“A lifetime of provocation!” Defense attorney Bradley Patton, facing the jury, throws his arms wide to indicate what he calls “the spectrum of the relationship.” It is the first week of June 1993. The final …

In the beginning, there was the steel wheel. Not big on traction, but definitely built for speed with a durometer that didn’t quit. As noisy as it was dangerous, the steel wheel was found on …

Visiting the Tijuana dump is no different from visiting a friend at work. It is, after all, a factory. And the trash-pickers are busy — too busy to worry about lazy gringos wandering about.

The Golden West Hotel, at Fourth and G Street. a historic Gaslamp Quarter site with spacious lobbies and stained-glass skylights, offers private rooms with sink and telephone beginning at $75 a week or $255 a month.

Dear Matthew Alice: My husband’s sport jackets have three buttons on the sleeve that seem to serve absolutely no purpose. One of his jackets has something that looks like a flap that the buttons are …

“We use our pen, put a little mark on the tire, and if you don’t know exactly where to look, even if you do and the sun hits that place wrong, you can’t see it.”

Dear Matt: On the news tonight, 1 listened to the announcers going on about how this was the only day of the year when you can stand an egg on its end without having it …

Dear Matthew Alice: Now that cherry season is here, I have to know where those “Siamese twin” cherries come from — the ones that have a single stem but two cherries stuck together. — J. …

Lorenzo Milam’s home sits at the edge of a deep canyon from where wild mustard floods up to his back yard. The mustard’s yellow edges up to willows, purple irises, to the red, pink, and …

"Little lady,” the Chief [of Police] replied, ‘you’re going to find out that every town has got more than its share of Holy Joes — men and women who have nothing better to do than …

Dear Matthew Alice: Due to recent painful and expensive losses of family members. I'm wondering if it would be legal to construct my own coffin in anticipation of my passing. Also, may I place the …

Dear Matthew Alice: What language contains the greatest number of words? I say our very own English language does. However, a sour co-worker of mine insists that the Arabic language is, in fact, composed of …

Colin Wyatt suggests I talk with his colleague at Petoseed, Paul Thomas. Thomas is best known as breeder of gardeners’ now 30-year-old favorite, Better Boy. He also developed the tomato marketed locally as the San Diego Hybrid.

Dear Matthew Alice: Why is it that every flavor of cat food comes in pull-tab cans except tuna? Tuna cat food always comes in a regular can that requires a can opener. — Dick Fitzwell, …

Dear Matthew Alice: How much money does the federal government spend to make a penny? It doesn't make much sense to spend five cents to make a one-cent coin. — Rosemary F., San Diego You …

Dear Matthew: I've got to know what “mojo” is. I'm a black man who has been listening to blues music and noticed that this word comes up quite a bit. I can't ask my black …

Dear MA.: Out on the highway (I'm on vacation), a question stared me in the face. I've become well acquainted with bug splatters over the last week. Some are yellow, some are red, some are …

“Baseball in the ’50s, early ’60s.... Ted Williams was finishing and Mickey Mantle was starting and I got to see it. Willie Mays was starting, Stan Musial was finishing. Don Drysdale was pitching and Sandy Koufax was pitching."

Dear Man Al: My white kitchen table gets coated with black, gritty, greasy filth in about two days. No, this is not about my cooking, this is about air pollution. Neighbor John thinks it's car …

Dear Sweet Alice: What group of irrational, perverted, idiotic laws and/or bylaws govern the placement of DIP signs on our public roads? Can you inform me of the convoluted criteria consulted to determine which minuscule …

Dear Matthew: Please, help. It’s driving me crazy. What the heck are those things on top of some billboards around town? You know, the things going around that look like radar or some kind of …