Hey, Matt: In those Lipitor commercials with Dr. Jarvik, he is standing in front of and walking through a stunning piece of architecture. What and where is it? -- Michael Faught, Clairemont Get yourself a …
September 21, 2006
Travel Stories
Heart-Stopping Architecture
If You Get My Continental Drift
Your Mattness: Who decides what are continents? Why is Greenland not a continent? It is bigger than the island/continent of Australia and has more people than Antarctica. How can Europe and Asia be one continent? …
February 2, 2006
Ramble through an artificial yet salubrious native-landscape-in-the-making at Orange County's Talbert Nature Preserve.
All along Orange County's north coastal region (Huntington Beach, Costa Mesa, Newport Beach), formerly environmentally abused wetlands and floodplains are in the process of being restored to some semblance of an original condition. Talbert Nature …
November 23, 2005
The Coldest Winter: A Stringer in Liberated Europe
The Coldest Winter: A Stringer in Liberated Europe by Paula Fox. Henry Holt and Company, 2005; 144 pages; $18. FROM THE DUST JACKET: In 1946, Paula Fox walked up the gangplank of a partly reconverted …
Out and About
Between 2000 and 2003, the Metropolitan Transit Development Board closed down Dial-A-Ride programs around the county. As budget crunches hit, the transit board had to choose between cutting fixed bus-route service or the Dial-A-Ride programs …
February 10, 2005
Thirst Resort
“It’s not like he’s a control freak or anything, it’s just that he likes growing grapes.”
December 16, 2004
Hike and step your way up Ladder Canyon in the Mecca Hills of Riverside County.
Ladder Canyon is the informal name given to a slotlike ravine incised into the sedimentary strata of the Mecca Hills near Indio. Several wooden or aluminum ladders have been placed at strategic spots within the …
November 24, 2004
Sour Pickle Soup
In the aftermath of World War II, small Jewish communities came to life again in Eastern Europe. The Jews who rebuilt them had survived the Holocaust by using aliases, escaping concentration camps, or fleeing to …
November 18, 2004
Best Route To Palm Springs (Avoiding Holiday Traffic)
Route 79 through Temecula There is a better, faster, and prettier way to get to the desert, if you don't mind a few gut-wrenching turns, steep downgrades, and the occasional Sunday driver on a two-lane …
December 30, 2003
Help me get to Europe by boat.
Hi, Matt: I am a fearful flyer, and I heard there are ships that you can take from the West Coast through Panama and on to the East Coast and Europe, which is where I …
July 18, 2002
Get good vibrations from the Kelso Dunes in Mojave National Preserve
Booming, roaring, barking, squeaking, and whistling sands have figured in folklore and travelers' tales for 1500 years, with the earliest references found in Chinese and Mideastern chronicles. Marco Polo describes encountering the phenomenon on a …
June 7, 2001