"We had to wade across the river. More and more of my friends dropped out. From the 1st grade to the 12th grade, more than 1000 dropouts. Till, in the end, I was the only one still going."

Dear Matthew Alice: The following has been puzzling me for some time now. I have asked numerous friends, and none of them have been able to supply a reasonable response. Why do commercial restroom toilets …

Hello, Matthew Alice, most gracious knower of all things far and wide: I heard that the word “honeymoon” has its origins in ancient Icelandic culture. Mead (wine made from honey) was the customary drink for …

He says the Mexican bureaucracy is overwhelmed by the Indians who have migrated to the border area from mainland Mexico; they now outnumber the Baja Indians by at least 40 to 1.

Among people who know me just well enough to speak to, and not well enough to care whether we ever speak again, the most frequently and I suspect ghoulishly asked question over the years has …

Dear Matt Alice: How far can an ant go on one fuel-up? No, really. I need to know because my son is convinced that ants eat on the way to the job. But I say …

Dear Matthew Alice: While the rest of the world considers the Olympics a done deal, I’m still trying to figure out why the hurdlers landed in a small, slant-bottomed pool of water at some of …

Dear Matt: My boyfriend asked me a question the other day I simply did not know the answer to. Where did the word G-string come from? He thinks it’s because when you see a chick …

When Sherry —the sort of woman who could play Mary in a live Nativity scene — decided to become a bus driver so her husband wouldn’t have to work such long hours, her father was horrified. “Oh, Sherry, no!"

The first curious thing about commuting by car is that in some ways it is the exact opposite of travel in general. When we travel we do so with our eyes and ears open, asking …

Dear Matmail: The highest man-made point in the county [mentioned in an answer several weeks ago] is at the top of Hot Springs Mountain, but it is the creaky, abandoned fire tower, not the radio …

Dear Matthew Alice: This sounds like a dumb question until somebody tries to explain it and finds out it isn’t so simple. Why do we perceive an image in a mirror as reversed horizontally, but …

A few decades ago, during the era when my friend Henry and I devoted many hours to exploring Tijuana, we found a saloon that I later learned was around the corner and up a block …

Know All, See All Matt: I have two friends who differ about leap year in the year 2000. One friend says February 29 does not occur on a century mark, while the other friend argues …

Matt, you really smart guy: I’m curious about the term “hit and run,” as in a car accident where someone leaves the crime scene. Is this an old term? Cars don’t exactly “run,” do they? …

Dear Straight from the Hip: Recently I was in a natural food store and I noticed that they did not sell white sugar. I was informed that “white sugar is filtered through bone, and as …