In 1944, at age 37, Thompson became a Marine. He lasted 12 weeks, plus a few in the infirmary, with rheumatic fever. His family got by on the salary Alberta made as switchboard operator at Solar.

Dear Matthew: When a cloud is getting darker and darker, that’s because it’s filling up with water and getting ready to rain or snow. But if it needs a certain amount of water to make …

McDonald’s, once known for its exuberant golden twin parabolas flanking a glass-and-steel pavilion, is now the most boring recitation of mansardism. Only the Wienerschnitzel chain still clings to its defining, red-roofed mini-A frames.

Dear Question Guy: How do people swear in court if they don’t believe in God? Also, if there is an acceptable oath that doesn’t involve “the help of God,” why don’t they just use it …

Hi, Matthew: Why do drivers exit the 5 freeway going north at Carmel Valley Road just to get back on the freeway going south? I see this every day and cannot figure out what’s up. …

Mr. Ledgerwood said that he’d been eating a lot of carrots and spinach lately. “I used to suffer a lot from arthritis, and now I’m just as clean as can be. It is a surprise to me.

I'm rolling west in my unheated van, make a right toward the ocean on prospect. It’s a crisp Monday morning and downtown La Jolla is already too crowded. I poke around Silverado and Girard seeking …

I don’t expect to be ambushed by the fans of Maxine Hong Kingston, David Henry Hwang, and Amy Tan in Portland. They show up to vent their moral outrage and save my soul.

“MISCELLANEOUS ELOQUENCE: University of Washington astrophysicist Dr. Bruce H. Magon, quoted by The New York Times on the continuing inability of science to measure or infer what the ‘blackness’ in space is, even though, by …

Last year, MTV rolled into town for a spring break taping session at Mission Beach, and the Union-Tribune opened the floodgates of hype, churning out column after column about how hip and harmless the event …

San Diego may have lost much of its aerospace industry, but that's nothing compared to the gaping hole El Cajon is about to face. Woman's World Shops - makers of extra-large clothing for the extra-big …

That gooey stuff spread out all over Fiesta Island may look like dried sewage and smell like dried sewage, but to Susan Hamilton, deputy. director of San Diego's clean water program, it's a precious commodity. …

It's been 11 years since the Padres were number 1 at anything, but new owner John Moores tops the list of professional baseball team owners who contributed money to federal candidates or a national party …

Matthew: I was curious to know what percent of Lotto winners win from Quick Picks. — Jim Sharkey, Pacific Beach Last time we profiled the “typical” Lotto winner, the Quick Pickers were really lagging, somewhere …

Dear Matthew Alice: When lightning strikes the ocean, why doesn’t all the sea life get electrocuted? Wouldn’t it be just like a radio falling into someone’s bathtub? — C.B., San Diego Well, if we’re talking …

M.A.: Where did we get the stupid expression “The proof is in the pudding”? It doesn’t seem to mean anything to me. — Wondering, San Diego “Stupid,” like, why the proof s in pudding and …

I asked how they felt about the union. Pete jumped on that one. “Well, they’re calling us scabs. They’re trying to intimidate people into not playing. They’re trying to enhance their position. And we’re trying to enhance our position.”

McCarthy said she felt sorry for Hitler who “was so absurd as to want the love of his victims.”. Arendt, offended, replied, “How can you say such a thing in front of me — a victim of Hitler!”

“San Diego? This isn’t a county, it’s a country!” This how it starts. Dave, sounding off after a couple of beers. Dave’s latest rave is San Diego County. You might call him a county nationalist. …

A decisive factor in Schoenberg’s terminal discomfort with America had to be the unsettling presence of ruling modernist pickle-herring Igor Stravinsky. Both lived in L.A., hung out in emigre circles, they had friends in common.

Dear Matthew Alice: This is a pretty strange question, but I just have to ask it. It’s been driving me crazy. Have you ever noticed that people from other countries sometimes are kind of pushy …

The ground must be soaked, so that the bulbs come out spongy and swollen and pliable. Then they must be dried, “If you dry ’em out in the sun, the bulbs just shrink up too small,”

He was stuck in the apartment doorway. One of his neighbors walked by; Ken asked for help. The neighbor kept walking. Ken didn’t let anger overtake him. “It was a great opportunity to pray."

I would have thought that if rhubarb had any family, it would have been cousin to celery; rhubarb blades look like celery dyed red. But rhubarb is a member of the buckwheat family.

“It was 10 or 11 in the morning when they found her in that canyon full of bamboo. I still don’t believe that nobody could know nothing, because of where they found her."

If a 7-Eleven is open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, why are there locks.on the doors? And if you tied buttered toast to the back of a cat and dropped it from …

Dear Matthew Alice: Various AFL teams this past season used “throwback” helmets that were reversed from their original colors. For example, the Buffalo Bills wore a “throwback” white bison on a red helmet, rather than …

Dear Mr. Alice: Does Michael Jackson own Albert Einstein’s eyes? — A.A., San Diego C’mon into the Wild Rumors Wing of the Matthew Alice Museum of Famous Body Parts. Just take a seat on one …

"One of the county’s most appealing concentrations of ranch houses occurs in an unlikely place, the steep hillsides and winding streets of Del Mar…. several of these May mass-market houses were built in Del Mar as second homes.”