Six-year-old Michael Nava is as bald and brown as an almond. He is covered from head to foot in sunscreen lotion. A towel is draped around his shoulders, his swim trunks are comically baggy and …

"A lot of us guys had an interest in hopping up cars, and I finally said, 'Let’s get a little organization together.’ So we met in one of the guys’ garage. Armistice Day, the 11th …

Dear Matthew Alice: I've read in James Michener’s book Iberia that the real source of our fine city’s name comes from a dead friar who wouldn’t decompose and who was granted sainthood. I’ve been to …

Like a subterranean knife-wound, the Elsinore Fault slices across the heart of San Diego County’s backcountry, promising an earth-shaking jolt or two during the next few millennia. Sputtering movements over geologic time along its opposing …

Please understand my cousin P. and how she landed in the church and singles group that became notorious on account of Dale Akiki’s trial. P.’s a hero of mine. She got raised by a stern …

It’s Friday morning, August 19. Although I’m dressed in a Chanel-style blue-and-white suit, I’m not wearing an apron as I heap two inches of chopped liver on fresh egg bread. The sandwich is for Bill …

Dear Matthew Alice: For two summers, mourning doves attempted to nest in our backyard. In both instances, a nest was built, eggs laid, and our family took care not to disturb the incubation process. To …

Pine Valley is famous among bridge engineers. The first prestressed concrete bridge in the U.S., built using a particular kind of cantilever technology, it appeared to defy gravity during construction. It is located near two earthquake faults.

You recently mentioned a cockroach insecticide called “Chinese chalk.” However, you didn’t mention what was in it that makes it so toxic that it was banned. I have used this stuff and it works great. …

We later drove up Mount Helix and paced around the cross in the mountaintop park, staring all around, and every few minutes one of us would offer a reason why Eric couldn’t possibly die.

Dear Matthew Alice: This has been bugging me ever since I started stirring hot beverages with a spoon, especially coffee. When I add sugar to my hot coffee and begin stirring it, my spoon taps …

The assassins spotted Dalton Lee in the Miami airport. Later after it was all over, he'd remember that moment when they locked eyes and he smiled like he smiled at everyone. Often he would doubt …

Dear Mr. Alice: I’ve sailed the Straits often enough to know most of the snags and shallows. I also spent some time in La Casa de Contratacion de Sevilla poring through Columbus reliquiae to gain …

For me, first car was my parents’ car, a 1958 Hilman Lynx. This thing was a squat, 35-horsepower English import the size of a VW bug, except square. It had the aerodynamics of a grocery …

Dear Matthew Alice: A question and a puzzlement: What does the D in D-Day stand for? Why is the eggplant called an eggplant when it has neither the shape nor the color of any egg …

The father who abandoned Rashaad and his mother when Rashaad was three months old was watching that channel in a neighborhood bar. Hours later, Melvin Green showed up in the pediatric intensive care unit.

"Most of our hunting was in Mission Valley, where Fashion Valley is; there was the best damn duck shootin' you ever heard of. Along that river bottom there were a lot of potholes, just full of ducks."

Hey, Matt: Recently I landed at Lindbergh Field and noticed a sign on some building near the runway that read, “It must be FODfree." Huh? What’s FOD? What’s “it”? — Jim, downtown Sugar free. Salt …

Dear Matthew Alice: A friend and I recently got into a conversation about the details of how a sailor or anyone else who dies at sea is “buried. " We remember war movies where a …