Columnists

Column: The Public Eye: What Do Liberals Believe?

By Bob Burnett
Tuesday January 22, 2008

As we sail into the murky political waters of 2008, it’s useful for liberals (progressives) to remember our core beliefs. Two elemental American narratives illuminate these values: the triumphant individual and the benevolent community. -more-


Column: Channeling Mrs. Scott Against Measure A

By Susan Parker
Tuesday January 22, 2008

Lately I’ve been channeling my old friend Mrs. Scott. She’s the neighbor who came to our rescue after Ralph had his bicycling accident 13 years ago. The day Ralph came home from the hospital, she marched through our back door and took over. She cooked and cleaned and introduced us to others in the neighborhood. She went with us to doctors’ appointments, watched over the people I hired to help with Ralph’s care, became my right (and left) arm, my best friend, my guardian angel. -more-


Green Neighbors: Celebrating the Classic Cordyline

By Ron Sullivan
Tuesday January 22, 2008

I don’t know how old you have to be to think of Sunset magazine and early 1960s swimming-poolside dioramas whenever you see a Cordyline australis in its other vocation, as a plain old yard or streetside tree. It’s a classic, though, to complete the post-TK look that starts with a turquoise pool, maybe kidney-shaped, and a Weber kettle. Some of us get whiffs of vinyl, chlorine, and firestarter fluid from our subconscious every time. -more-


Column: Dispatches From the Edge: Updating Two Stories: Desert Mirage, African Report Card

By Conn Hallinan
Friday January 18, 2008

Dispatches From the Edge is going to start off 2008 by revisiting two stories the column covered in 2007. -more-


Undercurrents: Ghost of America’s Racial Past Lies Uneasy in South Carolina

By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor
Friday January 18, 2008

It should come as a surprise to no one—should it?—that the issue of race resurfaced in the Democratic primary campaign as soon as that campaign dropped down I-95 from the snows of New Hampshire to the sandhills and seashores of South Carolina. However it tries to escape or pretend otherwise, the Palmetto State continues to live in the long shadow of the slaverytime plantations. -more-


The Sunset ‘Idea House’ Opens for a Peek This Month

By Steven Finacom
Friday January 18, 2008

For many years the Bay Area-based Sunset Magazine, self-described “magazine of Western living,” has been sponsoring “idea houses” in partnership with builders and manufacturers. -more-


Quake Tip of the Week

By Larry Guillot
Friday January 18, 2008

My Quake Resolutions... -more-


Garden Variety: A Walk in the Woods, or Not

By Ron Sullivan
Friday January 18, 2008

A few years ago, Joe and I got a tour of Garvan Woodland Gardens, a newish botanical garden in Hot Springs, Arkansas, courtesy of Uncle Leonard and Aunt Evelyn. We were all toted around in a golf cart, and a docent told us about the origins and current state of the garden, about the plants and other features we were seeing. -more-