This Kwanzaa card by Adrian Harper is one of many distinguished creations available from Frederick Douglass Designs.
This Kwanzaa card by Adrian Harper is one of many distinguished creations available from Frederick Douglass Designs.

Page One

Compromise Rekindles Stalled Library Gardens

By MATTHEW ARTZ
Tuesday December 23, 2003

With the window of opportunity closing quickly, developer John DeClerq of TransAction Companies and the Downtown Berkeley YMCA are hammering out a deal to salvage 100-public parking spaces and end merchant opposition to Library Gardens—the biggest housing development ever proposed for the city center. -more-



Berkeley This Week

Tuesday December 23, 2003

TUESDAY, DEC. 23 -more-



Arts Calendar

Tuesday December 23, 2003

TUESDAY, DEC. 23 -more-



South Africa Offers Model for Palestine

Annette Herskovits
Tuesday December 23, 2003

Editors, Daily Planet: -more-



A.C.T. Does Right By Dicken’s ‘Christmas Carol’

By David Sundelson Special to the Planet
Tuesday December 23, 2003

Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol is the closest thing we have to a modern sacred text, and there’s only a few days left to catch it. Like the older scripture from which it arises, it connects social morality with the transcendent, this life with the promise or warning of what is to come. Its plot—the cynic’s conversion—is the model for every Christmas movie, from It’s A Wonderful Life to A Christmas Story to this year’s Elf. -more-



Designer Offers Unique Cards

By J. DOUGLAS ALLEN-TAYLOR
Tuesday December 23, 2003

A trip to an African-American greeting card and calendar design and distribution business in an out-of-the way North Oakland warehouse—tucked back in that little sliver between the Berkeley and Emeryville borders—demonstrated to me once more how small and close-knit the East Bay’s African-American extended family community once was. -more-



Letters to the Editor

Tuesday December 23, 2003

GIVING THANKS -more-



UC Outreach Programs Axed

By MATTHEW ARTZ
Tuesday December 23, 2003

As Berkeley High Senior Marco Espinoza finishes off his college applications, he knows his future looks bright. -more-



International Students Create Holiday Cheer

By XIAOLI ZHOU Special to the Planet
Tuesday December 23, 2003

Following the start of the winter break, many international students and scholars have chosen to stay and welcome in the New Year in Berkeley. -more-



Ski Instructor Offers Tips for Hitting the Slopes

By Jakob Schiller
Tuesday December 23, 2003

For some, the holiday season means shopping, eating, and relaxing with a cup of warm cocoa, but for others—me included—it means the start of ski season. -more-



Features

Motherly Shopping Dilemma Solved

By Anne Wagley
Tuesday December 23, 2003

Mothers can be difficult. I know. I am one, and have had my share of eyes rolled at me, and sighs of exasperation vented my way. -more-


My Favorite Christmas Lights

From Susan Parker
Tuesday December 23, 2003

Every year at Christmastime I think of my friend and neighbor, Mrs. Gerstine Scott. She was born on Christmas day, 1930, in a dirt poor Texas town close to the Louisiana border. In the late 1940s she moved by herself to the Bay Area, raised a son and a pack of foster children, worked for 30 years as a cook and maid at various UC Berkeley fraternity houses, and presided over our North Oakland neighborhood with an iron fist. -more-


Police Blotter

By MATTHEW ARTZ
Tuesday December 23, 2003

Bank Robbery -more-


Holiday Tree Search Yielded Lessons for Life

By Irene SardanisSpecial to the Planet
Tuesday December 23, 2003

I dread the holiday season. As a psychotherapist with over 20 years experience in private practice, listening to clients’ sorrows, pain and suffering has been a tolerable part of the holiday blues. -more-


Waiting for a Passionate Christmas Letter

By BRIAN SHOTT Pacific News Service
Tuesday December 23, 2003

SAN FRANCISCO—It’s Christmastime, and that means nearly 100 relatives and friends of the Shott family are awaiting the arrival my mother’s several-page, handwritten, wisecracking, tree-hugging, unapologetically left-wing Christmas letter. -more-


Temblors Add Quirky Touch to Visalia Steps

By DANIEL FREED Special to the Planet
Tuesday December 23, 2003

EDITOR’S NOTE: This one in a continuing series by UC Berkeley students on the paths of Berkeley. -more-


Editorial

Editorial: A Season for Laughter

Becky O'Malley
Tuesday December 23, 2003

We still call the refrigerator at our house “the icebox,” which confuses the grandchildren. On the door of the icebox we have many things, some very old. We have a magnetic promo for a state senate candidate who was elected, served, and termed out. There’s the driver’s license which one of our daughters got in high school, retrieved from behind the dryer 20 years later. And there’s a collection of fully yellowed bits clipped from papers, including a picture of a youthful, elegant Rosa Parks walking up the stairs of the Montgomery courthouse (not as published at the time—we’re not that old!) A Jon Carroll column tells how the premature death of a friend inspired him to give up his onerous day job and start doing work he enjoyed (I hope he kept a copy in case he needs to think about that now.) And there’s Ellen Goodman’s brilliant Thanksgiving column from November of 1993, containing this telling observation: “For most of the year, it is quite enough to fail to live up to Hillary Clinton. At holidays, we get a second chance to fail to live up to Martha Stewart.” (Writers can add a third chance: to fail to live up to Ellen Goodman.) In her column 10 years ago she summed up the challenge facing contemporary women around the holidays: to do almost everything their mothers did, almost everything their fathers did, and to do it in double-time with a big smile and a well-toned physique. We’ve added another wrinkle since 1993: do it all while maintaining constant communication with everyone who counts by cell phone and e-mail. -more-


Back Stories

Opinion

Editorials

Editorial: A Season for Laughter 12-23-2003

Editorial: Solutions, Not Outrage, Needed for Holy Land 12-19-2003

News

Compromise Rekindles Stalled Library Gardens By MATTHEW ARTZ 12-23-2003

Berkeley This Week 12-23-2003

Arts Calendar 12-23-2003

South Africa Offers Model for Palestine Annette Herskovits 12-23-2003

A.C.T. Does Right By Dicken’s ‘Christmas Carol’ By David Sundelson Special to the Planet 12-23-2003

Designer Offers Unique Cards By J. DOUGLAS ALLEN-TAYLOR 12-23-2003

Letters to the Editor 12-23-2003

UC Outreach Programs Axed By MATTHEW ARTZ 12-23-2003

International Students Create Holiday Cheer By XIAOLI ZHOU Special to the Planet 12-23-2003

Ski Instructor Offers Tips for Hitting the Slopes By Jakob Schiller 12-23-2003

Motherly Shopping Dilemma Solved By Anne Wagley 12-23-2003

My Favorite Christmas Lights From Susan Parker 12-23-2003

Police Blotter By MATTHEW ARTZ 12-23-2003

Holiday Tree Search Yielded Lessons for Life By Irene SardanisSpecial to the Planet 12-23-2003

Waiting for a Passionate Christmas Letter By BRIAN SHOTT Pacific News Service 12-23-2003

Temblors Add Quirky Touch to Visalia Steps By DANIEL FREED Special to the Planet 12-23-2003

Council Mulls Budget Cuts, Votes Schwarzenegger Suit By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor 12-19-2003

Berkeley This Week 12-19-2003

‘Sorry’: The Starting Point For Politics in the Mideast? By MARK WINOKUR 12-19-2003

Try Farmers’ Markets For Flavorful Presents By Becky O’Malley 12-19-2003

Arts Calendar 12-19-2003

BUSD Studies Development On Former Tennis Court Site By Matthew Artz 12-19-2003

City Report Fails to Cite Pro-Developer Staff By SHARON HUDSON 12-19-2003

Holiday Greens By Linda Maio Special to the Planet 12-19-2003

Legal Champion Enrolls In School Board Lawsuit By Matthew Artz 12-19-2003

Letters to the Editor 12-19-2003

Boalt Dean Choice Hailed By Jakob Schiller 12-19-2003

‘Floating Cottage’ Owner Dealt Setback by Council By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor 12-19-2003

China Poses NAFTA Challenge By LOUIS E.V. NEVAER Pacific News Service 12-19-2003

Measure J Foes J. Douglas Allen-Taylor 12-19-2003

A Shunned Kucinich Blasts Corporate Media By PUENG VONGS Pacific News Service 12-19-2003

Mr. Mopps Assault Suspect to Plead 12-19-2003

Exemplary Actions From Thurmond’s Children J. DOUGLAS ALLEN-TAYLOR 12-19-2003

Absentees Proved Crucial in Newsom’s Victory By ROB WRENN Special to the Planet 12-19-2003

Great Eats, Good Shops Await on Grand Avenue By KATHLEEN HILL Special to the Planet 12-19-2003