Columnists

Column: The Public Eye: The Politics of Sacrifice

By Bob Burnett
Tuesday January 23, 2007

On Jan. 16, PBS News Hour host Jim Lehrer interviewed President Bush. This encounter told us a lot about Bush’s brand of conservatism, in particular, his feelings about sacrifice. -more-


Column: A Toast to Uncle Jack And the Dreamgirls

By Susan Parker
Tuesday January 23, 2007

My mother and I went to see Dreamgirls on Dec. 25, the day it opened in theaters across the country. It was the first time Mom had gone to a movie on Christmas day, the first time she’d experienced a sold-out theater and had to wait two hours for the next showing, and the first time she’d thought about The Supremes since spring, 1968. -more-


Green Neighbors: The Geographic History of the Bunya-Bunya Tree

By Ron Sullivan
Tuesday January 23, 2007

If Chez Panisse were to serve up a menu to match its guardian bunya-bunya, it would include roast haunch of free-range sauropod and a salad of braised organic tree ferns. Maybe some wood-roasted hearts of sago palm and a gingko fruit crème brulee for dessert. If it ever gets around to producing its infamously huge cones—I’ve never seen the big ones here—the bunya-bunya’s seeds are edible, too. How about it, Alice? -more-


Dispatches From the Edge: Iran: Thinking the Unthinkable

By Conn Hallinan
Friday January 19, 2007

Is Israel, supported by the Bush administration, preparing to launch an atomic war against Iran? That is a question being asked in the wake of a Jan. 7 report by the London Sunday Times that claims the Israeli government is planning to attack Iran’s uranium enrichment facilities with tactical nuclear weapons. -more-


Undercurrents: The Right Way to Leave Iraq

By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor
Friday January 19, 2007

It has been said that on the eve of the World War II-era allied D-Day invasion of France, allied commander Dwight Eisenhower put in his pocket two separate statements for possible dissemination at the conclusion of the next day’s battle—one announcing victory, the other defeat. -more-


The Hue and Cry of House Paint

By Jane Powell
Friday January 19, 2007

By Jane Powell -more-


About the House: What I Like and What I Don’t Like About Pergo

By Matt Cantor
Friday January 19, 2007

First of all, let’s get our terminology right. Pergo is one brand of laminate flooring and not, by any stretch, the onsly one. There are many brands of laminate flooring, Pergo was just the first. Actually, even that isn’t wholly accurate and why not be accurate? Pergo, a Swedish company, first applied laminate technology to flooring in 1994 and has, in an amazingly short while, completely changed the face of the flooring business. This stuff is everywhere. -more-


Garden Variety: Save Water, Time and Plants With an Irrigation System

By Ron Sullivan
Friday January 19, 2007

We’re still freezing and so are our gardens (My poor red–leaf banana!) and I’m telling you it’s time to think about irrigation? Yes indeed. -more-