Dear Matthew Alice: Let’s talk baseball. I cannot bring myself to buy the concept of the “sacrifice fly.” Personally, I believe they are all failed home run attempts, though you’d never get a true believer …
May 23, 1996
Straight from the Hip
Archived articles
The unbelievability of a sacrifice fly
You could live for four years on the cheese in a supermarket
To: Matmail: Here’s an easy one (I think). How long will the food in an average supermarket last a person if he were unfortunate enough to be locked inside until he starved or dehydrated? Will …
May 23, 1996
My war with watches and clocks
Dear Matthew Alice: All my life I have adversely affected timepieces. Any clock that spends time near me gradually slows and eventually stops keeping time altogether. The process takes about five to ten months, no …
May 16, 1996
The balls on power lines at I-15 and Poway Rd. are so obvious
To: Matmail: What are those beach ball-shaped things that are strung on high-voltage power lines, such as the lines that cross I-15 at Poway Road? They are so obvious and so seemingly without purpose that …
May 16, 1996
I want to be Matthew Alice for a day
To: Matthew Alice: You've got the life. As I hang out reading your stuff. I’m thinking, “I want to be you.” Seems to me like a pretty good life. One catch. What do you make? …
May 16, 1996
How something can be reduced 2 1/2 times
Matmail: How can anything be reduced more than one time? Like in today’s U-T food section, rats given low fat got 2 1/2 times less incidence of cancer. I’ve asked financial experts (who use the …
May 9, 1996
One out of four adults, regardless of sex, national origin, IQ, or mental stability, is a nail-biter
Why do so many people bite their nails? — Michelle, San Diego It's been studied scientifically, so there are a few reliable things we can say about onychopagia. Unfortunately, "why" isn't one of them. Every …
May 9, 1996
Dead men can vote by absentee ballot
Dear Matthew Alice: What would happen if somebody filed an absentee ballot but then died before election day? Would their vote count? — E.B., Serra Mesa If you’re lively enough to actually get the ballot …
May 9, 1996
Peckerwood — white-supremacist high schoolers in Lancaster-Palmdale area,
Have you ever heard of a prison group called Peckerwood? I'm curious to know if this association is similar to the Aryan Nation or worse. — Brent, La Jolla A few of them have ended …
May 9, 1996
The top and bottom of eggs
Dear Matthew Alice: My girlfriend and I got into an argument about eggs. I said that the narrow part of the egg is the bottom. She thinks that the fatter part of the egg is …
April 25, 1996
Polarized sunglasses are like dropping acid
Matt: Okay, so I’m driving along. It could be Anytown USA. Sun is out. Gotta have the sun out. I’m wearing my shades. I notice that a lot of cars around me have these weird …
April 25, 1996