The Lost Roads of San Diego In 1944, the land between Midway Drive and Sports Arena Boulevard (then Frontier Street) became combed with the short streets of a wartime housing project. After the war, transients ...
December 6, 2021
For more than 25 years, Matthew Alice answered readers’ questions in his column, Straight from the Hip. No subject was too obscure for Alice, and the notorious answer man settled bets on everything from astrophysics to the word origins. This is an archive of Q's and A’s dispatched from the Alice Research Institute over the years.
Matthew Alice was written for about 20 years, ending in mid-2012, by Linda Nevin, who passed away on Feb. 15, 2013.
Articles by Matthew Alice
San Diego roads that have disappeared, vanished movie palaces
Missing body parts of Napoleon, Peron, Pancho Villa
Pancho Villa’s head — the story behind its disappearing One of Pancho Villa’s sons, 21-year-old Pancho Augustin Villa, had just been declared “violently insane” by an L.A. judge and was confined to a psychiatric hospital. ...
October 9, 2021
Every free-roaming cat kills 50 to 100 birds annually
Save the songbirds! Of 9000-plus bird species, 6000 are in decline, 1000 heading for extinction. Urban Wisconsin has 1295 free-roaming cats per square mile. Cats kill 1 to 3 million birds each day in the ...
October 3, 2021
See's chocolates vs. Whitman's, how they make round M&Ms
Whitman's Samplers vs. See's An unmarked lid allows Mrs. See and her customers to free-associate, sweets-wise, and put whatever they like into a box. If this idea seems frivolous or frightening, here’s another solution. Make ...
September 26, 2021
California king beds, men's briefs vs. boxers, why Mickey, Goofy, Donald, Pluto have three fingers
People from other countries are pushy waiting in line As much as Germans like body- and ego-protecting seclusion, Middle Easterners, according to Hall’s studies, like companionship and family closeness. For them, there is virtually no ...
September 12, 2021
The historical Saint Diego, A-12 spy plane, ABS brakes
The real Saint Diego If he’d stayed on the islands, our city now would probably be called San Miguel, the name originally given to the area by Juan Cabrillo. But around 1450, Diego went to ...
August 30, 2021
Where to park downtown San Diego, loiterers at the library, high-rise top floors
Adult Orphans A Wednesday afternoon, hot. Half the stools at the State Hotel Deli are taken. Talk is quiet, desultory. Mama Sofia perches on her stool near the cash register, her daughter — mending again ...
August 23, 2021
Mission Valley – garden-land gave way to shopping centers
The never-ending fix to Hazard Center Drive Hazard Center Drive in Mission Valley East is probably the shortest road incurring the longest completion of any in San Diego. It is approximately three blocks long and ...
May 11, 2020
South Park: not cut by high-volume road
North Park and South Park – say goodbye to 30th Street as it is The main roadway connecting North and South Park may be on the eve of a massive transformation. Councilmember Chris Ward is ...
March 9, 2020