“They can be clumsy mothers. We’ve got videotapes of the mothers knocking the eggs out of the nest and sending them tumbling down the cliff.” Videos also show the mothers jumping up and down on their eggs.

Dear Matthew Alice: My pa sez, if ya read it in the Reader, it gots ta be true. So I have enclosed the following example of mathematics [list of winners to Reader puzzle #869], and …

Dear Matthew Alice: Was Olivia Newton-]ohn ever kissed by Albert Einstein? — Milton F., Normal Heights Usually I don’t much care which way the facts fall. True, false; you’re right, you’re wrong — as long …

The Sycuan, Barona, and Viejas casinos spent about $10,000 each to send local leaders to Washington. “Since the Sycuan [hand] has only 100 members,” the spokesman said, “we can afford to send other members.”

Jean Bethell Gardner and a few of the writer’s friends met Muñoz at Gillespie Field in El Cajon. Muñoz says they flew almost all the way to San Pedro Mártir and scattered Gardner’s remains.

Do animals cry? — Michael Lopez, Imperial Beach Uh-oh.... ROCK [me] HARD PLACE. This is potentially as volatile as those vegetarian questions. Well, here goes. Most people involved in the animal sciences will say no, …

dear matthew-alice: what are the rules concerning the dropping of the title “junior” after a name? obviously, while the father is still alive, it makes sense, but what the hell do we do with someone …

Dear Matthew Alice: When they put a criminal to death by lethal injection, do they swab the injection site with alcohol? —Steven R. Finz, Hillcrest Can’t believe I took this one seriously. Anyway, it’s darned …

Practice begins at 5:30 SDCC time (that is, about 5:50) on Wednesday evening. It’s warmer than this in England, dammit. I haven’t brought my white cable-knit sweater, and I put on a grey sweatshirt, feeling vaguely illegitimate.

The Casbah has achieved an even higher national profile recently with MTV News's repeated airing of a puffy feature on rising young pop-rock belter Alanis "You Oughta Know" Morissette, filmed at the Middletown-club in July. …

Matthew Alice: Is it possible that ice purchased in Baja melts faster than ice purchased in the United States? We were camping in Ensenada recently, and some friends said ice purchased there did not last …

Dear Matthew Alice: In the movie Tombstone, Doc Holiday says, “I’m your huckleberry.” In the song “Moon River,” Perry Como sings, “I'm your huckleberry friend.” And of course there’s Huckleberry Hound and Huckleberry Finn. What …

Q: What are you doing in San Diego? A: The quick answer is, I fell in love with a woman who lives here. And one good thing about being a writer is, you can do …

"Avedon was amazed by my hair. He kept pulling little pieces of my hair out and you see them sticking out in the picture. He had just the week before photographed the Cirque de Soleil."

"Most all Asian cultures eat bamboo shoots, and most all bamboo shoots are edible. The shoots of some varieties contain small quantities of cyanide, but that problem can be gotten around by cooking."

Dear Matthew Alice: I have always wondered what the sign on bridge overpasses “Trucks OK” over the number-two lane means. — Craig J. Hamren, National City By law, trucks are not OK on highways outside …

Matt: Who's in that Barney suit? What are his or her acting credentials? Royal Shakespeare company? The Actors Studio? — Master Thespian, San Diego The New York School of Mime and Aggravation, maybe. Barney is …

Dear Matthew Alice: Could you clear up an argument? I commented that during the love scene in The Piano, it was not authentic for Holly Hunter to have nicely shaved legs. After all, it’s a …

Dear Matthew Alice: You’d be doing generations of us an immense favor if you would finally put to rest all these eternal stories of the Fish carburetors, the guy with the water-separation pill, all of …

The year is 1949, Volkswagen is up and running, building Beetles for the amusement of the four people in America who know about them. Nineteen forty-nine was also the year Volkswagen began commercial production of …