Dear Aunt Trudy, Leonard (not his real name) and I have been friends — just friends, mind you — since college. Neither he nor I have ever married, although both of us have come close. …

There were several IV lines and a fetal monitor that amplified the baby's heartbeat to a level that was impossible to ignore.

Anine-year-old boy is riding with his father south on I-5, headed for a fishing trip in Mexico. A bee flies into the cab of the truck and stings the boy. Within minutes, the boy is …

Contrary to common wisdom, the arrival of new Padres honcho Robert J. Vizas portends more litigation -- not less -- for the long-troubled baseball team and its investors, both public and hidden. Vizas, a high-pressure …

Spy on the secret, subterranean life of a worm; ogle a heron or an egret; pet a bay ray or a leopard shark; get personal with pickleweed and cordgrass; sniff the sage-tinged salt breeze as …

M.A.: I see a few different symbols are now appearing on license plates. Little hands and hearts. How would the cops call in something like that if one of those cars was involved in a …

I wish that instead of piling stuff, leaving piles around the house, she’d go through her piles now and then. She doesn’t take care of it. She just rearranges the stacks.

When Monterey’s presidio was established, the importance of San Diego’s fortification was diminished. San Diego’s harbor and climate were exceptional, but the surrounding country was not as fertile, so it became more of a way station.

Dr. Milan Brandon is San Diego's longest-practicing allergist. Since leaving the Navy in 1959, he has treated more than 30,000 patients. His son, Donald, also a physician with an interest in allergies, practices with him …

Despite boasting one of the nation's sunniest climates, despite laboring under towering electricity rates, San Diego County isn't home to a single solar energy plant. It's not that we haven't tried. A 20-acre solar farm …

The Iast time my husband Jack and I took our kids to the Del Mar Fair was three years ago. Now I remember why we don’t go every year. Three years ago, our older son …

The older brother of La Jolla high-tech mogul Ted Waitt is making news in Forbes magazine, but it isn't for selling computers. Norman Waitt Jr. helped Ted found Gateway Computers in an Iowa barn 16 …

Big Pines Recreation Area, part of Angeles National Forest, perches atop the easternmost extremity of the San Gabriel Mountains, west of Cajon Pass. Blanketed by a heterogeneous mixture of pines, firs, and oaks, and perched …

I recently happened across the doings of a guy I knew in high school. I didn’t know him, though, as well as I knew his sister. She was in my class, and in 11th grade …

Matt: A while ago I was coming home from a job downtown, heading north on the 15. When I got to about Miramar Way, I noticed the temperature dropped what felt like ten degrees Then …

Dear Matt: We were wondering, just what is the EXACT origin of the Seven Deadly Sins? Are they specifically biblical in origin? Is seven a significant number? Don't some of them seem redundant? -- Pondering …

I remember my first bra. I was in sixth grade. We lived in Pine Valley out in East County. My mother did not over-romanticize girlhood rituals. When I was in third grade, in response to …

At the San Diego Sheriff’s Department, David Provost loads the Megan’s Law CD of California’s serious and high-risk sex offenders, all 86,000 of them — that is, all the convicted ones — into a computer. …

Six men abducted Abraham R. Sauer, 65-year-old publisher of the San Diego Herald and an outspoken opponent of the police’s “Cossack” tactics. Just south of Escondido, they slipped a noose around Sauer’s neck.

The Blues, who both own mansions in La Jolla, also began getting good write-ups in the Union-Tribune. U-T society columnist Burl Stiff has reported that family members attend parties held by U-T publisher David Copley.

Metabolife International, the controversial San Diego-based diet-drug firm founded by Michael Ellis, who pled guilty to federal charges related to making methamphetamine in a Rancho Santa Fe home 15 years ago, is turning into one …

Spared from the threat of being inundated by a large reservoir, Pamo Valley awaits a possible destiny of becoming one of the county's premier nature preserves. A large parcel of Cleveland National Forest land surrounds …

Dear Matt: At the end of the movie Erin Brockovich, Erin's boss presents her with a check for "Two Million and No/100s" dollars. She is of course stunned by this genuinely "fat" bonus check. Then …

Hey, Matt: I just received an e-mail that said deodorant with antiperspirant is bad for you to use. It said that it would clog up the sweat glands and the toxins that are trying to …

For many people, a visit to San Diego begins with the purchase of a travel guide. In some cases, the guides tell visitors all they ever will know about our city. If you live here, …

Freddie invites Belushi and Jesus onstage to select an audience member. Dick Nixon is chosen, a middle-aged guy who looks as if he might run a hardware store in the Midwest.

In Clairemont, Bevil spotted a tiki funeral home. “It’s across from the library, which also has a slight tiki feel.” Both the library and the Mission Bay Information Center qualify as “municipal tiki,” says Bevil.

Dr. Kenneth Ott, a neurosurgeon with Scripps, fights to contain a smile while talking. He has good reason to smile: his successes can be measured in human lives transformed. Ott's specialty is performing deep-brain stimulation …

A U.S. Naval Academy midshipman, stationed for the summer on the USS Mount Vernon here, has been accused of raping a 19-year-old civilian at a party in East San Diego. Midshipman 2nd Class Lawrence Herrera, …

Forster became Supervisor of the First District of San Diego — representing San Luis Rey, San Jacinto, Temecula, and San Pasqual. “He traveled to Sacramento to lobby for anew courthouse, a new jail…”

Shortz altered a number of my clues, making them harder to fit the Wednesday level of difficulty. I was dazzled by the changes. My clue for INLAWS went from “Family members by marriage” to Shortzs “Strained relations?”

Cucamonga Peak's south and east slopes feature some of the most dramatic relief in the San Gabriel Mountains. At 8859 feet, the peak stands sentinel-like only four miles from the edge of the broad inland …

Matt: My friend's mother says Dennis Hopper is from La Mesa and he worked at Jack In The Box. She says she has a friend who went to school with him. Could this possibly be …

Your Mattness: On the TV show Sanford and Son, Fred would often refer to white characters as "honky." What is the meaning of that word, as used by Fred Sanford? -- R.V., Midcity Fred (Redd …