East Bay Home and Gardens

My previous column about the birds Joseph Grinnell observed on the UC Berkeley campus drew a response from Allison Shultz, a recent graduate who is now the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology’s Centennial Coordinator (more about that below.) Shultz said that for her senior thesis, she replicated surveys done on campus by Margaret Wythe between 1913 and 1927, and by Charles Sibley and Thomas Rodgers in 1938-39. Her results reveal significant changes among those data points. “I saw that the number of species didn’t change much over the years—it actually went up a little—but the community composition changed,” she explains. -more-

Mystery is the reverse side of history. Berkeley, a city chock-full of historic houses, naturally has its share of mysteries—interesting structures about whose origin little or nothing is known. -more-

Annie’s Annuals sent me a promo e-mail a week or two back. Not spam; I’ve put my name on Annie’s mail list because I want to know when the Annies do interesting stuff. -more-

Dash it all! It seems to take so blasted long to get clothed for the office these days, what with button-hooking the boots, those darned gaiters, buttoning those trousers all the way up and then there’s all the layers. My tailoring bill has become absolutely astronomical and my dresser takes a good 45-minutes ironing my shirt, cravat and those endless four-fold handkerchiefs. Perhaps one day, a man will be able to wear only three layers when flagging his Hansom cab to the office, but for now we must plod through, chin high and suffer silently. -more-

Tectonic Time Bomb -more-