One of the first things I do, whenever I’m lucky enough to find myself wandering about backstage at the Civic Theatre during the San Diego Opera season, is check the Bullshitometer. This is a semicircular …

A beach is a good place for not thinking. There’s no work at a beach. Everyone’s there to hang out. Normal rules of life are suspended. That makes the beach safe, in a weird way. …

Dear Matthew Alice: Why does a newspaper tear straight vertically, but not horizontally? Also, why do the tongues of tennis shoes always slip over to the outer side of the shoes when you wear them? …

Dear Matthew Alice, Why is it, when people can't answer a question, they reflexively scratch their heads, as if it helps them think? Can scratching your head really improve your ability to answer any simple …

Dear Matthew Alice, When the tide goes out, where does it go? — Jennifer in P.B. You were expecting maybe the movies? Dancing? Well, strictly speaking the tide doesn’t go in and out so much …

“Each marijuana plant produces about a pound of pot, and according to LaNier, a pound of top-grade marijuana now costs between $3000 and $6000. “That’s why they don’t like people showing up at their gardens.”

I WAS FIRED FROM MY OWN NEWSPAPER! The paper I had started less than a year before had just terminated me in a most humiliating way. As I sat in my bedroom two weeks after …

Dear Matthew Alice: On a bottle of Heinz ketchup it says there are “57 varieties.” What are the other 56? — Dave R., San Diego I can only hope that Matthew Alice doesn’t have to …

Dear M.A. and His Research Slaves: Why is it that you can't buy the magazine National Geographic in any stores? How much do you think one of my mother-in-law’s old National Geographics from the '60s …

I’ve just returned from a vacation in the Bahamas. After almost killing myself and my girlfriend while driving, I began to wonder why there and in England, etc., the steering wheel is on the right …

Many methods have been developed, including straightening the hair with harsh chemicals, such as lye, or pressing it with a hot iron. But the most effective is to comb it out and clip it with scissors.

Dear Matthew Alice: I have a question all the way from the shores of Lake Erie: What is the largest body of fresh water on the planet? — Bill Gordon, Cleveland, OH Trying to trip …

Dear Matthew Alice: Please settle a bet between my friends and I. Which actor has made the most movies in their career, John Wayne or Clint Eastwood? And which actor or actress has made the …

Landscape architect Roger DeWeese cites Balboa Park’s landscape as San Diego’s most enduring feature. “Our society has been borrowing on the foresight of some real visionaries for three or four generations now,”

French and Americans have put millions of dollars into research that would develop a mechanical asparagus harvester. “Technologists have yet to find a replacement for the skilled hands of the experienced Filipino.”

My father-in-law, born and raised in the Philippines, the son of Christian missionaries, grew up with cooks, houseboys, and the like, and when he heard about our plan to hire a live-in Mexican nanny, he …

Dear Sir. I always felt a sense of pride that, of all the words for excrement in all the world’s languages, it was the Spanish word caca that had come to transcend language barriers and …

Dear Matthew: Here’s a question that I have considered since high school, have done extensive research on, have asked law enforcement officers about, and have received many different answers to. Is it illegal to possess …

I learned to write by watching my grandma at her easel. First she’d sketch, then stroke on the base colors, then dab until details began to appear. Around that time she’d step back, gaze, meditate, …