Looking at the mortal remains of an 86-year-old Portuguese man in his coffin at the Beardsley-Mitchell Funeral Home in Ocean Beach on a fine spring afternoon I scrutinize his powdered and bald head, his thin …

While I tried to console the two cranky babies, four-year-old Angela had taken her younger sister Lucy and Adrienne’s two- and three-year-old upstairs to play “Fort.” Every few minutes, I called, “Are you guys doing okay up there?”

The beautiful but sometimes hard-to-follow Fry Creek Trail circles the head of a densely wooded drainage on Palomar Mountain, reminding anyone on it (at least at this time of year) that vivid autumn colors really …

On the day Judge Dick Murphy officially announced his candidacy for mayor of San Diego, a lazy Santa Ana wind meandered through Mission Gorge. In the main parking lot at Mission Trails Regional Park, a …

What if you threw a party and nobody showed up? How would you feel? Or, worse, what if you threw a party and the only people who showed up weren't invited and you had to …

Padres owner John Moores is delivering on his million-dollar fundraising promise to Democratic presidential candidate Bill Bradley by getting some of San Diego's most well-wired business types to open up their checkbooks for the ex-basketball …

Dear Fountain of Wisdom and Truth: What the heck is the difference between Dead End, No Exit, Not a Through Street, No Outlet, No Way Out, and all the myriad ways to tell drivers that, …

Matthew: Two questions that plagued me on a drive home from LA a couple of days ago. First of all, I have this blue pad of paper on my dashboard, and during one of the …

Mayor Susan Golding loves to hate Scott Barnett. Not that Barnett, the 37-year-old executive director of the San Diego County Taxpayers Association, hasn't backed some of the mayor's biggest pet projects. Last year, Barnett even …

With midday temperatures declining into the 80s this month and next, the vast spaces of the Anza-Borrego Desert are again becoming attractive places to explore. For the following hike up Palo Verde Canyon in the …

'Build it and they will come," the proverb tells us. Today, however, disciples of the precept have little use for its noble motivational message; they prefer instead its promise of material reward. Build a mall, …

City councilman Juan Vargas is pulling out the stops in his effort to get elected to the state assembly seat now held by soon-to-be-termed-out Denise Ducheny. To raise funds for the effort, Vargas is putting …

Matmail: Q#1: Who decided that having two horns (example, a devil) was a Bad Thing, but having only one horn (example, a unicorn) was an okay Good Thing? and Q#2: What happened to all the …

Matt: Is there a metric unit of time? -- Matty, San Diego Yesish. That's new elf shorthand for "the answer to your basic question is yes, but as usual nobody could leave well enough alone, …

Dear Matthew Alice: Some time ago, I read with interest a story about a condemned prisoner in Washington state (I believe) who was forbidden from eating potato chips on death row because it was discovered …

I had no love for pigeons. I had unhappy associations from childhood, and I shared the popular perception of them as rats with wings. On the Great Chain of Being, birds are rather low; they …

I am sitting in a house overlooking the ocean in Solana Beach. The woman who lives here, video and computer artist Vibeke Sorensen, has just been complaining about the military helicopters that regularly fly into …

Joining the long-time joggers, walkers, and bikers on our county's recreational pathways are increasing numbers of recreational skaters, especially those using fast, sleek, in-line skates. Certain paved footpaths, bike paths and sidewalks, plus a few …

Barbara Payton died in San Diego — on the bathroom floor of her parents’ Mission Hills home at 1901 Titus Street — on May 8, 1967. Her death certificate listed cause of death as “acute …

To get to Lisa Roger's house in the Eucalyptus Hills area of Lakeside, you have to drive past the sand-mining operations, tractor-repair yards, and prefab concrete outfits that line the San Diego River in this …

Wings are everywhere. One girl wears white, feathery wings as she dances -- they call it "flowing" -- to the ON-OFF ON-OFF ON-OFF electronica music at UCSD. Gossamer wings grace the backs of another young …

City-planning commissioner Geralda "Gerri" Stryker last year cochaired the "Yes on C" ballot campaign that convinced voters to approve the downtown stadium deal. Two weeks ago, after three out of seven planning commissioners disqualified themselves …

Dear Matthew Alice: Whatever happened to the idea of "pigeon-hole" parking? Sometime around 1954 there was a hotel in downtown Spokane that had a large framework built up against the side wall on a lot …

Dear Mr. Alice: Are "cat gut" violin strings made from actual cats? Does this explain why a poorly played violin sounds like a puss in pain? -- Lisa, Hillcrest Dear Matthew Alice: I'm about to …

“You can never come back from Dog Beach without having a laugh. Once I saw a little dog running by with a life jacket on. There’s always somebody jumping in the sand, chasing their tail, taking a swim.”

I turned Johnny’s shirts into little squares and sorted 57 socks while Jay Leno told jokes and Kevin Eubanks laughed. When Jack and I went up to bed after midnight, we each carried an overflowing laundry basket.

He goes by both. Whether “Buddy,” the two-syllable synonym for pal, or the more mature-sounding “Bud,” the single-syllable term for what is young and unfinished, both fit. Bud McElroy, at 39, seems easygoing and uncomplicated. …

Coming soon to a vandalized scenic overlook or trailside destination: public art of ambiguous intent and questionable legality. Art scaled to the exact dimensions of missing historical plaques and interpretive markers. Art with a cynical, …

When La Jolla architect Jeffrey Shorn met with San Diego Gas & Electric Co., officials in downtown's East Village in early 1997 to discuss becoming a consultant, he was impressed by the utility's decades-old offices, …

When Karin Winner, the top editor of the San Diego Union-Tribune, issued a memorandum in September discouraging newsroom employees from attending media parties because she said the events compromised the U-T's integrity, bullshit detectors went …

Back in September 1996, the city attorney's office announced formation of a "Public Integrity Unit" to clean up local government. "The Public Integrity Unit will serve a valuable function, and not only in handling election …

Dear Matthew Alice: I recently got my fax machine (as you can see) and the instruction manual says that under penalty of law that a phone number and identification title be at the top of …

Dear Matt: I work in a highrise downtown and on some of the windows there are these Ts on the outside of the glass. I look out the window to a nearby high rise, and …

Dear M.A.: Whenever I watch a wild-animal documentary such as those on KPBS or the Discovery Channel, I'm appalled at the huge size and awkwardness of the radio collars they snap around the animals' necks …