Before starting his own insectary north of Escondido, Jim Davis Worked for a big citrus grower in Corona, near Riverside. At one time, this grower, like most of his peers, spent a lot of time …
June 30, 1994
Thursday, June 30
San Diegan raises insect assassins
The heat in jalapeno peppers
Dear Sefior Matthew: Why do jalapeno peppers taste hot? At least we call it "hot.” But since even room-temperature peppers scald your tongue, they're not really “hot,” so what is “hot," anyway? — Robert C., …
June 30, 1994
Black holes of radio reception in San Ysidro and Mount Soledad
Dear Matthew Alice: What causes the “black holes" of radio reception at the international border (Tijuana-San Ysidro) and on top of Mt. Soledad? I travel frequently to both places, and my radio goes berserk every …
June 30, 1994
Meltzer leaves L.A., tosses Ornette, Parker, Dolphy, Thelonious Monk, Bud Powell, Lester Young, Albert Ayler, Cecil Taylor
Getting rid of records, right, because of the goddamn quake. Like bricks, dead albums fall heavy. They fell and they fell — hard — and in five months of aftershocks have fallen some more. Less …
June 30, 1994
Thursday, June 23
Through the looking glass with San Diego's cross-dressers
"Dan O'Brien. You're free to use that name, ” Dan said in my La Pensione hotel room in Little Italy. He sat in the chair as he talked and behind him the nighttime window view …
June 23, 1994
Rabbit stew, rabbit casserole, dumplings — shock your friends
Europeans considered wild rabbit’s flavor far superior to domesticated; hare they found tastiest of all (and beginning in the Middle Ages, hare’s blood was one of the apothecary’s most important ingredients).
June 23, 1994
The billions of orange peels left by Tropicana and Minute Maid
Dear Matthew Alice: As someone who has always lived in the city, I was ill equipped to answer the following agricultural questions my teenager asked after he looked at an orange juice container. First, what …
June 23, 1994
Be sure to check to see if you won lottery
Dear Matt: Let’s say you bought a lottery ticket. You, like me and thousands of fools, forget to check if you’re a winner. Days pass to weeks and months have gone by. Because you never …
June 23, 1994
San Diego's signs as public language
People wanted SLOW signs in their neighborhoods, on dangerous curves, intersections. But “slow is no longer a legal sign,” says Levy. “It’s too general. Now it must be why you’re supposed to go slow.”
June 23, 1994
Thursday, June 16
Reader readers tell Roommates from Hell stories
Jimmy wasn’t through with us yet. Still stunned from having our furniture ripped off, we started getting shutoff notices for everything. Seems we had trusted Jimmy to collect the money for the utilities and pay them.
June 16, 1994
African killer bees killing Africans
Dear Matt, My question is about killer bees. If these bees came from Africa originally, why is it we never heard about thousands of Africans being killed by them before they got over here? It …
June 16, 1994
The three-fingered Disney animals
Dear Matthew Alice: Why do Disney characters such as Mickey Mouse, Pluto, Goofy, and Chip ’n Dale have only three fingers instead of four? I know Donald Duck has a wing, so that can be …
June 16, 1994
Thursday, June 9
Guillermo Gomez-Pena and the coolness of Chicano performance art
Here’s the gallery attendant — a student, true, but you’d think the campus culture vars wouId have made students more circumspect — telling me about his family’s South American bull breeding ranch, his dad, the …
June 9, 1994
The life of an ice tray
Dear Matthew Alice: There is a phenomenon that is occurring in our freezer at work that cannot be explained, at least not by us. When we fill the ice tray with water, within hours tiny …
June 9, 1994
Scavengers find their niches on I-15
Where onramp and asphalt, Passing lane and hawk, Converge in quick collusion Against those who race and never walk. Southern California has it all. We’ve pot ground that shakes, hillsides that burn, a dazzling assortment …
June 9, 1994
Kiwis are sharpest-smellers among birds, then vultures, and homing pigeons
Matt: I was contemplating my parakeet the other day at the same time my wife was cooking something very aromatic. And it occurred to me, can birds smell? I've never seen Woody sniff his dish …
June 9, 1994
Thursday, June 2
Secret Gardens in East San Diego, East County, University Heights, Rancho Santa Fe
"My granddaughter and I made a 6-foot-by-6-foot sunflower house and then put morning glories across the top. My other grandchild has a tepee of red scarlet runner beans, those little pumpkins, and gourds."
June 2, 1994
The cost of a private railroad car
Matthew Alice: Always did want to have my own railroad car. An old sucker with red velvet upholstery, Tiffany lamps, etc. I see where I can buy a caboose for around $4000. Does Amtrak allow …
June 2, 1994
Tickling as a form of torture
Dear Matthew Alice:How come some people are ticklish and others aren't? My boyfriend claims it is simply mind over matter. If so, am I mentally weak for being ticklish? — S.J., Chula Vista Maybe mentally …
June 2, 1994
San Diego paramedics - excitement and controversy
"American is being held to a higher standard than Hartson. Hartson was required to arrive at the scene within ten minutes of dispatch 90 percent of the time; American must arrive on scene 93 percent of the time."
June 2, 1994