Columnists

Dispatches from The Edge: Israel: Bright Moments Amid the Guns

By Conn Hallinan
Friday September 15, 2006

The images most Americans have of the recent war in Lebanon are of shattered cities, dead civilians, and terrified people bunkered down in basements or picking their way through blasted streets. The carnage of modern war draws the media as ancient battles called forth the Valkyries. -more-


Undercurrents of the East Bay: Did Police Action Lead to Sideshow Shooting?

By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor
Friday September 15, 2006

Sometime around 10 o’clock in the evening on June 25, 2005, an Oakland police officer pulled over a van near the corner of Havenscourt and Bancroft, in the heart of the city’s so-called “sideshow zone.” Telling the van’s African-American driver and two passengers that the stop was part of a “sideshow sweep” that night, the officer did a search of the car and its contents, including the backpacks of the two passengers. The officer then announced that he was citing the driver for a sideshow violation and having the van towed under Oakland’s sideshow abatement ordinance. Unwilling to wait for the tow truck, however, the officer eventually got into the van and drove off, leaving the driver and the two passengers standing on the sidewalk, trying to figure out how they were going to get home. -more-


Butterfly Exhibit at Golden Gate Park Landmark

By STEVEN FINACOM
Friday September 15, 2006

If one were to choose a building most likely to survive the ages in San Francisco—or any other place, for that matter—it would seem unlikely that a structure made primarily of glass and fragile wood could top the list. -more-


The Women of Gee’s Bend and Their Quilts

By Marta Yamamoto, Special to the Planet
Friday September 15, 2006

“We never wasted anything. We worked hard, had a starvation life. We didn’t have much but we enjoyed life. How did we quilt? We cut blocks. Put the blocks together. Think in your mind, um, I can do it. We sew the blocks together.” -more-


Garden Variety: A Slice of Life on Marin’s Redwood Highway

By Ron Sullivan
Friday September 15, 2006

I’ve passed Green Jeans at about 65 mph dozens of times, and never stopped to have a look until this month. For a plant lover who had a secret girlhood crush on Mister Green Jeans, Captain Kangaroo’s gardening neighbor, this is an inexplicable lapse. -more-


About the House: House Sewer Piping with Trenchless Technology

By Matt Cantor
Friday September 15, 2006

I am not a high tech guy. Ask anyone who knows me. I like technology. I respect modern whiz-bang innovation but, personally, I’m very slow to adopt anything newer than about 1965. In many ways I’m slower to adopt anything newer than the 18th century. I was listening to Linda Ronstadt interviewed on the radio the other day and she said that she really liked 19th century songs and that after about 1910 they just lose her. I’m like that. One reason is that Old is time tested; crushed, run over and aged some more. If it still works, well then you’ve got something. So when I say that there is a new technology that’s worth looking at (here it comes) I do it with some impunity. So here’s what’s new. Ready. Sewer pipes. Bet I surprised you. -more-


Quake Tip of the Week

By LARRY GUILLOT
Friday September 15, 2006

Retrofits – A Deep, Dark Secret? -more-


Column: Waiting for the Creative Mousse On Dover Street

By Susan Parker
Tuesday September 12, 2006

The phone rang, as it always does on Sunday afternoon. “Susan,” said the voice on the other end of the line, “this is your mother.” -more-


A Vireo of Your Own: The Immortality of William Hutton

By Joe Eaton, Special to the Planet
Tuesday September 12, 2006

By Joe Eaton -more-