I saw a Matt Groening cartoon called "Life in Hell" in the July3-9
issue of the San Jose "Metro", a weekly entertainment tabloid. The
topic of this particular cartoon was "What is Time?" I
checked the archive section of the "Metro" web-site, and it's not
there. Nor
could I find it by doing a regular Google search for "Matt Groening",
"Life in Hell", etc. But this is a weekly syndicated cartoon, so
presumably it should be available somewhere else on the web, even for
a fee. Can you find this cartoon for me?

Just found this interesting, from an interview with Matt:
"MG: Yeah, there’s all sorts of stuff out there. What I think is
great, and it hasn’t quite happened yet, is that entire archives of
daily comic strips that have lasted for more than 50 years could be
accessed on the Net. I imagine it will happen eventually, cause I
fantasize about reading every installment of the great historic comic
strips. Only the tip of the iceberg has been republished in book form.
I think the major syndicates should do an archive. I’d pay."
http://www.ojr.org/ojr/entertainment/1042169162.php

Life in Hell is syndicated by ACME Features Syndicate:

ACME Features Syndicate
147 NE Yamhill
Sheridan OR 97378
ph (503) 843-4555
fax (503) 843-4001
email binky@acmefeatures.com

They appear to not actually even have a web page, but if you contact
them, they might be able to help you out.

New strips are posted at http://www.el-mundo.es/laluna/ , though
they're translated into Spanish...  I kind of remember some nationwide
comic magazine printing it too, if that helps...