Brian Shiratsuki
              SATHER GATE ALL AGLOW
              UC Berkeley’s Sather Gate was decked out for November’s Big Game against Stanford.
              •
Brian Shiratsuki SATHER GATE ALL AGLOW UC Berkeley’s Sather Gate was decked out for November’s Big Game against Stanford. •

Page One

Editor’s Note

Friday December 30, 2005

Welcome to this year’s second Reader Contribution Issue. In this issue you will find more submissions from our readers, as well as a few columns from our regular contributors. -more-



A West Oakland Visit By Mertis L. Shekeloff

Friday December 30, 2005

“I talked to Elizabeth yesterday. Can you believe she’s 90-years-old? Anyway, she wants to see you,” Mother said on the phone. Miss Elizabeth had been our landlady when I was in junior high school. This was right up my alley—I’m always thrilled to take a walk down Memory Lane. -more-



About a Gorilla By Sherry Bridgman

Friday December 30, 2005

With a three-foot acacia branch, Bwana, the then massive male gorilla at the S.F. Zoo sits down, shucks the leaves off and stuffs them in his mouth and begins to chew. -more-



The Secret Ingredient By RUBY LONG

Friday December 30, 2005

Soon after Ruff joined our household, my husband and I hosted a family event to introduce him to everyone. -more-



Supermarket Love By JUDY WELLS

Friday December 30, 2005

Last week at Whole Foods -more-



Features

Elderly Woman Arrested in West Berkeley Shooting By RICHARD BRENNEMAN

Friday December 30, 2005

A 78-year-old Berkeley woman was arrested early last Friday morning after she allegedly shot another woman in the abdomen near the corner of Sacramento and Russell streets. -more-



Column: The View From Here: Tookie and Tina: A Christmas Carol By P.M. Price

Friday December 30, 2005

“That’s the way the Tookie crumbles,” jokes KGO’s Pete Wilson on his San Francisco-based radio show the day before Stanley Tookie Williams is scheduled to die. Upon hearing Wilson’s snide, callous attempt at humor, I am incensed. Even if considered guilty, as Wilson believes him to be, does that make Williams undeserving of even the most basic courtesy and respect as he faces the last few hours of his life? -more-


A Guide to Bay Area New Year’s Eve Celebrations By KEN BULLOCK Special to the Planet

Friday December 30, 2005

A plethora of local and internationally known favorites will ring in 2006 around Berkeley and the bay, with an array of festivities to choose from: nostalgia to glitz, humor to hillbilly music, jazz to DJs, cruise to battle ships, circus to Japanese bell-ringing. Prices also vary from high ticket extravagance, to high or low culture on the cheap, or for free. -more-


Forty Years of Donovan By Patrick T. Keilch

Friday December 30, 2005

Just in time for the December holidays and the New Year, musical troubadour Donovan is releasing The Autobiography of Donovan: The Hurdy Gurdy Man. -more-


Arts Calendar

Friday December 30, 2005

FRIDAY, DEC. 30 -more-



About the House: If the Shower Scalds With Each Flush By MATT CANTOR

Friday December 30, 2005

A man showers happily. He is singing to himself. Not bellowing, but really singing. It’s a torch song … no, it’s Donovan. “Mellow Yellow” I think. He’s smiling. He’s soapy. Suddenly a shadow falls across the shower curtain, a figure looms, then a sound, Ahh … Ahh … Ahh … He screams, backing away ... He screams, scalded by the remaining 125-degree water. -more-


Ask Matt

Friday December 30, 2005

Dear Matt, -more-


Garden Variety: Winter Is a Good Time to Choose Seeds for Planting By RON SULLIVAN

Friday December 30, 2005

Winter’s a good time to ponder seeds as well as books. The local world’s way of bestirring itself and greening up has a way of urging us hairless, featherless bipeds indoors to be warm and dry; most of us like being cold and soaked to—or through—the skin rather less than seeds and bulbs and roots do. And the gray skies of today make us gloomy if we can’t stir up our own knowledge that they contain possibilities for tomorrow. -more-


Sweetie By LENORE WATERS

Friday December 30, 2005

This morning I went to the Lab on Telegraph for a fasting blood test. This means 12 hours of no food, starting, say, at 8 p.m. I get to the lab at 8 a.m. Then, phew, that’s over. I got there at 8:14 a.m. (not bad, eh?). The waiting room was crowded, and only one Blood Tech was on duty. My stomach was grumbling, and I felt like growling along with it. -more-


Hexclusive! GOP, Fortune 500 Battle Over 2006 Hurricane Branding By ARMIN A. LEGDON

Friday December 30, 2005

In a not-so-simple twissssst of fate, the Republican Party and major corporations have joined a mythicky battle over the naming of hurricanes in 2006. Ironically, it would mean the elimination of individual (rugged?) names to identify the late summer and fall big blows. -more-


Beds. Beds. Beds. By MAYA ELMER

Friday December 30, 2005

There’s a whole dictionary of used beds I have tried out for size in my life time. The iron cot in the room I shared with my small sister when I was 5 years old. I dream of a pretty, long, cold snake lying next to me. It wasn’t scary, but that’s what happens to a bed wetter when the sheets are wet in a cold winter morning. Mommy, I really tried to wake up. -more-


A Candle for Cindy By Melanie Wendell

Friday December 30, 2005

A candle defies the darkness, -more-


Heirloom By JANIS MITCHELL

Friday December 30, 2005

When I turned 50 my mother gave me an heirloom, her mother’s only piece of real jewelry. I was surprised that it had not already been given by seniority to my older sister, Cheryl. The gift was a rose gold ring set with pieces of opal arranged as a blue flower. -more-


Lost Love By Roopa Ramamoorthi

Friday December 30, 2005

I look again at that black and white photo from more than 30 years ago. I am 2 years old, sprawled on the sand at Foreshore Beach clad in tiny pants and full-sleeved top, busy with my bucket and spade. My mother is pointing her finger telling me to look at the camera. My aunt and mother are wearing similar nylon 644 saris in that photo. I recollect my mother’s sari, large purple flowers on a white background. My uncle was on the other side taking the photo. -more-


Election Section

High Ropes By J. Steven Svoboda

Friday December 30, 2005

The cable traces the treacherous line -more-


Christmas After Mastectomy By Ellen Scheiner

Friday December 30, 2005

Light sounds drench the world. -more-


Soup, Glorious Soup By Claudia Pessin

Friday December 30, 2005

For the first 11 years of my life I lived in a small town outside Newport, Delaware, which was on the map, but barely bigger that the bedroom community where I lived. Winters were severely cold, rarely more than six or seven inches of snow, but often freezing rain. When the ground froze, no mother would dream of keeping a child home, and certainly not for a little ice or snow. Schools didn’t close for weather in those days, and since there were few automobiles, we were in no danger from traffic. The trackless trolleys continued their routes, and most used them to get to work. -more-


To Excess By ALLISON FLOYD

Friday December 30, 2005

Eunice tucked her thin strands of pale red hair behind her ears, as was her nervous habit, and peered about the dining room. She was seated at her regular table in the Palace of Secretarial Eats. There was no sign of Amanda amidst the trill of anxious voices and the unsteady clatter of coffee cups refilled far too many times. The carcasses of single-serve packets of non-caloric sugar substitutes lay dismembered in unceremonious heaps on the other tables. The sight of this made Eunice swell with a perverse pride. Of the secretaries assembled, she and Amanda were the ones who ate. -more-


Holiday Spirit By GERALD COTE

Friday December 30, 2005

it’s the bottom end -more-


Lake Merritt by Michael Howerton

Friday December 30, 2005

A Holiday By Linda J. Rawls

Friday December 30, 2005

It was hot and humid as it always is in East Texas during the months of June, July and August. The year was 1956 and I was 6 years old. It wouldn’t be long now according to my daddy before I would be joining my two brothers, going to school and learning how to read and write. My daddy gave me the only head start that I got before starting first grade because my little hometown did not have a Head Start or kindergarten program. -more-


I Dream of Circus Characters By Judy wells

Friday December 30, 2005

For months I’ve dreamed -more-


Strolling Through Tilden By Yvette Hoffer

Friday December 30, 2005

T he beauty and tranquility of Tilden Park, a few minutes above the city soundscape, await our Tuesday Tilden Walkers. Although we have enjoyed our “secret” treasure for over 10 years, the park constantly changes and we never tire of its birds, flowers, and waterways. -more-


Monterey Market By lENORE WATERS

Friday December 30, 2005

MONTEREY MARKET I -more-


Editorial

Police Blotter By RICHARD BRENNEMAN

Friday December 30, 2005

Takes smokes -more-


Columns

Fathering 101: Tyranny, Tuning Out or FINE-Tuning By PETE WALKER

Friday December 30, 2005

Tough love? Unconditional love? Disney-Channel love? Quality-time vs. quantity-time love? The 13 different Greek words for love? The roof-over-your-head and food-on-the-table love of my parents? The pile-the-presents-so-high-you-can’t-see-the-Xmas-tree love. What’s a 59-year-old man with a 2-year-old son supposed to do? Will I heed my ancestors: “kids should be seen and not heard,” or subscribe to a New Age permissiveness that would give every kid a portable microphone? -more-


Kashmir By Roopa Ramamoorthi

Friday December 30, 2005

Beautiful land of lakes and -more-


Mary’s Poem By JUDY WELLS

Friday December 30, 2005

Mary saved our night blooming -more-


Berkeley This Week

Friday December 30, 2005

FRIDAY, DEC. 30 -more-


Back Stories

Opinion

Editorials

Police Blotter By RICHARD BRENNEMAN 12-30-2005

Beyond Curry Powder and Soy Sauce By DEBBIE CHANG 12-27-2005

Public Comment

Dream Of The Earth By Nozomi Hayase 12-27-2005

Fred Korematsu, Hero By Kay Wehner 12-27-2005

The Bus Poet By RUBY LONG 12-27-2005

Christmas Cookie Head By William smith and Lisa Wenzel 12-27-2005

If Your Blind Friends Don’t Tell You... By Arlene Merryman 12-27-2005

Merry Christmas 12-27-2005

When Yosemite Calls By Janis Mitchell 12-27-2005

The Collector By IRENE SARDANIS 12-27-2005

Light Your Candles By MARY WHEELER 12-27-2005

Man of Courage By David Bunnell 12-27-2005

News

Editor’s Note 12-30-2005

A West Oakland Visit By Mertis L. Shekeloff 12-30-2005

About a Gorilla By Sherry Bridgman 12-30-2005

The Secret Ingredient By RUBY LONG 12-30-2005

Supermarket Love By JUDY WELLS 12-30-2005

Elderly Woman Arrested in West Berkeley Shooting By RICHARD BRENNEMAN 12-30-2005

Column: The Public Eye: Ten Christmas Wishes By Bob Burnett 12-30-2005

Column: The View From Here: Tookie and Tina: A Christmas Carol By P.M. Price 12-30-2005

A Guide to Bay Area New Year’s Eve Celebrations By KEN BULLOCK Special to the Planet 12-30-2005

Forty Years of Donovan By Patrick T. Keilch 12-30-2005

Arts Calendar 12-30-2005

Plant Seeds Are a Letter of Life to the Future By RON SULLIVAN Special to the Planet 12-30-2005

About the House: If the Shower Scalds With Each Flush By MATT CANTOR 12-30-2005

Ask Matt 12-30-2005

Garden Variety: Winter Is a Good Time to Choose Seeds for Planting By RON SULLIVAN 12-30-2005

Sweetie By LENORE WATERS 12-30-2005

Hexclusive! GOP, Fortune 500 Battle Over 2006 Hurricane Branding By ARMIN A. LEGDON 12-30-2005

Beds. Beds. Beds. By MAYA ELMER 12-30-2005

A Candle for Cindy By Melanie Wendell 12-30-2005

Heirloom By JANIS MITCHELL 12-30-2005

Lost Love By Roopa Ramamoorthi 12-30-2005

High Ropes By J. Steven Svoboda 12-30-2005

Christmas After Mastectomy By Ellen Scheiner 12-30-2005

Soup, Glorious Soup By Claudia Pessin 12-30-2005

To Excess By ALLISON FLOYD 12-30-2005

Holiday Spirit By GERALD COTE 12-30-2005

Lake Merritt by Michael Howerton 12-30-2005

A Holiday By Linda J. Rawls 12-30-2005

I Dream of Circus Characters By Judy wells 12-30-2005

Strolling Through Tilden By Yvette Hoffer 12-30-2005

Monterey Market By lENORE WATERS 12-30-2005

Welcome to the Readers’ Issue 12-27-2005

The Life and Times of a Berkeley Kid By MINA EDELSTON 12-27-2005

Baked Goods Make For Good Neighbors in Westbrae District By HEJI KIM 12-27-2005

A Thank-You Note For December By ANN SIECK 12-27-2005

I Have Become A Local By Patrick Fenix 12-27-2005

Once Upon A Christmas By Maya Elmer 12-27-2005

Cat Notes By ELLEN SCHEINER 12-27-2005

Berkeley Recycles By C.C. Saw 12-27-2005

The Worm Of Thought By Nancy Schimmel 12-27-2005

Cat Nap By GREGORY PEDEMEINTE 12-27-2005

December Morning By Sandra J. Whittaker 12-27-2005

Holiday Cheer, Grandpa Style By Rachel Trachten 12-27-2005

Berkeley: Then and Now By CAROLYN SELL (Berkeley High School class of ‘67 and proud of it) 12-27-2005

a dance of Berkeley seasons By C.C. SAW 12-27-2005

Alright By Donna Cummings 12-27-2005

My Grandmother’s Holiday Cookies By Charron-Tae Barnes 12-27-2005

The Fugleman By Phyllis Henry-Jordan 12-27-2005

Merry Christmas (I Think) By madeline smith moore 12-27-2005

CLAUS-trophobic By Sonja Fitz 12-27-2005

Coffee Coffers By Estelle Jelinek 12-27-2005

Sending In The Troops By Margot Pepper 12-27-2005

Elevator Paranoia By PAUL DALMAS 12-27-2005

Street Corner Society By TED VINCENT 12-27-2005

Ambling Toward Christmas By Dorothy V. Benson 12-27-2005

LISTEN TO ME, Jack By RHODA LEVINSON 12-27-2005

Merry Christmas From UC By James K. Sayre 12-27-2005

At The Table By CRAIG FAIRBURN 12-27-2005

The Legend By CRAIG FAIRBURN 12-27-2005

Visiting Jane Austen Chawton, Hants By Phyllis Henry-Jordan 12-27-2005

Columns

Fathering 101: Tyranny, Tuning Out or FINE-Tuning By PETE WALKER 12-30-2005

Kashmir By Roopa Ramamoorthi 12-30-2005

Mary’s Poem By JUDY WELLS 12-30-2005

Berkeley This Week 12-30-2005

A Modern Atlantis By MELISSA KIRK 12-27-2005

In My Museum By Phyllis Henry-Jordan 12-27-2005

Serve With Crackers, Aquavit, and Love By D. E. Gilbert 12-27-2005

O’ Hanukkah, O’ Hanukkah By Eva M. Schlesinger 12-27-2005

Mary, Queen Of The Cosmos By Carmen Hartono 12-27-2005

John Lennon Was Shot to Death Last Night By JULIA ROSS 12-27-2005

That’s The Thing About. . . By Paul Vontron 12-27-2005

Gambler’s Last Exit By Joe Kempkes 12-27-2005

Celebrating Diwali By Roopa Ramamoorthi 12-27-2005

One Fourth Monday In October By Garrett Murphy 12-27-2005

Arts & Events

Mont St.-Michel By Esther Stone 12-27-2005

The Day After Christmas By Claudia Pessin 12-27-2005

Another Night In Paris By MONK LUNG 12-27-2005

Forgive Yourself By William Warren Smith 12-27-2005

Berkeley This Week 12-27-2005

Arts Calendar 12-27-2005