Oceanside is about as far as you can go in North County without enlisting. Fact is, many people in Oceanside have enlisted, if only indirectly, via their parents. Biology teacher Dawn Murray says that few …

What's cooking? If you're in San Diego, more than likely it's meth. By the "Nazi" method. Dry, odor-free, small-scale, impossible to catch. And if you're selling, you'll still have more customers than anywhere else in …

Disclosure of the pending divorce between Peter Jensen and Princess Ubol Ratana, the eldest daughter of Thai king Bhumibol Adulyadej, is causing tongues to wag and students of local business fiascos to dust off their …

Victoria, a girl I knew in college who later moved to Rome, fell in love, and got married, is moving back to the States. She is expecting her second child and says the treatment she …

Dear Matthew Alice: Lately I've noticed some small birds in my neighborhood flying around and chasing bigger birds, hawks maybe. Why are they doing this? I don't think I've ever seen this before. -- Mary …

Dear All-Knowing, All-Seeing One: I heard from a fairly reliable source, my cousin, a retired USMC Master Sergeant, that Camp Pendleton is not government land but actually leased from a family who has owned the …

Mattster: When the mayor awards somebody the key to the city, does it open anything? -- Another Mattster, the Net I'm sure you've also noticed that those official city keys are usually big plastic skeleton …

Dear Mattman: Help! We have been wracking our brains trying to figure out this question. What is the candy bar that was sold years ago that was made from braided caramel dipped in chocolate? Help! …

The restaurant was a rambling wood affair with families crammed together and happily intent over their plates until that rumba line of black men – a half dozen of them – began to snake between …

In Khartoum it's the Acropole. In Vientiane it's the Constellation. In London it's Biddy Mulligan's. In Tijuana the place to find "the buzz" is Big Boy -- El Big. El Big, on Agua Caliente Boulevard, …

Chief of staff for city councilwoman Valerie Stallings: "last week she took a trip to look at animal shelters in Oakland and San Francisco,. That's a good example of what she uses it for: city business."

Buster's Beach House, a new restaurant in Seaport Village, started its first week of business on a downer: a B rating from the county health department was displayed discreetly in the front window, partially hidden …

Silverwood. The name comes from the glittering effect of sunlight upon the dark-green leaves of the coast live oak. Scores of these trees, some of them two-century-old giants scarred by fire, shade the canyon floor …

Two years ago, Glenda weighed 342 pounds, and it was clear to me she needed more than advice to exercise and eat right. From the face covered with zits to the ankles swollen with arthritis, …

When the rain makes its move on San Diego in January, the streets seem more lonely than in other cities; it is a broken promise. On the south Embarcadero on a Monday afternoon, in the …

Mr. Alice: Who is Huey, Dewey, and Louie's father? If Donald Duck is their uncle, then Donald Duck must have a brother. I've never seen him. My dad has a brother and he is my …

Matt: Many, many years ago, when I was a kid, I remember taking an apple to school and giving it to my favorite teacher. Do kids do this anymore? Where did the tradition come from? …

Joseph Jessop had also considered New Zealand, Australia, and South Africa, after studying weather reports.. But some acreage in what is now Scripps Ranch had proved irresistible to him, even sight unseen.

Dillard is one of those writers whose work I so admire that I dread interviewing them. I always think, before I dial up the telephone numbers, “I should leave them alone to do what they do so well.”

The San Diego Union-Tribune has launched what its top brass is calling a "major initiative" to boost circulation at the paper, which serves America's sixth-largest city but barely makes the top-20 list nationally in terms …

For 38 years you knew where to look for Henrich Boll, Celine, Jack Kerouac, Jane and Paul Bowles, William Burroughs, and Gertrude Stein. Sometimes Jim Thompson and Stendahl would be there, or you could catch …

Word around San Diego's city hall has it that the city council will almost certainly pick the so-called ballpark site for a new central library. Why? According to sources both in and out of local …

It's barely a month after more than a foot of late-season snow fell on the 6000-foot-high Laguna Mountains. The forest atop these rarefied heights is responding in a sluggish way to the melted snow and …

Wow! It’s serious hammer time out there somewhere relatively near us. I don’t feel overly anxious, nervous, pumped, or fearful. I should say not yet, at least. I'm sure it’ll be one hell-of-a rush when …

Matthew Alice: Considering the popularity and premium prices paid for Atlantic (Maine) lobster, one wonders why they can't be grown commercially on the Pacific Coast. I would guess that about every two years someone must …

Dear Matthew Alice: Can you tell me what the sand under the seats on the San Diego Trolley is for? -- Tracy, the Net Yes, I can. * * * Sorry, Tracy. Just an annoying …

To: Matmail: Our cat, Harley, always reacts to the presence of another cat. Why doesn't he react to his own reflection in a mirror? Your clarification of this question may save my marriage. -- dt …

Dear Matthew Alice: What came first, the tortilla chip or the potato chip? -- kiyotei, Kiyotei's Den I think we have to go with the tortilla chip, based more on logic than direct evidence. Corn …